Rewriting the Conversation Around Sexual Assault

In this powerful and necessary episode of Mental Health Rewritten, we open with a deceptively simple question: “Is this sexual assault?” From that moment forward, we begin a journey that challenges long-held beliefs about consent, trauma, and silence, especially when the abuse doesn’t look the way we expect it to.

At the heart of this episode is Maria, a fictional composite of real stories. We explore the types of harm that don’t come through force, but through the absence of consent, emotional pressure, or the quiet rewriting of boundaries inside long-term relationships.

But Maria’s story is just the beginning.

We’re also joined by Ashley-Lauren Elrod, a survivor whose candid testimony spans over a decade of sexual abuse, much of it at the hands of family members. Her story is raw and revealing of how trauma fragments memory, distorts identity, and leaves lingering questions like: Who am I outside of what happened to me? How do I tell the truth when the people who hurt me are the ones who raised me?

Together with expert voices—therapists Havi Kang, Dr. Justin Dodson, Dr. Alex Katehakis, and Dan Woerheide—we examine:

Why sexual assault in marriage is still so often denied or minimized

How dissociation becomes the mind’s defense when the body can’t escape

What gaslighting looks like in everyday language—and how it erodes self-trust

The difference between love and entitlement, and how one can masquerade as the other

What real trauma-informed healing requires—from clinicians, partners, and communities

We also confront institutional betrayal through the lens of the Larry Nassar and USA Gymnastics case, using it as a sobering parallel: If world-class athletes weren’t believed, what does that say about the everyday survivor sitting silently at your dinner table?

This episode is a call to rethink what sexual harm looks like—not just in headlines, but in homes. It’s about naming what happened, even when the world tells you it wasn’t “bad enough.” And it’s about rewriting what healing looks like, starting with truth.

Mental Health Rewritten, created by the OWLS Education Company, in collaboration with The Ummah Collective Group, is hosted, written, and produced by Dominic Lawson.

Executive Producers: Kenda Lawson and Dr. Whitney Howzell
Cover Art: Alexandria Eddings of Art Life Connections

Some music was provided by DJ Krate Digga of The Mighty Sound Champz Crew

Research and Statistics References