Discover Your Voice
A Writing and Empowerment Workshop for Survivors of Rape, Sexual Assault, and Sexual Abuse
“Discover Your Voice” is a creative writing and communication workshop designed to give survivors a safe place to share their voices. Through poetry, fiction, memoir, and non-fiction, participants will develop the basic tools to express themselves through the written word. Participants will have the opportunity to share their creative work with others in the group if they choose, but they will not have to disclose their personal stories at any time. Beginners welcome!
Tuesdays 7 pm – 9 pm
January 19 - February 16
University of Pittsburgh, Oakland Campus
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Note: “Discover Your Voice” is not a support group. The facilitators are NOT trained therapists and can only refer participants to appropriate help. This is not intended as a space for disclosure, but instead a safe space to learn about the tools of self-expression.
The “Discover Your Voice” workshop is a project of End the Silence Campaign in collaboration with the Center for Victims of Violence and Crime.
I just wanted to laud your organization for encouraging survivors to write about their traumas. As one having written the book, “My Journey to Peace with PTSD,” I can vouch for the healing throughout the journey of writing the book about childhood sexual assault and military rape. As a Spiritual Counselor, I have also encouraged others to do the same with the same remarkable results.
There are two things that will reverse a trauma back into a life experience and put the memory where it belongs. One is going back to the first trauma, or the first time one felt the “state of no control or helplessness” and the second is sharing the writing.
The writing works because one uses the very same senses used during the trauma, i.e. touch, sounds, smells, taste, and sight. It takes 2 or more physical senses to turn a bad experience into a trauma. Reusing those senses during the writing allows the psyche to understand why it holds on to the pain. I ask my clients to remember as much of the physical senses as possible. The second reason is when the trauma is shared it loses its internal strength. Writing about the first pain and sharing it, the two together allows the psyche to release. Coming forward with the same intent, one can see and understand when, where, how, and what decisions were made in their lifetime to put them on the road to lowering their self-esteem. Each time, coming forward, the individual gains confidence; the speed of recovery gets faster; and most of the behaviors obtained through low self-esteem go to the wayside. Eventually self-awareness is no longer painful and allows one to change what behaviors they don’t like, allowing them to become the person they wish to be. The time frame, using the above technique is anywhere from a few months to just a few years, depending upon the severity of the original truama and those following it.
You go girl and encourage them to journal and share.
Know you are loved, Lady