October 31, 2023 • 19 mins
What does safety truly mean in the context of human trafficking and how do we ensure it for victims? Does it stop at providing a safe physical space, or does it delve deeper into the realm of emotional and psychological well-being? In this episode we unpack the multi-layered concept of 'safety' and its implications for survivors of human trafficking.
This episode serves as a wake-up call to not just understand, but to deeply appreciate the devastating effects of chronic and complex trauma inflicted by human trafficking. We discuss the essential role of trauma therapy, specifically EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing), in addressing the internalized shame and feelings of powerlessness that can inhibit a survivor's path to recovery. We explore the critical importance of specialists who are trained in trauma therapy and how they can help survivors rebuild their inner safety, brick by brick. Prepare for an enlightening journey into the heart of trauma, recovery, and the true essence of safety.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
You know the why human trafficking work is needed
To fight for the freedom ofmodern day slaves.
But love, passion, commitmentisn't all you need to be an
effective and successfulanti-trafficking advocate.
Learn the how.
I'm Dr Celia Williamson,director of the Human
Trafficking and Social JusticeInstitute at the University of
(00:23):
Toledo.
Welcome to the EmancipationNation podcast, where I'll
provide you with the latest andbest methods, policy and
practice discussed byexperienced experts in the field
, so that you can cut throughthe noise, save time and be
about the work of saving lives.
Welcome to the EmancipationNation episode 197.
(00:45):
I'm Dr Celia Williamson andtoday I'm by myself, just
thinking about a couple of keyterms that we throw around in
the anti-trafficking world.
One of them is safety, and weknow that, as direct service
(01:07):
providers, we should always beconcerned about someone's safety
, whether they are a victimfresh out of a human trafficking
experience or some kind ofvulnerable victimization,
whether they have become asurvivor, or whether they are
(01:29):
moving into thrive or hood.
Safety is always going to beour number one concern, but some
of us don't.
We define safety in very blackand white ways, meaning we
define it as physical safety.
You know, are you out of thisexperience?
(01:50):
Can this person come back andre-exploit you, manipulate you
again physically, perhaps attackyou again, and so we ensure
that you have a safe place, asafe physical place to land so
that you cannot be physicallyharmed again, not recognizing
(02:15):
that exploitation, trafficking,sexual trafficking is, by
definition, traumatic and noteven just traumatic, but
typically it causes chronictrauma.
What is chronic trauma?
(02:36):
That is something that happensover and over and over.
Not just an acute trauma Likewow, like if you have a bad car
accident, boom.
Acute trauma.
But this is something thathappens over and over, night
after night, week after week,being sold, being beaten,
whatever it might be.
(02:56):
That causes chronic trauma.
Many of our victims suffer alsocomplex trauma.
That's different types oftraumas.
There are certain reasons,common reasons that may cause
someone to be vulnerable totrafficking.
(03:17):
So if you've been a victim ofchild abuse or neglect, that is
a trauma, often a chronic traumathat has happened over and over
and over as a child.
Maybe you've been sexuallyassaulted before being
trafficked.
When you have experienceddifferent traumas, you can
(03:41):
experience complex trauma.
So we know through researchthat when someone has
experienced an interpersonaltrauma meaning another person
was involved in causing yourtrauma it has increased
devastating impact on thatvictim.
So somebody that has a bad caraccident has trauma, yes, but
(04:07):
it's not of an interpersonalnature, so to speak.
When it's interpersonal traumathat is complex and chronic,
that trauma is likely not to goaway.
It requires direct intervention.
So there has been over 20studies, peer reviewed empirical
(04:34):
studies on EMDR, eye movement,desensitization, reprocessing.
Let me get it out EMDR on thepositive effects of this type of
trauma therapy.
It's important becausesometimes we send people to
(04:55):
therapy if we are enlightenedenough to say, oh my gosh, they
have trauma.
Because typically our victimsdon't walk up to us and say, hey
, I have trauma.
