What does safety truly mean in the context of human trafficking and how do we ensure it for victims? Does it stop at providing a safe physical space, or does it delve deeper into the realm of emotional and psychological well-being? In this episode we unpack the multi-layered concept of 'safety' and its implications for survivors of human trafficking.
This episode serves as a wake-up call to not just understand, but to deeply appreciate the devastating effects of chronic and complex trauma inflicted by human trafficking. We discuss the essential role of trauma therapy, specifically EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), in addressing the internalized shame and feelings of powerlessness that can inhibit a survivor's path to recovery. We explore the critical importance of specialists who are trained in trauma therapy and how they can help survivors rebuild their inner safety, brick by brick. Prepare for an enlightening journey into the heart of trauma, recovery, and the true essence of safety.
What does safety truly mean in the context of human trafficking and how do we ensure it for victims? Does it stop at providing a safe physical space, or does it delve deeper into the realm of emotional and psychological well-being? In this episode we unpack the multi-layered concept of 'safety' and its implications for survivors of human trafficking.
This episode serves as a wake-up call to not just understand, but to deeply appreciate the devastating effects of chronic and complex trauma inflicted by human trafficking. We discuss the essential role of trauma therapy, specifically EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), in addressing the internalized shame and feelings of powerlessness that can inhibit a survivor's path to recovery. We explore the critical importance of specialists who are trained in trauma therapy and how they can help survivors rebuild their inner safety, brick by brick. Prepare for an enlightening journey into the heart of trauma, recovery, and the true essence of safety.
You know the why human trafficking work is needed To fight for the freedom of modern day slaves. But love, passion, commitment isn't all you need to be an effective and successful anti-trafficking advocate. Learn the how. I'm Dr Celia Williamson, director of the Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute at the University of Toledo. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation podcast, where I'll provide you with the latest and best methods, policy and practice discussed by experienced experts in the field, so that you can cut through the noise, save time and be about the work of saving lives. Welcome to the Emancipation Nation episode 197.
Speaker 1:I'm Dr Celia Williamson and today I'm by myself, just thinking about a couple of key terms that we throw around in the anti-trafficking world. One of them is safety, and we know that, as direct service providers, we should always be concerned about someone's safety, whether they are a victim fresh out of a human trafficking experience or some kind of vulnerable victimization, whether they have become a survivor, or whether they are moving into thrive or hood. Safety is always going to be our number one concern, but some of us don't. We define safety in very black and white ways, meaning we define it as physical safety. You know, are you out of this experience? Can this person come back and re-exploit you, manipulate you again physically, perhaps attack you again, and so we ensure that you have a safe place, a safe physical place to land so that you cannot be physically harmed again, not recognizing that exploitation, trafficking, sexual trafficking is, by definition, traumatic and not even just traumatic, but typically it causes chronic trauma. What is chronic trauma? That is something that happens over and over and over. Not just an acute trauma Like wow, like if you have a bad car accident, boom. Acute trauma. But this is something that happens over and over, night after night, week after week, being sold, being beaten, whatever it might be. That causes chronic trauma.
Speaker 1:Many of our victims suffer also complex trauma. That's different types of traumas. There are certain reasons, common reasons that may cause someone to be vulnerable to trafficking. So if you've been a victim of child abuse or neglect, that is a trauma, often a chronic trauma that has happened over and over and over as a child. Maybe you've been sexually assaulted before being trafficked. When you have experienced different traumas, you can experience complex trauma. So we know through research that when someone has experienced an interpersonal trauma meaning another person was involved in causing your trauma it has increased devastating impact on that victim. So somebody that has a bad car accident has trauma, yes, but it's not of an interpersonal nature, so to speak. When it's interpersonal trauma that is complex and chronic, that trauma is likely not to go away.
Speaker 1:It requires direct intervention. So there has been over 20 studies, peer reviewed empirical studies on EMDR, eye movement, desensitization, reprocessing. Let me get it out EMDR on the positive effects of this type of trauma therapy. It's important because sometimes we send people to therapy if we are enlightened enough to say, oh my gosh, they have trauma. Because typically our victims don't walk up to us and say, hey, I have trauma. They show us right by disrupting the services. They receive anger, fear, fright, all the experiences of trauma Beyond those, I mean of post-traumatic stress disorder, night sweats, symptoms, triggers.
Speaker 1:I'm talking about deeper, deeper, like shame, powerlessness. Those are the things that keep you from sustaining a healthy lifestyle. Okay, so shame, powerlessness, those things, where are they? They are not outside of the victim or the survivor, they're inside. And so when we talk about safety, it's not just the physical space. We need to keep them safe in a physical space, yes, but it's deeper than that, because often when someone has experienced trauma, particularly interpersonal conflicts and chronic trauma, they tend to blame and shame themselves. And so, guess what? It's not safe inside. It's not safe.
Speaker 1:And when we don't address the deep, devastating effects of interpersonal, complex and chronic trauma, we create a system in which our victim, who we are walking alongside and we are getting them housing and the legal help and you know, the food and the clothes and the support and the advocacy. We're studying up a scenario where we haven't addressed or talked about the internal trauma, the internal shame, the internal powerlessness, and so, by definition, we have told them those things aren't important. And when they don't feel better Because of the depression, the anxiety, we cause them, in effect, indirectly to continue to blame and shame themselves for not getting better. When we don't address trauma, when we don't address shame, when we don't address powerlessness, we cannot walk alongside to help empower our survivor to achieve sustained health. So our work with them looks like it's going well and then it crashes. It's going well and then it burns to hell. What we're doing is we're implicitly telling our survivor that they're doing something that's not right, or else all of our work with them would have been a success, correct? We're also creating compassion fatigue in ourselves, secondary trauma as well. So we're helping to reinforce that self-blame and that shame in the very people we're trying to help and we're creating compassion fatigue in ourselves and our direct service staff.
