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Home>Archives for Guest

August 19, 2019 by Guest

Effects of Trauma on the Mind, Body and Soul and How Movement and Meditation Facilitates Healing

Jennifer Swets will be presenting, “Effects of Trauma on the Mind, Body and Soul and How Movement and Meditation Facilitates Healing” on Tuesday, October 15 at this year’s JuST (Juvenile Sex Trafficking) Conference in Cincinnati, OH. Visit justconference.org/just2019 to review our workshop agenda and for more information on how to register.

Read Jennifer’s blog below:

Effects of Trauma on the Mind, Body and Soul and How Movement and Meditation Facilitates Healing

By: Jennifer Swets, MA, RYT, Executive Director, Mending Nets

Sigmund Freud said in 1895, “I think this man is suffering from memories.”

How true those words ring today. People who experienced trauma relive that traumatic event or events over and over. Their mind, body, and soul are affected long after the initial event. They are, in truth, suffering from memories.

When someone goes through a traumatic situation, their body is a crime scene. It does not feel safe, so trauma survivors try to spend as much time outside their body as they can. Also, many are mentally tormented by shame they feel in the present about events that have occurred in the past. They feel shame for how they acted or didn’t act at the time and try to numb those feelings anyway they can. And there is a loss of self. Some survivors feel defined by the trauma. They become what the abuser says they are or what society deems them to be.

Trauma Needs to be Witnessed

In my line of work, I have seen that suffering needs to be witnessed and validated before it can be openly addressed. David Emmerson states in his book Overcoming Trauma through Yoga: Reclaiming Your Body, that when suffering is minimized or shamed, it doesn’t go away. It goes underground. It goes beneath the surface, into the body and mind, and stays there wreaking havoc until it can be released.

Also, most trauma survivors are unable to tell anybody what exactly happened immediately following the event. Those emotions, thoughts, and memories go unprocessed and get dumped into the body.

The Body Speaks What the Mind Can’t:

When emotions, thoughts, and memories go unprocessed, they can show up as emotional and physical symptoms. And seek validation through flashbacks, unexplained rage, uncontrollable outburst, poor impulse control, racing thoughts, depression, body aches, and pain.

Mending Mind, Body and Soul

While talk therapy is an essential step in the healing process, many are finding that it is not enough. We must address the way trauma is held in the body to make the healing process more complete.

For real change to take place, according to Bessel VanDerKolk of “The Body Keeps the Score,” the body needs to learn the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present. When survivors are triggered or reminded of the past, their right brain reacts as if the traumatic event were happening at that moment. And because their left brain is unable to process the situation due to trauma, they may not be aware they are “suffering from memories.”

Bridging the Gap with Yoga and Meditation

In working with trauma survivors, I have found that yoga and meditation can bridge the gap of helping survivors safely process their thoughts and emotions and move them into a space of healing.

Yoga is a series of bilateral integration — right and left motions. Movement in yoga builds connections from the right brain to the left brain. Through bilateral integration, the brain is rebuilding broken connections, thus bringing memories to the surface of consciousness.

Yoga can help survivors create a safe place in which they process those memories.

Meditation also allows the brain to rewire and heal. We spend most of our time thinking about the future or reflecting on the past. Meditation is a way to train the mind on the present. Meditation helps bring the focus inward to increase calmness, concentration, and emotional balance.

During meditation stress hormones decrease, blood pressure decreases, brain waves increase, dopamine is released, and concentration and clarity are improved.
Trauma-informed yoga and meditation are great ways to bring survivors into the present moment and it can help them learn how to trust and accept their body. And can help release what has been stored and unprocessed for so long.

With warm authenticity, engaging storytelling and bold humor, Jennifer Swets creates a bridge of safety and discovery in which she invites her audiences to cross. Jennifer is passionate about helping others experience mind, body and spiritual healing. She has a heart for ministering to those who are often overlooked or undeserved. Jennifer has a B.A. in Psychology and a Master’s Degree in Gerontology.  She worked with the Illinois Department of Aging as a case manager and then Director of Social Services.  And is also a certified yoga teacher.  Being a trauma survivor herself, she empathetically shares many of the truths she’s discovered on her own path to wholeness. Jennifer inspires her audiences to show up authentically, to connect spiritually and to leave profoundly changed.

