What is group?

Sex­u­al abuse sur­vivors may know that oth­er peo­ple have expe­ri­enced vio­lence, but it is a very dif­fer­ent feel­ing to be in a room with oth­er peo­ple say­ing ​“I felt this,” or ​“I lived this,” and know­ing that you are not alone in your healing. 

SACHA offers closed groups for sur­vivors who have expe­ri­enced child­hood sex­u­al abuse. Reg­is­tra­tion is ongo­ing, so if you are inter­est­ed please call and chat with a coun­sel­lor. We will run a group as soon as we have enough peo­ple reg­is­tered. This hap­pens usu­al­ly twice a year — in the spring and fall. 

Closed group has the same mem­bers com­ing each week from begin­ning to end. This con­sis­ten­cy helps folks to devel­op trust and safe­ty in the group process. Group mem­bers know that they will see famil­iar faces each week.

Uncer­tain­ty is a wor­ry for many new group mem­bers. Over the course of group many peo­ple sur­prise them­selves when they felt com­fort­able shar­ing their feel­ings and their life experiences.

There is no expec­ta­tion for you to share more than you are com­fort­able with. There is an expec­ta­tion that you will par­tic­i­pate in dis­cus­sions but that can look very dif­fer­ent for each person. 

Each group looks dif­fer­ent depend­ing on the par­tic­i­pants. Group mem­bers shape the expe­ri­ence and structure. 

Some group top­ics may include:

• Healthy rela­tion­ships
• Under­stand­ing the impacts of sex­u­al violence
• Feel­ings
• What heal­ing can mean?
• Cop­ing
• Grief and loss
• Strengths

It is ok to have fears about group. You may find rea­sons that pre­vent you from want­i­ng to join a SACHA group. We encour­age you reach out and chat with a coun­sel­lor about your con­cerns. Meet­ing with a coun­sel­lor might help you feel more pre­pared, braver and see that you have some­thing impor­tant to offer to the group. 

• Have I already tak­en the time to focus on my heal­ing needs? Most sur­vivors need times in their heal­ing when they only focus on them­selves in order to be present for anoth­er sur­vivor and pro­vide sup­port to others.
• Am I ready to hear oth­ers trau­ma sto­ries know­ing that some­times it can be over­whelm­ing and triggering?
• Am I in a place in my heal­ing process where I can sup­port oth­ers while valu­ing my own heal­ing process too?
• Can I speak about my expe­ri­ences in front of oth­ers? I can decide what I want to share in group but I know I am able to share per­son­al thoughts and feel­ings with the group.
• Can I par­tic­i­pate in group by lis­ten­ing and sup­port­ing oth­ers as well as tak­ing risks to share about myself in a respect­ful way?

If closed group sounds like some­thing you are inter­est­ed in, call SACHA to chat with a coun­sel­lor – 905.525.4573.