Unedited YouTube Transcript

um my name is Stephanie Bird I am the CEO of Unbound now and I serve on the
Five Stone steering committee I'm filling in for Felicia today um please don't worry Felicia will be
back next month and now I'd like to welcome Natalie Perrone poem is education and Outreach
director to present our Spotlight agency of the month good morning everybody I'm so glad to
see all of you this morning my name is Natalie prone I serve as the Director of Education Outreach for poema foundation
we are a 501c3 non-profit that fights sex trafficking we're rooted in our
three E's so education empowerment and engagement so through our education
program we educate anybody and everybody that wants to learn about human trafficking and so that ranges from
Health Care Providers to churches to hotels to different businesses all over the
state of Texas through our engagement Ministry we really try to get the community involved
in trying to find missing kids before a trafficker or perpetrator does so how we do that is we hand out missing kids
posters that are provided by Nick into local businesses throughout the areas um
that our Outreach campuses exist and so we have 16 campuses currently spread
throughout the state of Texas South Carolina and Oklahoma and then our last e is empowerment and so that is through
our safe house for female adult survivors of sex trafficking there we're able to help them really just get on
their feet help with their psychological emotional and all-around healing and
just connect them to different things that will help on their healing Journey we actually just celebrated 10 years
this past Saturday so yes very exciting um and then lastly the thing I wanted to
share with you is we just very recently launched an Intel Ministry and so through this very new ministry we are
able to through face facial recognition created by UNT students we are able to
connect Enigma pictures so a missing kids photo if they have been posted in
any sex ads throughout 16 different states in the United States um and so what we have found is hundreds
of thousands of sex ads are being posted just in the city of Dallas alone and so through this like I said we're able to
connect that through 16 different states and we're hopefully launching it to all 50 states of America so we're able to
help out police and private investigators and all the people that are working on these cases being able to
say like hey this girl that was went missing from Longview Texas posted a sex ad in New York City
um and so we're able to help them identify them and locate them and bring them to safety
I will be at the table at the front if you guys want to stop by and just say hi afterwards thanks
all right thank you Natalie next we have law enforcement updates first we will
have Sergeant Johnson with the Fort Worth Police Department and then he will be followed by detective Jarvis from the
Tarrant County Sheriff's Office good morning I'm usually not the one doing this so uh
my guys are all in training this week so I get the privilege of being up here standing in front of everybody so uh for the month of June
we've had eight new cases um and then we've had several cases that
are starting to go to trial and um in the coming months and so one of the
biggest ones a trafficker that we had been looking at since 2018 never had to
cooperate and victims to pursue and in January we've got a new victim who
started cooperating and that case actually extends clear across the country in that case we'll be going for
federal prosecution in the in the coming months so um yesterday we Burleson PD had a
runaway who they have suspicions of being trafficked and reached out for our
assistance so that's going to be a a good case as well sorry so brief but we know we won't
have time for the panelists to have their their say so thank you
uh the Terry County Sheriff's Office uh received uh this monthly received can't
talk received a tip of possible juvenile trafficking uh runaway victims uh she apparently ran away from home to
be with a 26 year old male that that flew in from Germany to Texas uh with
the help of a uber through their law enforcement portal we were able to locate both the Juvenile and the mail at
an Airbnb in Arlington uh after all the interviews were conducted there was no indicator there's
a trafficking but we did uh we were able to arrest the mill for online solicitation of a minor and sexual
assault of the child he is uh still in custody this time uh we are currently working for new tips
involving trafficking these tips that come from Patrol and from our jail uh both of our Patrol and jail have done
an outstanding job recognizing the indicators of human trafficking during those investigations
uh in the middle of the month we hosted a three-day operation uh the first two days were a victim Outreach in the last
day was a demand suppression day one of the victim Outreach we had 12 victims
contacted 11 of them sought services a female driver that brought one of the
victims to The Host Hotel also asked to receive services and she was able to uh
to meet with the victim service providers we also had one male that was arrested for uh
possession of controlled substance uh he was inside the car when the the uh investigators made contact with him uh
day two we had 12 victims contacted all of which all the victims received services at that time
uh day three the demand suppression we had nine arrests for uh solicitation or prostitution uh with one of the Mills he
was out on bond for sexual assault of a child he is still in custody as well uh and you know we also would like to
thank Fort Worth PD Arlington PD Mansfield PD Texas DPS Denton County
uh sheriff's office Bedford PD Northwestern Hills PD 821 and Unbound for their hard work and the assistance
in that program in that operation so now I'll keep you updated for next month thank you
all right and now we're ready for our panelists to come forward all of you you could um please come on