July 29, 2019 by Guest

VICTIMS OR OFFENDERS? How the Criminal Justice System Needs to Shift Its Perspective

Octavis Lampkin will be presenting, “Victim or Offender? Peer Recruitment and Drug Trafficking within the Sex Trafficking Experience” with Sue Aboul-Hosn, BSSW, CPSW, Regional Human Trafficking Coordinator, Florida Department of Children and Families, on Tuesday, October 15 at this year’s JuST (Juvenile Sex Trafficking) Conference in Cincinnati, OH. Visit justconference.org/just2019 to review our workshop agenda and for more information on how to register.

Read Octavis’ blog below:

[clear-line]

VICTIMS OR OFFENDERS? Why the Criminal Justice System Needs to Shift Its Perspective

By: Octavis Lampkin, Victims Advocate, Free Myself LLC

When I read about the 14 year old girl who was just convicted of capital murder in Fort Worth, Texas after being used as bait in a crime committed by her trafficker, I recognized the injustice. I myself, at the young age of 14, was also eager to please my pimp. At the time, I believed I was in control but in reality, I was grappling with a complex whirlwind of emotions and my understanding of my circumstances was completely shaped by his manipulation. The injustice in the Fort Worth case shows the gulf of misunderstanding between the reality faced by victims of sex trafficking and how their conduct is perceived by the criminal justice system.

The fact is that sex traffickers don’t just control their victims to coerce them into commercial sex. Traffickers don’t limit their criminal activity to the commonly understood concept of sex trafficking. When they see the opportunity, they manipulate their victims into a host of other crimes, sometimes even serious offenses like robbery, drug smuggling and even recruiting young girls and women to work for the trafficker. A young person in this situation may actually believe it is the right thing to do. A trafficker probably convinced her that as a female she needed someone to look out for her and that other girls actually want to be a part of his trafficking organization. She may also know by recruiting, that she wouldn’t have to sleep with as many strangers nor place herself at risk of being raped anymore.  This is the complex reality that a trafficking survivor may face, but fails to be recognized by the criminal justice process.

Part of the problem is that it’s hard to convey the extent of control that a trafficker can exercise over a victim and how dramatically trauma can change the way a survivor may act. Often, children who experience trauma and come from broken homes long for love and affection regardless of who is providing it. When a child is given shelter, food, protection, and clothes, they feel obligated to the person who is meeting those basic needs. Traffickers exploit these vulnerabilities through coercion, mind control, guilt, and most importantly, through mental and physical abuse. Grooming may take place when the victim and pimp engage in intimate relations. This is often done to weaken the barriers of the victim. After the pimp succeeds in mentally controlling the victim, she begins to believe that their bond is genuine. The pimp then demands the victim return her loyalty by delivering whatever the trafficker demands. This could be anything.

When you look closely at the circumstances of a trafficking case, victims are not the masterminds but followers. Any request of the predator is perceived as a privilege to the victim. And as such, the victim follows through with the request to win over their predator’s love and trust. This is similar to when a child seeks trust and privileges from their own parents; but trafficking victims may lack the ability to differentiate between the two. Traffickers are aware of the sensitivity and vulnerability of minors in sex trafficking and have been for a very long time. That is why traffickers keep a very low profile, making it very difficult to identify them as they use victims as their bait. It doesn’t take long for mind control to become effective. Then, the longer time that a victim is under control, the more likely that the victim does not see an alternative to carrying out the demands of the trafficker.

In fact, some of the factors that the prosecutors and the court relied on as evidence that the minor in the Fort Worth case was a willing participant are actually indicators of her victimization. In that sense, this case is not unusual. Sadly, when the judicial system fails to respond to trafficking victims in an appropriate, trauma-informed way due to a lack of understanding of the trauma that the victim has experienced, the child victim seeks other ways to cope with our system’s failure, often by not cooperating or lashing out. Then that child begins to be seen as an offender rather than the victim they truly are. There are many signs in this case that went unnoticed of this little girl’s hopes and dreams going down the drain. First, she was clearly under the control of her trafficker. Most importantly, she had been stripped of her identity, independence, and the ability to think critically or logically. She suffered physical and mental abuse, which creates immense and unexplainable fear, preventing her from doing the right thing even if she feels it’s wrong. The minor in the Fort Worth case was manipulated by a predator, leading her to believe they had an intimate relationship. This would confuse any child victim, especially as that child continues to be taken advantage of by her exploiter.

