Abuse and Sexual Assault

While awareness in our community has increased about sexual assault and abuse, it continues to be a major problem with 1 in 5 women and 1 in 20 men have experienced sexual violence over the age of 15 years (ABS Personal Safety Survey, 2006), and 1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men being abused as children (Fergusson & Mullen, 1999).

A number of notable and famous people have come forward to tell their stories in the hopes that it will help others to come forward and get support. Survivors of sexual abuse and assault often feel afraid to get support and can wait weeks, months or years to reach out.

Some common fears/thoughts are:

• That the person I tell won’t believe me
• That I won’t have any power over what happens next if I open up
• Because my family and friends know the person, everybody will find out
• That I will be blamed and shamed for what happened to me
• That I will feel even more unsafe and vulnerable
• That the only way I can put it behind me is to forget about it and never tell anyone
• That my friends and family will see me differently in the future
• That I’m now ‘broken’ and won’t ever be the same again
• That I’m now a risk to children because of unwanted, intrusive thoughts
• That I’ll be forced to give a statement, evidence and so on
• That I’ll panic and it will come out wrong and they won’t understand
• That it’s my fault and I don’t deserve to complain about it

Counselling

The first thing to know is that counselling is confidential and is a safe, non-judgemental space for you to talk. You don’t have to know what to say to come to counselling, and your partner, family and friends will not be involved unless you want them to be.

You have the right to say as little or as much as you want to in counselling, and you will have the power to decide what happens next. For some of our clients, they never want to and never do speak to Police or anybody else about what has happened, for others, they want to and we support them to do so safely.

Counselling can help in many ways, here are a few examples:

• Regain a sense of safety, control and power over your life
• Gain awareness of the impacts of sexual assault and how you can manage them
• Deal with the feelings of anxiety and panic in constructive and positive ways that help you move forward
• Reclaim your life after survival
• Deal with feelings of embarrassment and shame, and learn how to put it behind you
• Support you to make your own decisions about what to do next
• Provide you support to have difficult conversations with loved ones if you want/need to

We can help you to heal. To make an appointment with one of our caring team members, Get In Touch with us.