up and have a seat at the table while I introduce each of you
um originally from Nepal maridio adikari has worked and volunteered abroad and
agencies like John Hopkins program for international education and Gynecology
and obstetrics Nepal and child workers in Nepal where her main role was
developing situational study and providing life skill training to Youth and women meridio is passionate about
working with diverse population groups including immigrant Youth and children coming from an immigrant family meridi
speaks three languages fluently and is learning Spanish Marie's education and
MSW from the University of Texas at Arlington has prepared her for a long career in helping individuals identify
and address their needs mariju is a qualified mental health provider and the
youth coordinator for human trafficking at MHMR Reverend Yvette Christie is a United
Methodist elder and an insightful Survivor servant after surviving 28
years of active drug addiction 18 years in commercial sexual exploitation
and giving birth to the son of her trafficker Yvette began the ongoing work of metabolizing her trauma
Yvette's lived experience uniquely qualifies her to offer support and encouragement for individuals and
agencies striving to be Advocates and allies for women who have survived
commercial sexual exploitation Reverend Christie is currently working on her doctor of ministry degree at
bright Divinity School at Texas Christian University Heather Amelia Johnson is a licensed
professional counselor and program director with my health my resources MHMR Tarrant County she has been with
MHMR for seven years prior to her time with MHMR Heather Amelia has gained over
12 years of experience in the behavioral health field and has lived experience as
a mother and care provider her passion for transition aged youth began at a
young age as personal experience dealing with living on her own at the young age
of 15. this ended up becoming an article for the local paper that talked about
the trauma for young kids and what led them to being on their own very young
Heather Amelia's life experiences led her down the path of becoming a therapist and her life experiences and
her education are what make her passionate about trafficking and the transition aged youth population
Carolina OOTS is a licensed marriage and family therapist and an EMDR certified
therapist with prior experience as a school counselor her work is centered
around her passion for raising awareness about modern day oppression and empowering individuals who have
experienced complex trauma Carolina has a strong voice in advocating for social justice and has
spoken extensively on a variety of topics including human trafficking intimate partner violence and other
issues affecting vulnerable members of the latinx community currently Carolina is focusing on her
private practice where she guides individuals through complex trauma recovery
our panelists will discuss trauma in the context of human trafficking we are deeply grateful for each of you for
taking your time to share your expertise with us today our panel will be moderated by Lance
cashion founder and CEO of the forge room foundation and five Stone steering
committee member Lance please take it away all right well welcome everyone and
thank you again analysts for being here and just just taking your time to be here but we
we're going to cover as much as we can in like 40 minutes and I know we could probably spend hours if not at the day
on on just as you want topic so thank you guys so I'm going to Dive Right In
um let's talk about defining terms here uh what is the difference between trauma
and complex trauma so there's part one and then how might we distinguish a
person who's experiencing complex drama between one who is experiencing trauma
let me help with that um question we um we were all created we were all
wired for connection connection with the world connection with our purpose
connection with um nature connection with each other connection with our parents our family
our loved ones but also connection with ourselves in order for us to connect with the world to connect with each
other and to connect with ourselves we need to feel safe
it's required to feel safe when we go through a traumatic event we
move from connection to protection and we when we protect ourselves we protect ourselves in
different ways by running away from that event from that situation from that threat by fighting back and if we
already realize that fighting back it's not working running away it's not
changing things then I go into the ultimate form of protection which is collapse I freeze and all of that we
intent to avoid pain we all do it in different ways day in
and day out this is what makes um a traumatic event complex number one
if it happens during the developmental years meaning when we were growing up when we were learning about the world
and our view of the world number two also it's the frequency of a traumatic
event if it happens multiple times every day for an extended period of time
um also poly victimization meaning it's not only one type of threats but
different types of abuse it might be domestic violence in the home it might be sexual abuse it might be neglect
different components coming together and there's another factor that I would like to add which I used to call the I still
use this within my clinical practice which is the moment after we all go through a traumatic event but
many times what makes a difference is the support will receive the moment after
many of the times when we fall into complex trauma when those we serve are
in complex trauma it's because they have anyone to reconnect the moments after
and the day after the week after the year after that's when complex trauma
happens and another was the second part to your question like a second questions yes so how about it like we distinguish