They show us right bydisrupting the services.
They receive anger, fear,fright, all the experiences of
(05:17):
trauma Beyond those, I mean ofpost-traumatic stress disorder,
night sweats, symptoms, triggers.
I'm talking about deeper, deeper, like shame, powerlessness.
Those are the things that keepyou from sustaining a healthy
(05:39):
lifestyle.
Okay, so shame, powerlessness,those things, where are they?
They are not outside of thevictim or the survivor, they're
inside.
And so when we talk aboutsafety, it's not just the
physical space.
(06:00):
We need to keep them safe in aphysical space, yes, but it's
deeper than that, because oftenwhen someone has experienced
trauma, particularlyinterpersonal conflicts and
chronic trauma, they tend toblame and shame themselves.
(06:21):
And so, guess what?
It's not safe inside.
It's not safe.
And when we don't address thedeep, devastating effects of
interpersonal, complex andchronic trauma, we create a
(06:46):
system in which our victim, whowe are walking alongside and we
are getting them housing and thelegal help and you know, the
food and the clothes and thesupport and the advocacy.
We're studying up a scenariowhere we haven't addressed or
talked about the internal trauma, the internal shame, the
(07:10):
internal powerlessness, and so,by definition, we have told them
those things aren't important.
And when they don't feel betterBecause of the depression, the
anxiety, we cause them, ineffect, indirectly to continue
(07:31):
to blame and shame themselvesfor not getting better.
When we don't address trauma,when we don't address shame,
when we don't addresspowerlessness, we cannot walk
alongside to help empower oursurvivor to achieve sustained
(07:52):
health.
So our work with them lookslike it's going well and then it
crashes.
It's going well and then itburns to hell.
What we're doing is we'reimplicitly telling our survivor
(08:15):
that they're doing somethingthat's not right, or else all of
our work with them would havebeen a success, correct?
We're also creating compassionfatigue in ourselves, secondary
trauma as well.
(08:35):
So we're helping to reinforcethat self-blame and that shame
in the very people we're tryingto help and we're creating
compassion fatigue in ourselvesand our direct service staff.
(08:56):
What we need to do is to createsafety that we've all been
talking about.
But a deeper understanding ofsafety is to get our client the
trauma treatment therapy thatthey need.
And some of us I've said itbefore some of us just
(09:17):
understand therapy.
It's like, oh okay, I sent myclient to therapy, but you don't
understand that therapy.
Different therapists haveexpertise.
There are trauma-trainedtherapists that use EMDR, that
use other modalities, but theywent out and got extra training
(09:42):
and certification in traumatherapy.
That's who you're looking for.
You're not looking for thetherapist that says, oh yeah, I
see patients, I see clients thathave had trauma.
Nope, you're not looking forthe person that, oh yes, I can
help people that have had trauma.
Nope, you're looking for theperson that has had the extra
(10:07):
training in trauma therapy.
And that's what we don'tunderstand.
We understand it in the medicalfield like if I sent my client
to a general practitioner tocure their cancer.
(10:28):
I mean, I know not to do thatbecause a general practitioner
is a generalist, you know how tolook across symptoms and signs
and tell you just enough to getyou to the specialist.
You know that your client needsan oncologist.
(10:48):
But when it comes to mentalhealth, we don't understand that
.
We think, oh, just go to thegeneralized therapist.
No, this person needs aspecifically trained, certified
trauma therapist.
If we do not set up thatsurvivor on the road to healing,
(11:14):
we can't be surprised whenthings disrupt.
Why?
Because it's not safeinternally, and safety is the
thing that we should always beworking on, right.
So healing doesn't emotionalhealing, psychological healing.
(11:40):
It's not like a bolt oflightning that arrives like with
a zap.
It's a bridge that's builtbrick by brick, right, it takes
hard work, but it starts to takeshape over time.
So when you go to therapy, theyteach you skills.
