Reiterating the Need for Trauma-Informed and Anti-Oppressive Spaces for Disclosure of Sexual Violence: Learning from Those Who Have Lived Through It

Abstract

The social movements of #metoo and #notokay illuminated the extent of sexual violence. By providing a safe platform the movement enabled victims/survivors opportunity to share their own experiences of victimization, often in a delayed disclosure, years after the violence occurred. With new disclosures of sexual violence, also comes a growing awareness of the lasting impact and the requirement to take steps to improve responses to sexual violence across the social and clinical spectrum to address and respond to victims/survivors’ holistic needs. The primary research question is, what is the retrospective life experience of individuals marginalized by gender who encounter sexual violence in post-secondary education? The authors of this manuscript used trauma- informed qualitative individual interviews with a feminist perspective to explore the retrospective experience of 10 victim/survivors, a decade or more after their experience of sexual violence. The inquiry discovered the themes of recognizing the wrong, the internal struggle, forging new relationships, and the lasting trauma of sexual violence. Learning from those that lived it legitimizes victims/survivors’ experiences and deepens clinical knowledge of these impacts and associated needs.