a person who's experiencing complex trauma from one who's experiencing the trauma a person who's experiencing
complex trauma navigates within protection and you may see this in some
of the youth you work with or the survivors uh the victims you work with they're always navigating between
running away from the moment either physically or through thoughts there might be ready to fight back they're
aggressive with their words or they may collapse or they may collapse and cry they're navigating between those three
forms of protection that's when you know it's complex trauma it's difficult for them to switch back to connection when
it comes to trauma in general we go through the traumatic event we do
whatever is necessary to survive but then we have resources to reconnect we
go and we tell a friend we take the day off and we pray if it's part of our soul
we have tools to reconnect that's some of the main differences thank you so
I'll get that already yeah okay next question
um uh what is secondary trauma and the second part of that question is how can
it affect any of us so I would like to answer that question so
secondary trauma is like defined and explained as like a emotional distress
uh whenever um a professional or somebody is going through
um handling a crisis situation and uh like they they experience that uh trauma
of a client and like they're like wondering like how can we like handle
that trauma for their client and they are going through the crisis situation um themselves because like they are in a
stress of handling that situation you know so like uh the response uh like it
is really difficult uh for somebody to respond to a crisis situation and then
like you know be okay with it like you know it it takes uh like a resilience
resiliency themselves to like like acknowledge that trauma and then like
you know um deal with it also so like um like it is also uh known as like uh
no uh secondary trauma stress disorder uh
like you know how PTSD symptoms are related it's similar to that so like it
is uh really uh like responding to uh the client's traumatic situation you
know um so I I would want to say that so I can add on to that as well so it's it's
almost like if you guys have ever heard somebody tell you a story and you felt an emotional response to the story they
were telling you and so it happens a lot to First Responders anybody in Social pretty much
probably everybody in this room has experienced some form of secondary trauma um symptoms of it can be like fatigue
even illness uh cynicism um just like the almost what we
perceived could be caregiver burnout just burnout from work from taking on making it it can even lead as far into
like having dreams about what the patient has described to you um those are all symptoms of secondary
trauma and so it can affect any of us because we are family members of victims we are supports of victims we're the
first place for a victim so we are there to be supportive and so any of us are at
risk of being affected by it so being aware of that and how it can affect us helps us in our job and our personal
lives with our families so that we don't have feel like we need to have a separation from somebody who's going through a traumatic experience because
we're also not managing very well thank you
um so let's move on to what is trauma informed care and what are the core
principles of trauma that's a really long question it's a very short question very long
answer um so I I wrote some notes guys so I'm looking at my page because it's long so
um how many you guys have in here have ever heard of trauma informed Care by showcans okay I'm sure you guys work
with an agency or work in a field where you guys have been taught what trauma informed carries
so basically trauma-informed care is a practice of healthcare providers to get
the complete picture of a person in order to provide the best support so the best part of trauma formed care is the
communication aspect so if you have somebody who presents with like mental health uh diagnosable symptoms they may
also have diabetes and we don't know that and so the the symptoms of that mental health disorder could be the result of the diabetes and so
trauma-informed care would say we work together with their doctors so that we provide that all-around support so I'm
not just saying oh you have major depressive disorder you know and instead it's because our blood sugar is low or
too high right because when we don't feel good physically we don't feel good at all
um and so traumaform care is saying like we work together as a team and we get the whole picture holistically of the
patient before we jump to a conclusion about them um the purpose of it is so that from the
moment that a patient walks in the front door or a victim or a family or or us that we are treated with like a level of
understanding and respect because if you've been through a traumatic experience those that first like going
to the police station the first like interview all of that care in those moments matter and help determine like
what next steps you are going to take as a person and so if you're a facilitator in that care it's important that we
understand that aspect so we want to create from the moment they walk in the door until they leave
every aspect of it as an open communicative uh situation for them to be able to express themselves and they
can feel safe and and that we're not in passing judgment because we think we already know we're not jumping to
conclusions by giving a depression diagnosis when they might be diabetic and so there's there's six core
principles there used to be five now they're six samsha updated it in case anybody hasn't been on their website
recently um their safety trustworthiness and transparency peer support collaboration
and mutuality empowerment voice and choice and cultural historical and gender issues so feeling Safe physical
and physiologically uh and that trustworthiness and transparency decisions are made the transparency and
