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I am a survivor of childhood grooming and sexual abuse.
It’s said that one in six males are sexually abused. I believe the rate is higher, as 80-85% of males do not report.
I have been blessed with the love and support of many people as I struggled through an incredible healing journey that brought me face to face with my abuser in a court of law. The trauma of going through that legal process, once I decided to return to the authorities for a second time with my story of being groomed and sexually abused by a high school teacher, was in many ways more traumatic than the abuse itself.
Men don’t talk about these things. I suffered the aftereffects of childhood grooming and sexual abuse: Depression/anxiety, intimacy issues, difficulty with trust; drug and alcohol abuse, addictions, and complex PTSD making it extremely difficult to form and maintain intimate relationships, let alone maintain consistent employment, or experience other social privileges. Many survivors commit suicide. I have experienced all of this, including suicide attempts;;;
And I survived.
It is time to open up the conversation around men and childhood grooming and sexual abuse in a healing and transformative way.
The biggest blessing on my healing journey was being able to tell my story in a council of peers during several successive vision quest programs, both with the Anishnawbe community and with my wilderness therapy guide/ecopsychology community. Along the way I have also been blessed with many skilled therapists, and the privilege of participating in many female-dominated healing communities witnessing and observing how women are able to rally around their own in order to nurture and hold their sisters as they disclose their traumas in safe and healing containers.
Now, it is my turn to create and hold a safe container for other men to do the same.
GROOMED: The Podcast
The first six episodes are already recorded. I am partnering with the excellent and inspiring team at Podfly Productions to produce it into a professional podcast. These amazing people have come together and committed to this project, with many donating their time for the initial six episodes. My hope is to surpass my dream goal of $5,000, enabling us to produce the first 10 episodes and begin work on Season Two.
PODCAST GOALS:
1. To open up conversation around childhood grooming and sexual abuse, giving parents/guardians tools to help spot warning signs and protect their children from predators. Many predators often ingratiate themselves to the parents/guardians and are known to the victim’s family.
2. To help de-stigmatize the trauma of surviving childhood grooming and sexual abuse amongst all genders.
3. To create and nurture a platform for male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse to tell their own stories, anonymously if desired, in a way that is healing, affirming, and supportive.
4. To help create vocabulary around why survivors of sexual abuse protect the secret, even at great cost to themselves including psychological disease, addictions, trust and intimacy issues, PTSD, and suicidal ideation, and to help reduce the number of suicides amongst male survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse.
5. To create an on-line community of resources for male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse, and their families, so that they may continue their own healing journeys.
EPISODES OF GROOMED
In the first six episodes of "Groomed: The Podcast," I tell my own personal story including my experience of being a key witness in a trial that agonizingly stretched out over four years.
In following episodes, I will be interviewing key legal experts, psychological experts, and other male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse, and their families. There will always be healing to do, but I feel I am now at a place in my own healing journey where I can be a resource for others.
With conversation, great healing can happen.
With conversation, we can educate parents and guardians on what to look out for, so that grooming and sexual abuse never happens to others in the first place.
With conversation, we give survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse the peace of being acknowledged, witnessed, and held while they stitch the pieces of themselves back together again.
Please join me in making this happen.
It’s said that one in six males are sexually abused. I believe the rate is higher, as 80-85% of males do not report.
I have been blessed with the love and support of many people as I struggled through an incredible healing journey that brought me face to face with my abuser in a court of law. The trauma of going through that legal process, once I decided to return to the authorities for a second time with my story of being groomed and sexually abused by a high school teacher, was in many ways more traumatic than the abuse itself.
Men don’t talk about these things. I suffered the aftereffects of childhood grooming and sexual abuse: Depression/anxiety, intimacy issues, difficulty with trust; drug and alcohol abuse, addictions, and complex PTSD making it extremely difficult to form and maintain intimate relationships, let alone maintain consistent employment, or experience other social privileges. Many survivors commit suicide. I have experienced all of this, including suicide attempts;;;
And I survived.
It is time to open up the conversation around men and childhood grooming and sexual abuse in a healing and transformative way.
The biggest blessing on my healing journey was being able to tell my story in a council of peers during several successive vision quest programs, both with the Anishnawbe community and with my wilderness therapy guide/ecopsychology community. Along the way I have also been blessed with many skilled therapists, and the privilege of participating in many female-dominated healing communities witnessing and observing how women are able to rally around their own in order to nurture and hold their sisters as they disclose their traumas in safe and healing containers.
Now, it is my turn to create and hold a safe container for other men to do the same.
GROOMED: The Podcast
The first six episodes are already recorded. I am partnering with the excellent and inspiring team at Podfly Productions to produce it into a professional podcast. These amazing people have come together and committed to this project, with many donating their time for the initial six episodes. My hope is to surpass my dream goal of $5,000, enabling us to produce the first 10 episodes and begin work on Season Two.
PODCAST GOALS:
1. To open up conversation around childhood grooming and sexual abuse, giving parents/guardians tools to help spot warning signs and protect their children from predators. Many predators often ingratiate themselves to the parents/guardians and are known to the victim’s family.
2. To help de-stigmatize the trauma of surviving childhood grooming and sexual abuse amongst all genders.
3. To create and nurture a platform for male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse to tell their own stories, anonymously if desired, in a way that is healing, affirming, and supportive.
4. To help create vocabulary around why survivors of sexual abuse protect the secret, even at great cost to themselves including psychological disease, addictions, trust and intimacy issues, PTSD, and suicidal ideation, and to help reduce the number of suicides amongst male survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse.
5. To create an on-line community of resources for male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse, and their families, so that they may continue their own healing journeys.
EPISODES OF GROOMED
In the first six episodes of "Groomed: The Podcast," I tell my own personal story including my experience of being a key witness in a trial that agonizingly stretched out over four years.
In following episodes, I will be interviewing key legal experts, psychological experts, and other male and male-identified survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse, and their families. There will always be healing to do, but I feel I am now at a place in my own healing journey where I can be a resource for others.
With conversation, great healing can happen.
With conversation, we can educate parents and guardians on what to look out for, so that grooming and sexual abuse never happens to others in the first place.
With conversation, we give survivors of childhood grooming and sexual abuse the peace of being acknowledged, witnessed, and held while they stitch the pieces of themselves back together again.
Please join me in making this happen.