(12:00):
They teach you the tool to useto identify your symptoms, to
identify your triggers and thento empower you to take control
over your symptoms and yourtriggers.
Hey, I want to break into thisepisode for a moment.
I want to remind you thatsurvivors of sex trafficking
(12:21):
experience trauma as a result.
Trauma-informed care issomething we learn so that we
don't re-traumatize victims.
However, trauma-informed carewill not lower someone's trauma.
We have survivors that need toheal inside.
Most quality direct serviceworkers connect survivors to
needed services like health care, housing, legal services and
(12:44):
more, but these services, whilenecessary, won't address the
internal trauma.
Even when we connect them totrauma treatment counselors,
they spend about an hour a weekaddressing traumas that have
taken over their entire lives.
They need so much more.
Connecting someone in neededhousing won't fix the brokenness
(13:07):
inside.
Connecting their traffickerallows them justice, but it
won't heal the internal pain.
Linking them to a lawyer won'ttake them to a place of
reclaiming their freedom andexperiencing genuine joy.
Walking alongside survivors toprovide support, nurturing love,
kindness and to build arelationship is critical, but
(13:32):
they also need the tools toregain the power, choice and
voice internally.
Healing the internal painrequires survivors to do the
internal work.
I've worked with and studiedthe issue for almost 30 years.
I recently wrote a bookoutlining the 12 journeys that
survivors need to go on to healthe trauma and to live the life
(13:55):
they truly want to live.
I'd love to train you to be agroup facilitator, leading
survivors toward the internalhealing they need.
The training is the TNTSurvivors Journey Group.
Let me train you to facilitatethese important groups and put
survivors on their path toliving the life they want and
(14:16):
experience the freedom and joythey deserve.
To learn more, go to my website, siliawilliamsoncom, and watch
the free webinar to learn moreabout the course.
I look forward to training youand helping you help survivors
to heal.
And now on with the podcast.
(14:37):
So the word for today, ladiesand gentlemen, is safety, and we
have to help our survivor winthe internal battle to gain an
internal voice that supportsthem, to have power and control
(14:58):
over their internal thoughts andfeelings about themselves, so
that their internal voice loves,embraces and supports them.
The other word for the day istrauma.
So complex trauma, chronictrauma, interpersonal trauma, e
(15:27):
words.
Lastly, trauma informed care.
What does that mean?
I talked about it before.
It means we are informed thatyou have trauma.
That's what it means.
(15:49):
And so when agencies are traumainformed, they look at their
policies and they say wait,these policies are triggering,
re-traumatizing, harmful.
Wait, these words we use as weengage our clients they're
triggering, they're re-injured,they're harmful.
Wait, the way we engage, whatwe do, we have to make sure that
(16:15):
we recognize someone's traumain all things.
But let's be clear Recognizingbeing informed is not healing
trauma.
You understand that.
If you go to the physician andthe physician is like I am
(16:42):
informed that you have injuredyour knee, you have trauma to
the knee, I am informed, I'minformed about that.
Okay, I love the traumainformed concept, but we can't
(17:04):
stop there because just beinginformed that you have trauma
isn't healing your trauma.
You're just not re-injuringthem, you're just not
re-triggering them.
We have to get them to thespecialist that can work on the
(17:26):
trauma, that can heal the trauma.
So, trauma responsive treatmentWords are powerful, words are
important.
If you've ever just listenedtrauma informed I am informed
(17:49):
that you have trauma.
I have been educated and I havechanged the way I communicate
with you and changed the waythat we engage and changed our
policies so that they are traumainformed.
Now I have to take thatinformation from being trauma
(18:10):
informed and I have to put it touse to heal the trauma.
What does that mean?
Get them to a certified andtrained trauma therapist.
We also have the program, thesurvivor's journey, available to
(18:33):
agencies and organizations, notindividuals, unfortunately.
Yet A weekly group that healsworks to heal trauma.