the goal of the recovery um I think we've all probably experienced where we feel like decisions were made without us and that's not a
very fun fun thing to happen um having interactions with someone who has shared personal experience that's
highly important so that when you're communicating with somebody and even though that person's not saying oh I
know how you feel just like knowing that they you're not alone in the room with somebody then it makes you feel
inclusive and not excluded um collaboration so like there's no
hierarchy like I'm a therapist and you're the patient but we are equal in this journey together this is your
journey um empowerment voice and choice so that their feelings are recognized it doesn't
matter how we personally feel about it we just take that out of it they need to feel heard and that's the point of
trying to informed care so that they do um and that we're throwing out we address the biases and stereotypes head
on and Trauma they may have experience and and that we are saying like we see
that that happened and we are not going to continue to perseverate those behaviors or those biases or stereotypes
and so we do that every day in our practice with each other like as
professionals and so just it's facilitating that additionally in a practice that we provide the patients so
short question long answer yeah
now that you were in a professional anti-tracking space what does trauma and
form of care mean to you so oftentimes when I hear professionals talking about speak about
trauma-informed care it's often wrapped around systems and tools and how to
implement the things that my panel has shared with you um but I want us to kind of think of it
um outside of systems because systems don't restore people tools don't restore people you restore
people and so when we when I hear trauma-informed care I hear tools and things to think about and things to
implement but the only reason I'm here is because somebody took those those that
transparency and that trustworthiness and that safety and that peer support and they lifted it off the page and they
embodied it like there's a scripture that says it's better to dwell on a rooftop than to live inside with the
cantankerous woman well I cantankerous man um and I say that because because of
this reason you're living in the house with someone you can provide me with the bed you can provide me with tools you
can provide me with everything that I need to rebuild my life but if you yourself are not embodying this sense of
care and compassion and transparency like I can't I can't sense your Humanity
then it's going to be difficult for me to really hold on to the trauma-informed care because I don't trust systems
I don't necessarily trust tools provided by systems but I can connect with you
and you can bring these things to life for me and so I that is my that is what
I think of trauma important care I don't care how the procedure that the doctor is doing I care about the the level of empathy
and compassion in which the doctor is doing with what he does she does do you understand that so that's important to
me because most of the trauma that I endured I wasn't shocked by the things I endured in the world
I was a sex worker living on the streets sleeping in traps outside I expected the
violence that I endured from the people in that world that's substrata what shocked me and almost unmoored me was
what I experienced from y'all the condescension the disrespect and all
of all of us have these tools but the fatigue and the disrespect and being condescending and I'll answer a part of
this later so I don't want to answer it now but knowing that you embody this trauma-informed care that's what makes
it informed
what are some of the aspects of service provision that would lead to survivors
becoming re-traumatized um how can service and providers improve
in those areas I think actually alluded to that so anybody want to share
I think healthy practices to deal with the second-hand trauma right whether
you're an administrator taking calls or whether you're a law enforcement officer actually on the street and and working
to extract people um if you yourself if we ourselves are not
healthy then you do me more damage if you come in fatigued if you come in
and rage if you're not happy in your marriage if your dog is sick if you've gotten a Cancer all the things that make
the economy of living in this Society so hard if we're not having any practices that balance out
and give us more body within ourselves when we're displacing that energy displacing that wage before you
encounter me because I have I have I have complex trauma
and I really don't need your stuff today do you know what I'm saying so you're second here and so go hiking buy
a puppy get a cat I don't know go talk to Jesus I don't know what your thing may be and and we laughing but I my
recovery was set back by being in homes where they put me on a mattress that had menstrual blood still on it I've been in
homes where residential programs faith-based homes where the pastors touchy feely we need healthy Direct Care
Service Providers across the board so whatever it takes for us to balance out with this economy the pressure that it
puts us under stretching us over a dollar um all of those different things working 60 70s hours a week to protect to serve
women like me um if we don't balance that with some life-giving practices not only will we
be undone but you're going to hurt somebody precious along the way and if you hurt her and I speak because I'm a
woman that's why she hurt hers then you also hurt her Legacy the children the households and the communities that
she's involved in I love what you're saying and this is what I appreciate the most about uh what
you're presenting today um many times when we talked about trauma
in form it's the professional going and taking a training receiving you know once a year at training focus on those
who are out there we're doing this we're equal we're not exempt to trauma we're
