You Can Help

Book excerpt: You Can Help offers concrete tools to family and friends who wish to participate in the healing process of someone who has been sexually victimized. In Part One, the author chronicles her own journey to recovery while providing pragmatic advice and essential data from numerous experts in the field. Each chapter is followed by "Five Practical Tips." Part Two is comprised of inspirational stories by 19 other survivors of both abuse and assault (8 men and 11 women) who share what was most helpful and hurtful in their own recoveries. Besides empowering family and friends, You Can Help is a valuable asset for arming survivors in their battle against shame and is an important educational resource for professionals who work with trauma. You Can Help enables readers to: (1) BREAK THE SILENCE (silence is the biggest obstacle to recovery) (2) LEARN about the complex consequences of sexual trauma, including PTSD (3) ASSIST SURVIVORS in regaining trust, confidence, and joy.