Trauma can feel like a cloud looming over your head, but there is one beautiful part of rebuilding after these experiences. The beam of light peaking through the deep dark hole of despair. And that light is the possibility of healing.
We think that de-normalization is deeply personal, and survivors need to discover how normalization lives within them. When they do, suddenly, they can recognize that these messages DO apply to them. We are finding this to be a critical and lasting step in the recovery process.
Truth-telling and self-disclosure is a critical psychosocial act that is complicated or disabled by a myriad of interacting dynamics of the trauma experience, beliefs about personal responsibility or shame, and cultural rules for behavior. While it is possible that “women coming forward” is critical to social change, we, as the society, must hold ourselves accountable for our part in the silencing.