no one in this room is exempt to a traumatic event you've also have
navigated that disconnect and let me protect myself and others there's a
connecting Factor there um in order to be able to support and
give and and provide that connection through trust you have to work on
yourself first there's um I'm bringing now fully vagal Theory by Deb Dana and
Stephen porges when they've talked about the poly bagel this is all the things that I've been talking about they're running away the fighting back the
reconnecting in order for us to co-regulate I should be able to
self-regulate first and that's the work that starts right here that's the word that starts with me and within my home
so I can take it to my community it is required that's social justice that's
making that's knowing that there's a Humanity that unified us all
I agree to that like it's really important that we take all of these
things back to our community and like educate uh them about like you know uh
how we can be aware about like you know people going through certain things and
how we can be sensitive towards their uh like events you know just uh just
talking to them in kindness you know that might make a difference to that you know and like besides all that we being
a professional we should be able to take our work to our community and educate
them so that they can be like uh at least like uh have uh understanding how
to respond to uh somebody who has gone through trauma traumatic situation
yeah that's what I think ditto ditto ditto all of that I was just
gonna say that sometimes we can't we as professionals also need to
recognize like how we can de-escalate if we have contributed to reach normalization so
pre-traumatization there we go uh so there's a there's lots of skills I agree
100 with what you were saying about trauma-informed care lifting it off the page
um you guys the practices that we just talked about the six core principles the daily questioning yourself about how
you're creating a safe environment how are you presenting with trustworthiness
um saying those things oh I'm trustworthy and knowing the action of being trustworthy are two very different
things we know that so how are you what are you showing to people around you
instead of just saying that those things how are you doing it what if I said what's your self-care and you can't give
me a response in one second you don't have a good self-care practice so it's acknowledging those things too
suffering through trauma is unique to each individual and there are many different recovery veterans failed
which methods have been found most effective can you recommend tools
that will help guide survivors on their healing Journey
so when I emerge from the live all none of this was happening so I had to kind
of like piecemeal my journey together um I do have a little list uh for me mental health therapy but right next to
that somatic healing therapy my sexual trauma started at six in the home and I
didn't leave the streets until I was 33. so if you can imagine how disconnected physiologically my mind is from my body
and then when women go in and they want to have healthy relationships or have a child then they don't realize until that
point that how disconnected and wounded they are from every part of their body that's ever been touched and abused so
please add that somatic healing piece there's therapists that do that I'm in it right now with other methods of
therapy but uh yeah that um spirituality many of us have
faith-based organizations remember that not everybody has had a positive experience with religion and so I think
principles of uh denominations or about making like allegiances forcing people
to make allegiances when they're coming out of this fog so spiritual principles without the the being domineering about
religion and remember for many people I'm an African-American woman a black woman that systems and religion have not
always played been good for us so understand sometimes when someone's pushing back against maybe some
programming religious programming you want to implement Implement just be mindful of that that's the cultural
competency piece um Community Support beyond my recovery every time you call me together we don't
have to talk about my life the way it was it can be how to dream how to travel
um how to do new things take photographs it doesn't matter things that allow me to see the world broader
um trauma informed residential housing long-term residential housing after
independent housing and then addiction recovery groups if that's a part of it but this is just my opinion limit those
that keep the person saying I am an addict I am an addict I am an addict the
scripture says life and death are in the power of the what tongue and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof so I
me I stopped going to groups that had me continually say what I was bound to so that's something to think about
educational and Vocational opportunities when I left the streets I had three kids one of which was the son of my
trafficker and I had no skill set and so it's important that we are that we're
serious about because poverty is the is one of that's the first thing that'll send me back right because I can make
money in other ways and not have to tolerate targeting um another two more things rest
and play man when I got into a program give it 5 30 cook eggs pray at 6 30 7 30
shower eight o'clock so then by the time I leave the home and
I have my three kids back I'm like all right it's 5 30. Everybody Get Up and pray 7 30. everybody
and it doesn't give a realistic balance of what it means to be alive and so while you're trying to program or
unprogram whatever the language is make sure that you incorporate rest after 18
years of being worked over I was so tired and after three days they were like get up at 5 30 and cook eggs
so rest and then play Joy is such a scary Joy is scarce we almost don't even