So the words for today I haveto take you back to I don't know
second grade and I probablyspent too much time with my new
(18:55):
grandson that I'm thinking of.
You know, sesame Street.
No, the word for today istrauma, trauma healing, trauma,
informed and, above all else,safety.
Till next time, the fightcontinues.
Let's not just do something,let's do the best thing.
(19:17):
If you liked this episode ofEmancipation Nation, please
subscribe and I'll send you theweekly podcast.
Until then, the fight continues.
You know the why human trafficking work is needed
To fight for the freedom ofmodern day slaves.
But love, passion, commitmentisn't all you need to be an
effective and successfulanti-trafficking advocate.
Learn the how.
I'm Dr Celia Williamson,director of the Human
Trafficking and Social JusticeInstitute at the University of
(00:23):
Toledo.
Welcome to the EmancipationNation podcast, where I'll
provide you with the latest andbest methods, policy and
practice discussed byexperienced experts in the field
, so that you can cut throughthe noise, save time and be
about the work of saving lives.
Welcome to the EmancipationNation episode 197.
(00:45):
I'm Dr Celia Williamson andtoday I'm by myself, just
thinking about a couple of keyterms that we throw around in
the anti-trafficking world.
One of them is safety, and weknow that, as direct service
(01:07):
providers, we should always beconcerned about someone's safety
, whether they are a victimfresh out of a human trafficking
experience or some kind ofvulnerable victimization,
whether they have become asurvivor, or whether they are
(01:29):
moving into thrive or hood.
Safety is always going to beour number one concern, but some
of us don't.
We define safety in very blackand white ways, meaning we
define it as physical safety.
You know, are you out of thisexperience?
(01:50):
Can this person come back andre-exploit you, manipulate you
again physically, perhaps attackyou again, and so we ensure
that you have a safe place, asafe physical place to land so
that you cannot be physicallyharmed again, not recognizing
(02:15):
that exploitation, trafficking,sexual trafficking is, by
definition, traumatic and noteven just traumatic, but
typically it causes chronictrauma.
What is chronic trauma?
(02:36):
That is something that happensover and over and over.
Not just an acute trauma Likewow, like if you have a bad car
accident, boom.
Acute trauma.
But this is something thathappens over and over, night
after night, week after week,being sold, being beaten,
whatever it might be.
(02:56):
That causes chronic trauma.
Many of our victims suffer alsocomplex trauma.
That's different types oftraumas.
There are certain reasons,common reasons that may cause
someone to be vulnerable totrafficking.
(03:17):
So if you've been a victim ofchild abuse or neglect, that is
a trauma, often a chronic traumathat has happened over and over
and over as a child.
Maybe you've been sexuallyassaulted before being
trafficked.
When you have experienceddifferent traumas, you can
(03:41):
experience complex trauma.
So we know through researchthat when someone has
experienced an interpersonaltrauma meaning another person
was involved in causing yourtrauma it has increased
devastating impact on thatvictim.
So somebody that has a bad caraccident has trauma, yes, but
(04:07):
it's not of an interpersonalnature, so to speak.
When it's interpersonal traumathat is complex and chronic,
that trauma is likely not to goaway.
It requires direct intervention.
So there has been over 20studies, peer reviewed empirical
(04:34):
studies on EMDR, eye movement,desensitization, reprocessing.
Let me get it out EMDR on thepositive effects of this type of
trauma therapy.
It's important becausesometimes we send people to
(04:55):
therapy if we are enlightenedenough to say, oh my gosh, they
have trauma.
Because typically our victimsdon't walk up to us and say, hey
, I have trauma.
They show us right bydisrupting the services.
They receive anger, fear,fright, all the experiences of
(05:17):
trauma Beyond those, I mean ofpost-traumatic stress disorder,
night sweats, symptoms, triggers.
I'm talking about deeper, deeper, like shame, powerlessness.
Those are the things that keepyou from sustaining a healthy
(05:39):
lifestyle.
Okay, so shame, powerlessness,those things, where are they?
