PATHWAY TO JOY AND HEALING

As many of you know, I came to a college in a small rural town when I heard my calling to help students who have been sexually assaulted by others, or physically assaulted in intimate partner relationships as I changed my career to do this type of work.   Because of my own childhood abuse, I continued many of the relationship dynamics I had with my parents as an adult.  In college, a boyfriend physically assaulted me for over a year, and sexually coerced and forced me to have sex with him.  In my senior year, I finally got the help I needed through therapeutic counseling to begin to turn my life around.

Because of my personal experiences, I know that I can help others now with my legal training, and empathy as a former victim myself. In my current work, I help victim students get the therapeutic counseling and academic support and resources they need to stay in school as many victims drop out after experiencing sexual trauma.  I also help students who perpetrate sexual assault to get them back on track by showing them what they must do to change their behaviors, so they too can remain in school.

Recently, when I was conducting a training on sexual assault and violence on campus, a young male student and fraternity member came up to me, and complained that I made negative light of fraternities by using examples of sexual assaults at fraternity parties.  In the past, I would have gotten very defensive and argued why I need to shed light on these parties as most incidents of sexual assault either begin or end at fraternity parties.  However, this time, I encouraged this young man to join us on our campus Consent Campaign to bring awareness to sexual assault on campus, and encouraged him to convince his fraternity to join us in this campaign.

My own recent emotional healing and spiritual work have allowed me to be non-defensive and positive to take a potentially negative encounter and make it a positive and loving one.  I truly care about our students, and I have come to love the people of this rural region who deserve attention and to be heard when in the past these communities have been marginalized and their concerns dismissed.

When I first moved to this region, I too judged the people of this region as being uneducated and less deserving, but I have changed my own perspective and truly love others who are very different than me.  This ability to love others only came after learning to love myself, as I was unable to love others earlier when I did not have love within me to give.  Sending infinite love to you! (Copyright 2014 Living Wide Awake with All Rights Reserved)