uh brene Brown talked about that we're Joy is something we're like terrified of it's gonna all come clapping down and so
helping survivors see the joy and The Wonder of what it means to be alive because that's going to make me want to
stretch that's going to make me want to reach not just because I want to get out of what was but because there's a
promise that I can walk into of a life that's beautiful and full
anyone else I dare not
I was going to speak from like the clinical aspect um so we found that with the population
of kids that we work with that um Equine Therapy has been like super effective so
if you like animals any type of therapy that involves animals have been really
good been calming for the spirit for them that's what we've been told so I
was going to run down a list of like therapeutic modalities but I'll skip that decision
so the clinical part is so EMDR um is huge in that aspect CBT CBT uh in
early stages we found the grounding techniques work really well um prayer if you have a religious
component deep reading all very beneficial tools also very beneficial
tools for secondary trauma so going back to the previous question about things that we can do to treat that part of it
so allow me to add this um as an EMDR certified therapist I have
seen the the changes of individuals going through that process I have seen that same change within my life
processing my own trauma but there is a step before that that
needs to take place and it is for that individual in your clinical setting that
individual that you're meeting with that you're connecting with to feel safe so a
lot of times the pre-work that I do before even thinking about reprocessing before even mentioning e with an EMDR
it's the making sure that all of the parts of the individual feel safe to go
on this journey again that's a pretty heavy Journey that we're doing it's a very careful one I have to make sure
that all of their protective Parts say okay let's do this I trust you I know
you're going to give me safe as we revisit the memory we clear out we let it go and we come back to a present
moment so um making sure that we listen to all all the parts the parts that is
so upset for what happened and so many times I I gave him an opportunity the
part who feels sad and this is going to be hard but they're also that part that's connected through
law there was one part within that very abusive Dynamic that says I'm still
holding on to that I'm still he was kind one time she gave me to that time so I
need to honor all of the parts that says hey you do desert healing you do we
listen to the parts many times we go back to um younger ages when that disconnect happened but I have to make
sure that if we go on this journey everyone agrees to go and I'm talking about internal family systems now
you know I do agree like how event she mentioned like we need to have that
connection build like you know uh when we are working with our clients it's so important that we understand our client
first like you know uh what what that person might need is what what we are
not ex like we might think that person needs something but like that is completely different from that person's
you know perspective so like you we have to actually understand like you know
um person as an individual first like no you as a person and like you know if I
don't know you how can I understand your needs you know so that's really important for us to uh like uh do
anything uh regarding therapy you know so thank you yeah
um are there any differences between treating trauma with males versus
females and then the second part of that question are there differences in treating trauma amongst age groups
children teens versus adults and this is my question and I thought about it
um and this is um the best answer that I can provide
within the clinical setting or whatever that setting that you're connecting with that individual of course it's necessary
and important to know their you know when it comes to gender when it comes to uh their background social economic
um background their culture where they're coming from all of that makes
our of the therapeutic relationship all of that it's part of the conversation
however the invitation is for you to look farther into it it's for you to
look at that person in that system that the individual carries within we've
talked about it briefly in our uh previous question about internal family systems and I've actually learned this
from our youth at the underground they kept talking about parts and there's a part of me that wanted to run away but I
didn't tell me more about that part or the part that says yes I was you know it was 5 a.m I was it was raining I was
cold and I remember the underground there was a part of me that knew its way to the um tell me more about that part
that's the part of you that emerged forward and help you in that process every time and by the way we all have
different parts within us um every time we experience a traumatic event there's a part of us that emerges
that comes forward um its main purpose is to avoid pain
so if we experience traumatic events daily many times there are multiple
Parts popping in to protect us um with time
especially in cases of complex trauma those parts become very rigid they're so
good at their role they're so good hey let me run away this is why I know let me run away so
um the intention is to again we pick up all the other
um information about the client or youth or individual we're working with but the invitation is to go a little bit further
how is the protective system the tools that they're already carrying the parts that made them pick up the phone and ask
for help and support how do we honor them and how we give them more resources
yeah um is there a time frame in which survivors
of traveling can expect to be fully restored with minimum
my answer would be no and I I don't I say that because
um I got you know I was good until I started dating and then I was I was good until I had