They are not outside of thevictim or the survivor, they're
inside.
And so when we talk aboutsafety, it's not just the
physical space.
(06:00):
We need to keep them safe in aphysical space, yes, but it's
deeper than that, because oftenwhen someone has experienced
trauma, particularlyinterpersonal conflicts and
chronic trauma, they tend toblame and shame themselves.
(06:21):
And so, guess what?
It's not safe inside.
It's not safe.
And when we don't address thedeep, devastating effects of
interpersonal, complex andchronic trauma, we create a
(06:46):
system in which our victim, whowe are walking alongside and we
are getting them housing and thelegal help and you know, the
food and the clothes and thesupport and the advocacy.
We're studying up a scenariowhere we haven't addressed or
talked about the internal trauma, the internal shame, the
(07:10):
internal powerlessness, and so,by definition, we have told them
those things aren't important.
And when they don't feel betterBecause of the depression, the
anxiety, we cause them, ineffect, indirectly to continue
(07:31):
to blame and shame themselvesfor not getting better.
When we don't address trauma,when we don't address shame,
when we don't addresspowerlessness, we cannot walk
alongside to help empower oursurvivor to achieve sustained
(07:52):
health.
So our work with them lookslike it's going well and then it
crashes.
It's going well and then itburns to hell.
What we're doing is we'reimplicitly telling our survivor
(08:15):
that they're doing somethingthat's not right, or else all of
our work with them would havebeen a success, correct?
We're also creating compassionfatigue in ourselves, secondary
trauma as well.
(08:35):
So we're helping to reinforcethat self-blame and that shame
in the very people we're tryingto help and we're creating
compassion fatigue in ourselvesand our direct service staff.
(08:56):
What we need to do is to createsafety that we've all been
talking about.
But a deeper understanding ofsafety is to get our client the
trauma treatment therapy thatthey need.
And some of us I've said itbefore some of us just
(09:17):
understand therapy.
It's like, oh okay, I sent myclient to therapy, but you don't
understand that therapy.
Different therapists haveexpertise.
There are trauma-trainedtherapists that use EMDR, that
use other modalities, but theywent out and got extra training
(09:42):
and certification in traumatherapy.
That's who you're looking for.
You're not looking for thetherapist that says, oh yeah, I
see patients, I see clients thathave had trauma.
Nope, you're not looking forthe person that, oh yes, I can
help people that have had trauma.
Nope, you're looking for theperson that has had the extra
(10:07):
training in trauma therapy.
And that's what we don'tunderstand.
We understand it in the medicalfield like if I sent my client
to a general practitioner tocure their cancer.
(10:28):
I mean, I know not to do thatbecause a general practitioner
is a generalist, you know how tolook across symptoms and signs
and tell you just enough to getyou to the specialist.
You know that your client needsan oncologist.
(10:48):
But when it comes to mentalhealth, we don't understand that
.
We think, oh, just go to thegeneralized therapist.
No, this person needs aspecifically trained, certified
trauma therapist.
If we do not set up thatsurvivor on the road to healing,
(11:14):
we can't be surprised whenthings disrupt.
Why?
Because it's not safeinternally, and safety is the
thing that we should always beworking on, right.
So healing doesn't emotionalhealing, psychological healing.
(11:40):
It's not like a bolt oflightning that arrives like with
a zap.
It's a bridge that's builtbrick by brick, right, it takes
hard work, but it starts to takeshape over time.
So when you go to therapy, theyteach you skills.
(12:00):
They teach you the tool to useto identify your symptoms, to
identify your triggers and thento empower you to take control
over your symptoms and yourtriggers.
Hey, I want to break into thisepisode for a moment.
I want to remind you thatsurvivors of sex trafficking
(12:21):
experience trauma as a result.
Trauma-informed care issomething we learn so that we
don't re-traumatize victims.
However, trauma-informed carewill not lower someone's trauma.
We have survivors that need toheal inside.
