Beyond MeToo: Healing the Wounds of Sexual Trauma – Détails, épisodes et analyse

In this episode, Molly shares a meditation originally released on the podcast “Meditations,” by her friend Gregory T. Obert in May of 2019. We are happy to share this recording here, where you’ll hear a set of sexual healing affirmations, ready by Molly and repeated several times in a loop. You may prefer to listen to this meditation in a quiet and private space to take them in. If you’d like to hear these same affirmations read by Gregory, you can find his podcast and look for the episode released on May 26, 2019 on the “Meditations” podcast by Gregory T. Obert.

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Contact Sarah: www.theembodyconnection.com // sarah@theembodyconnection.com

Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, content creation for Somatic based healers: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

In this episode, Molly interviews Amy Dawn about how she navigated the criminal justice system after deciding to press charges against the man who raped her. Some key highlights include:

• How Amy found herself in a role reversal from criminal justice student to someone navigating the system, and the challenge she experienced coming to terms with being a rape survivor.
• Her decision to report and then to pursue legal action.
• Disclosure and allowing other people’s reactions to impact how we feel about ourselves and what happened to us.
• Victim blaming, objectification, and dehumanization throughout the legal process.
• The importance of her legal advocate throughout the legal process.
• How the legal system’s way of poking holes in her character led to her questioning her very identity.
• The awkwardness/injustice/irony of being a mere witness in a case about her own rape.
• Her decision to leave the criminal justice world professionally.
• Finding her voice and her authentic self.

Amy Dawn has a Master’s in Criminal Justice and Criminology but left that field behind following her own experience with sexual assault. She pivoted careers and now volunteers with Resilience as a medical advocate. Outside of her full-time day job, she also works as a photographer. She is passionate about using her experience to foster dialogue whether it be through writing, photography, or advocacy. In her spare time, you’ll usually find her with her best friend, her dog Addison, who she rescued from Paws, and when they are feeling ambitious, they love taking in foster dogs.

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Amy Dawn is putting together a currently untitled photography project around survivors. It’s meant to bring to light the magnitude of words during disclosures, to convey the impact of victim shaming, and to humanize survivors. Link here: https://www.amydawnphotography.com/open-call

Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, content creation for somatic based healers  https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

**GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING** please listen with care

In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan reflect on how close to home the issue of sex trafficking is, including Sarah’s own story of being groomed and, ultimately, trafficked. Indeed, the Department of Homeland Security’s relatively new definition of sex trafficking acknowledges domestic sex trafficking, as well as international. And as we head into Super Bowl weekend in a couple weeks, we can anticipate that 10,000 girls & women will be trafficked in some way at that event alone.

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Contact Sarah: www.theembodyconnection.com // sarah@theembodyconnection.com

Contact Molly: www.theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

Since 2018, Kristen has been a a certified rape crisis counselor in the state of Illinois and a volunteer medical advocate for Resilience (formerly Rape Victims Advocates).  In her role as a medical advocate, Kristen provides individual level support and advocacy for survivors throughout their process at the hospital. She does this by answering pages to the hospitals that Resilience has contracts with and sitting with survivors of sexual assault in the emergency room as they receive medical care and have evidence collected. Some of Kristen’s other interests include being a master level Reiki practitioner, as well as a Fiber Artist - she’s a weaver and a jewelry maker. 

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https://www.ourresilience.org/

Contact Kristen: @Kristenwray123 on Facebook, Instagram, and twitter 

Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

In this mini-episode, Molly invites you to reach out if you or someone you know may be interested in being interviewed on the show. Listen to hear some ideas of who we’re looking for, and reach out to Molly at molly@theembodyconnection.com if you are interested.

Also - What’s your word or phrase for 2022? Molly reflects on this concept, as well as her phrase for 2022, in this episode and also wrote this blog post: https://theembodyconnection.com/the-power-behind-a-word/

SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!

Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

“And so while it is my job to support artists in the work they’re doing, I often see my own survival in the work that they’re sharing, and for me that just deepens the sense of not being alone. And every time, I think “Oh, right -- that’s the basic tenet of a healing community -- remembering ‘I’m not alone.’”… And for me it is the thing I need to continually remember and come back to: “I’m not alone, I’m not alone” -- I think forever it will be helpful to hear and to see that.”

