Traffickers manipulate victims into having a false sense of self and reality.
Physical assault, sexual assault, psychological manipulation, and forced work develop a survivor’s feelings of worthlessness.
Scars, traumatic brain injuries, permanent physical disability, mental health, and overall trauma; these are all injuries that affect sex and labor trafficking and exploitation survivors.
Abusers control how a survivor looks, dresses, and acts. Abusers have instilled shame and broken down their sense of self. Survivors become nothing but what their abuser tells them they are. Their perception, acceptance, and control over their body are destroyed.
Survivors are left with a seemingly impossible task: reclaiming their bodies as theirs.
“There is no me without them.”
When someone else has claimed your life, body, and even monetary worth as their own, reclamation of self seems like an abstract concept. Many survivors struggle with body image because they have been told what to wear, how to look, what their weight should be, what their hair should look like, and even what facial expressions they need to show. Without their abusers, they have no way of knowing what to do.
Beginning to explore how survivors view themselves is one of many paths toward healing skewed body image. Validating survivors' experiences by letting them know that they have experienced trauma which has created the way they view themselves and how they feel the world perceives them.
Let them know that their thoughts, feelings, and actions make sense.
Many survivors also need space to challenge their thoughts and discover new ways of seeing themselves. Learning that you can love and change your body in a way that you’ve never experienced is empowering, liberating, and scary.
Although self-esteem and body image may never be quite what any survivor expects, their bodies still and always will belong to them. Once that realization dawns, their healing journey begins.
HAVEN Can Help
Have you or someone you now been abused, sexually assaulted forced to work for little or no pay or to perform sex acts?
Contact us for free and confidential services:
Human Trafficking Program
(209) 248-4773
24-Hour Crisis Line (209) 577-5980
Main Line (209) 524-4331
Toll Free 1-888-45-HAVEN