Most quality direct serviceworkers connect survivors to
needed services like health care, housing, legal services and
(12:44):
more, but these services, whilenecessary, won't address the
internal trauma.
Even when we connect them totrauma treatment counselors,
they spend about an hour a weekaddressing traumas that have
taken over their entire lives.
They need so much more.
Connecting someone in neededhousing won't fix the brokenness
(13:07):
inside.
Connecting their traffickerallows them justice, but it
won't heal the internal pain.
Linking them to a lawyer won'ttake them to a place of
reclaiming their freedom andexperiencing genuine joy.
Walking alongside survivors toprovide support, nurturing love,
kindness and to build arelationship is critical, but
(13:32):
they also need the tools toregain the power, choice and
voice internally.
Healing the internal painrequires survivors to do the
internal work.
I've worked with and studiedthe issue for almost 30 years.
I recently wrote a bookoutlining the 12 journeys that
survivors need to go on to healthe trauma and to live the life
(13:55):
they truly want to live.
I'd love to train you to be agroup facilitator, leading
survivors toward the internalhealing they need.
The training is the TNTSurvivors Journey Group.
Let me train you to facilitatethese important groups and put
survivors on their path toliving the life they want and
(14:16):
experience the freedom and joythey deserve.
To learn more, go to my website, siliawilliamsoncom, and watch
the free webinar to learn moreabout the course.
I look forward to training youand helping you help survivors
to heal.
And now on with the podcast.
(14:37):
So the word for today, ladiesand gentlemen, is safety, and we
have to help our survivor winthe internal battle to gain an
internal voice that supportsthem, to have power and control
(14:58):
over their internal thoughts andfeelings about themselves, so
that their internal voice loves,embraces and supports them.
The other word for the day istrauma.
So complex trauma, chronictrauma, interpersonal trauma, e
(15:27):
words.
Lastly, trauma informed care.
What does that mean?
I talked about it before.
It means we are informed thatyou have trauma.
That's what it means.
(15:49):
And so when agencies are traumainformed, they look at their
policies and they say wait,these policies are triggering,
re-traumatizing, harmful.
Wait, these words we use as weengage our clients they're
triggering, they're re-injured,they're harmful.
Wait, the way we engage, whatwe do, we have to make sure that
(16:15):
we recognize someone's traumain all things.
But let's be clear Recognizingbeing informed is not healing
trauma.
You understand that.
If you go to the physician andthe physician is like I am
(16:42):
informed that you have injuredyour knee, you have trauma to
the knee, I am informed, I'minformed about that.
Okay, I love the traumainformed concept, but we can't
(17:04):
stop there because just beinginformed that you have trauma
isn't healing your trauma.
You're just not re-injuringthem, you're just not
re-triggering them.
We have to get them to thespecialist that can work on the
(17:26):
trauma, that can heal the trauma.
So, trauma responsive treatmentWords are powerful, words are
important.
If you've ever just listenedtrauma informed I am informed
(17:49):
that you have trauma.
I have been educated and I havechanged the way I communicate
with you and changed the waythat we engage and changed our
policies so that they are traumainformed.
Now I have to take thatinformation from being trauma
(18:10):
informed and I have to put it touse to heal the trauma.
What does that mean?
Get them to a certified andtrained trauma therapist.
We also have the program, thesurvivor's journey, available to
(18:33):
agencies and organizations, notindividuals, unfortunately.
Yet A weekly group that healsworks to heal trauma.
So the words for today I haveto take you back to I don't know
second grade and I probablyspent too much time with my new
(18:55):
grandson that I'm thinking of.
You know, sesame Street.
No, the word for today istrauma, trauma healing, trauma,
informed and, above all else,safety.
Till next time, the fightcontinues.
Let's not just do something,let's do the best thing.
(19:17):
If you liked this episode ofEmancipation Nation, please
subscribe and I'll send you theweekly podcast.
Until then, the fight continues.
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