Molly spends time talking with Jeri Fredrickson, the Creative Director of Awakenings, a nonprofit arts organization whose mission centers survivors of sexual violence. She sees literary, visual, and performing art as a channel to nurture love and access beauty while questioning the experiences that hold people together. She has an MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and her book You Are Not Lost was published in Fall 2021.

We are committed to creating a physical and virtual artistic space in which to engage in an open dialogue that promotes healing of survivors through the arts and furthers awareness and understanding of sexual violence. We do this by producing year-round art events and opportunities spanning every medium, including visual art, literature, music, theater, and performance art that are made by, for, and about survivors of sexual violence. 

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Contact Jeri: https://awakeningsart.org/ // Jeri@awakeningsart.org or jericreatesthings@gmail.com // @awakeningsart (IG&Twitter) // @jfredcreates (IG) // @awakeningsartchicago (FB)

Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

In this conversation, Molly and regular special guest Sarah Brennan share their thoughts on a key part of the conversation that we should be having with our young people when we talk to them about sexual assault and how we may be inadvertently blaming and shaming them into silence.

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Contact Sarah: [theembodyconnection.com // sarah@theembodyconnection.com

Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

“You’re experiencing your everyday life in your body already. Sexual trauma is a trauma to the body already. So it’s with you. Learning how to connect to your body and understand it and feel connected to it as a supportive part of yourself can be a really important part of the journey. With some of my clients, we don’t move; we just connect to the body as a resource in other ways.”

Amanda Mitchell is the Founder and CEO of InTouch & Motion, a creative arts therapies and psychotherapy practice in Chicago that supports uniqueness and creativity as integral to the healing process. She is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Board Certified Dance/Movement Therapist that has worked with those impacted by violence and trauma for over 11 years, including at sexual trauma centers, in a prison, with individuals and families involved in the foster care system, with veterans, and most recently in private practice for the last 5 years.

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Contact Amanda: www.intouchandmotion.com // amanda@intouchandmotion.com // FB: @InTouchandMotion // IG: @intouchandmotion

Contact Molly: theembodyconnection.com // molly@theembodyconnection.com

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Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

“When I wrote The Courage to Heal, if you had asked me who I was at that point in my life, I would’ve said ‘I’m an incest survivor,’ and that would have been it. I didn’t have any other identity. I was consumed by it, and it felt like my life had been destroyed by it and that I would never recover. So many decades later, I’m in such a different place that if you asked me, ‘Who are you?’, I would say ‘I’m a teacher, I’m an author,  I’m a mother, I’m a grandmother, I’m a swimmer, I’m a hiker,  I’m a friend, I’m a sister.’ ‘Incest survivor’ wouldn’t even be on the list, and it’s because that experience, with many other experiences, is in the fabric of the cloth that shaped me, but it’s so in the background now.”

Laura Davis is a six-time bestselling author. Her books, including The Courage to Heal and I Thought We’d Never Speak Again have been translated into 11 languages and sold 1.8 million copies. Laura leads writing workshops in the U.S. and internationally that focus on writing as a tool for healing and transformation. 

Laura’s new memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars: A Mother-Daughter Story is the riveting story of her embattled relationship with her mother Temme, their determination to love one another, and the dramatic and surprising collision course they ended up on at the end of Temme’s life. For the millions of readers of Laura’s first book, The Courage to Heal, The Burning Light of Two Stars is both prequel and sequel, revealing in page-turning, intimate detail how Laura reconciled with the mother who betrayed her, and came to care for her in her final days. 

You can read the opening chapters here: https://lauradavis.net/the-burning-light-of-two-stars/

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Contact Laura: www.LauraDavis.net // FB: @thewritersjourney // IG: @laurasaridavis

Contact Molly: molly@theembodyconnection.com

Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag

Molly and special guest Sarah Brennan share their own experiences of the first time they shared aloud their sexual trauma, as well as what came next.

SUBSCRIBE to the show to be the first to hear about new episodes!

Contact Sarah: sarah@theembodyconnection.com

Contact Molly: molly@theembodyconnection.com

Special thanks to:

Jenn Baykan, virtual assistant for creatives: https://www.jbaykan.com/

Dave Hiltebrand for intro and outro music original composition: https://www.davehiltebrand.com/

Gina McLaughlin Photography for photo and graphic design: https://www.facebook.com/ginamclaughlinphotography/?fref=tag