Speaker 1:What we need to do is to create safety that we've all been talking about. But a deeper understanding of safety is to get our client the trauma treatment therapy that they need. And some of us I've said it before some of us just understand therapy. It's like, oh okay, I sent my client to therapy, but you don't understand that therapy. Different therapists have expertise. There are trauma-trained therapists that use EMDR, that use other modalities, but they went out and got extra training and certification in trauma therapy. That's who you're looking for. You're not looking for the therapist that says, oh yeah, I see patients, I see clients that have had trauma. Nope, you're not looking for the person that, oh yes, I can help people that have had trauma. Nope, you're looking for the person that has had the extra training in trauma therapy. And that's what we don't understand. We understand it in the medical field like if I sent my client to a general practitioner to cure their cancer. I mean, I know not to do that because a general practitioner is a generalist, you know how to look across symptoms and signs and tell you just enough to get you to the specialist. You know that your client needs an oncologist. But when it comes to mental health, we don't understand that. We think, oh, just go to the generalized therapist. No, this person needs a specifically trained, certified trauma therapist.
Speaker 1:If we do not set up that survivor on the road to healing, we can't be surprised when things disrupt. Why? Because it's not safe internally, and safety is the thing that we should always be working on, right. So healing doesn't emotional healing, psychological healing. It's not like a bolt of lightning that arrives like with a zap. It's a bridge that's built brick by brick, right, it takes hard work, but it starts to take shape over time. So when you go to therapy, they teach you skills. They teach you the tool to use to identify your symptoms, to identify your triggers and then to empower you to take control over your symptoms and your triggers.
Speaker 1:Hey, I want to break into this episode for a moment. I want to remind you that survivors of sex trafficking experience trauma as a result. Trauma-informed care is something we learn so that we don't re-traumatize victims. However, trauma-informed care will not lower someone's trauma. We have survivors that need to heal inside. Most quality direct service workers connect survivors to needed services like health care, housing, legal services and more, but these services, while necessary, won't address the internal trauma. Even when we connect them to trauma treatment counselors, they spend about an hour a week addressing traumas that have taken over their entire lives. They need so much more. Connecting someone in needed housing won't fix the brokenness inside. Connecting their trafficker allows them justice, but it won't heal the internal pain. Linking them to a lawyer won't take them to a place of reclaiming their freedom and experiencing genuine joy. Walking alongside survivors to provide support, nurturing love, kindness and to build a relationship is critical, but they also need the tools to regain the power, choice and voice internally.
Speaker 1:Healing the internal pain requires survivors to do the internal work. I've worked with and studied the issue for almost 30 years. I recently wrote a book outlining the 12 journeys that survivors need to go on to heal the trauma and to live the life they truly want to live. I'd love to train you to be a group facilitator, leading survivors toward the internal healing they need. The training is the TNT Survivors Journey Group. Let me train you to facilitate these important groups and put survivors on their path to living the life they want and experience the freedom and joy they deserve. To learn more, go to my website, siliawilliamsoncom, and watch the free webinar to learn more about the course. I look forward to training you and helping you help survivors to heal. And now on with the podcast.
Speaker 1:So the word for today, ladies and gentlemen, is safety, and we have to help our survivor win the internal battle to gain an internal voice that supports them, to have power and control over their internal thoughts and feelings about themselves, so that their internal voice loves, embraces and supports them. The other word for the day is trauma. So complex trauma, chronic trauma, interpersonal trauma, e words. Lastly, trauma informed care. What does that mean? I talked about it before. It means we are informed that you have trauma. That's what it means.
Speaker 1:And so when agencies are trauma informed, they look at their policies and they say wait, these policies are triggering, re-traumatizing, harmful. Wait, these words we use as we engage our clients they're triggering, they're re-injured, they're harmful. Wait, the way we engage, what we do, we have to make sure that we recognize someone's trauma in all things. But let's be clear Recognizing being informed is not healing trauma. You understand that. If you go to the physician and the physician is like I am informed that you have injured your knee, you have trauma to the knee, I am informed, I'm informed about that. Okay, I love the trauma informed concept, but we can't stop there because just being informed that you have trauma isn't healing your trauma. You're just not re-injuring them, you're just not re-triggering them. We have to get them to the specialist that can work on the trauma, that can heal the trauma. So, trauma responsive treatment Words are powerful, words are important.
Speaker 1:If you've ever just listened trauma informed I am informed that you have trauma. I have been educated and I have changed the way I communicate with you and changed the way that we engage and changed our policies so that they are trauma informed. Now I have to take that information from being trauma informed and I have to put it to use to heal the trauma. What does that mean? Get them to a certified and trained trauma therapist. We also have the program, the survivor's journey, available to agencies and organizations, not individuals, unfortunately. Yet A weekly group that heals works to heal trauma. So the words for today I have to take you back to I don't know second grade and I probably spent too much time with my new grandson that I'm thinking of. You know, sesame Street. No, the word for today is trauma, trauma healing, trauma, informed and, above all else, safety. Till next time, the fight continues. Let's not just do something, let's do the best thing. If you liked this episode of Emancipation Nation, please subscribe and I'll send you the weekly podcast. Until then, the fight continues.