this huge job offer like they were like we want you and you're the one we're gonna fly you out we're gonna and then
they said we're we're digging on that offer that rejection that professional rejection spun me out of control for six
months because it was tied to other rejections but it's not until we live that you know because they say healing
is never linear it's not until we encounter that next day when when a man rubs his hand down my back
inappropriately in a business setting that I might be like you know so it's never like far from me
does it sting anymore no not really is there a stench I sure hope not but
there's residuals that are going to be awakened just by being alive and that's why I I'm in I'm in a new session of
EMDR right now I continued therapeutic Cycles because of this very reason but nobody told me that nobody told me that
that was you know once I left those programs they never told me that in three to five years when this when this
happens or when my mother passed away I was completely gutted and so for me it's
not that the that there's no healing it's just that it's gonna be it's it's gonna be a thing
um that goes back and forth uh for me so allow me to connect with something you
said earlier you've talked about that somatic experience uh when we are on protection mode and on survival mode
our bodies in all of its wisdom says this is a lot we don't have the people
the resources the time um to process what just happened
through cognition through emotions so physically we store that memory
um and it's go go go go it's just getting up getting the kids ready go to school take the test do well come home
leave the house um many times what I have seen uh from
those I walk with they say why now I was able to build a home finally I have a
stability finally I have a safe partner and I have anxiety and I have panic attack and all of this I'm going back
and in many ways again the wisdom of the wisdom of our system says hey you're
ready now you have the time you have safe people around you you have resources you have more control you're
not six anymore you are in 26. so now let me remind you about this memory that
I've been carrying for you boom panic attack so that's um again it is it takes
you by surprise it can be frustrated because you were marching forward but it's also your system letting you know
we can do this let's connect with safe people let's process that so we can let it go
what do you do your specific area that the biggest
challenge restoration so access to resources
number one um peer support for minors it's really hard to do it's not something in Texas
that's commonly found and then because we specifically for us
because we deal with um victims that are minors the laws with
the right to choose affect highly in the resources for that population is very
very stringent also immigrant populations too many support for immigrant populations especially when
you are an immigrant and you don't have your documentations in place it's really difficult for you to like get into those
resources and connect you to those resources because they don't have that you know they're already in the crisis
situation and then like you know that is already a disadvantage and then like you
know with their documentation not in case that makes them like you know further victimized into in that
situation yeah I just have one I think sometimes as
Direct Care Service Providers we're looking at the low hanging fruit we're looking at those things that are obvious to us at
that time for me one of the biggest obstacles to victim restoration is it's very to acknowledge systemic
issues yeah so I yeah you're serving Brittany she's
right here she's from but we're not and I don't think we all necessarily have all of us have the
capacity for based on our nine to five schedule and our families but you know Britney's a whole tree
and she has Deep Roots and it's like trying to get cancer out and only scraping like a little bit of it and
expecting Health to grow from that so for me the biggest thing for victim restoration is not really being believed
and not and people not believing that I have to deal with the systemic issues that I still face as a woman as the next
sex worker as a black person all the things right so each of them have their own their own root and so and on top of
that the second thing for me would be resources after programming um when I left the program I had my kids
and I was on the corner just standing there holding my kids hands I didn't have a car I didn't have education I didn't have anywhere to go
um and there were no support services to help me get to that next step and so I think we need to think about that last
leg of the journey um not last leg but that that last bit that gets them to the other side of the
shore um after crossing a tumultuous River trying to emerge from that light which
you can Envision that with me waiting for stones to pop up along the way and then the stones just stop
and you're having to navigate these turbulent Waters with no you don't know how to swim and so for me victim
restoration comes with that last piece of making it um to the other side safely
and it's a good reminder as a clinician because here I am waiting in my office or condition ready to talk about their
emotions and things and she's thinking about you know what are we going to eat tonight where are we going to sleep I
need a job I have that job interview I have applications so also for me to step
away from that structure and says well what's her priority now what can I do
what can provide can I open the space can I offer whatever it is that I can offer to make sure that uh you know we
go through the basic needs again for her to feel safe and then be like okay now I
can engage in this conversation yeah thank you what else
well I'd like to thank our panelists we appreciate it please give us
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