And so I see here another child who has been failed by the system; just as I was failed by the system and found myself alone on the streets with no one to turn to except a predator who held out his hand with a motive. And I also see the immense injustice of the criminal justice system’s response to this case – that the consequence of the trafficker’s exploitation of this child is that this child must pay for the trafficker’s crime.

[clear-line]

Since 2009, Octavis Lampkin has provided awareness for Florida Department of Children and Families, law enforcement, Human Trafficking Task Force and many other organizations. She recounts her own experiences of being involved in Human Trafficking to at risk youths, maturing them on different tactics to prevent them from becoming victimized. In recent years, she has presented at various summits regarding the Life, peer recruitment and drug trafficking, and about being a survivor of DMST and the complex issues associated with their own exploitation. Octavis is a capable, unique individual who has overcome many obstacles and irregular dysfunctional cycles. She is a mother elevating a gifted and talented young teenager, teaching him morals and critical values of life. This courageous mother has completed her Bachelor of Science in Psychology and continues to strive to her maximum potential as a Victim Advocate Consultant.

June 20, 2019 by Guest

2019 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report Release

By Matthew Quandt, Legal Fellow

  • Pin

Today, the U.S. Department of State released the 19th annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was joined by John Cotton Richmond, the Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking-in-Persons, and Ivanka Trump, Advisor to the President, honored 8 individuals as TIP Report Heroes in recognition for their unique contributions to fighting human trafficking worldwide.

The TIP Report is a federally-mandated annual report instituted by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).  The report collects information from U.S. embassies, government officials, nongovernmental and international organizations, published reports, news articles, studies, and research to evaluate the efforts of 187 countries around the world in the fight against human trafficking.  Shared Hope contributed to the report.

As in prior years, the Report categorizes countries into four tiers based upon their efforts to combat human trafficking (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 2 Watch List, and Tier 3), and mandates as a significant penalty the restriction of U.S. foreign aid funds for those countries which fall within Tier 3.  In line with the TVPA’s recommendations, President Trump restricted Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 foreign aid to countries designated as Tier 3 by the 2018 TIP Report, and will likely take similar action this fall against countries designated as Tier 3 by the 2019 TIP Report.  With the release of the 2019 TIP Report, Bhutan, Cuba, The Gambia, and Saudi Arabia each fell to the Tier 3 designation, while Belize, Bolivia, Gabon, and Laos saw their recent efforts rewarded with an upgrade onto the Tier 2 Watch List from their prior position on Tier 3.

Differing from past TIP Reports, which have broadly focused on transnational human trafficking and the forced movement of people from one country to another, the 2019 TIP Report intentionally focuses on trafficking that remains within the borders of a single country.  The Report explains that it is always “easier to look outward and call on other governments to act; it takes much more resolution and political will for governments to look inward and stop traffickers, including their own citizens, from exploiting victims who have not crossed an international border.”  The Report cites findings that “the clear majority of traffickers were citizens of the countries where they were convicted” and that “traffickers exploit 77 percent of all victims in the victims’ countries of residence,” while acknowledging that victims of sex trafficking are more likely to face transnational human trafficking than are victims of forced labor.

This focus on internal trafficking supports Shared Hope’s strategic priority on policy efforts to counter domestic minor sex trafficking within the United States since 2005.  Although human trafficking is unquestionably a global issue, and Shared Hope has continued to support efforts in many countries outside of the U.S., we chose to target the trafficking of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on U.S. soil in an effort to make critical policy and services changes within our own country (estimates place the number of current trafficking victims within the United States at over 400,0001). Our vision is to coordinate a national network of protection services to improve the quality of response available to sex trafficking victims while also bringing justice through criminal enforcement, deterrence of demand, and survivor involvement in the effort to end sex trafficking.  Shared Hope also conducts trafficking-related research and publishes resources to aid federal and state legislators in drafting victim-centered legislation.  See the Resources page for more information: https://sharedhope.org/resources/.

The United States has ranked itself as Tier 1 each year since its first inclusion in the TIP Report in 2010; receiving a Tier 1 ranking, however, “does not mean that a country has no human trafficking problem or that it is doing enough to address the problem.”  While the TIP Report acknowledges the efforts made to-date by lawmakers, law enforcement, and service providers in combatting human trafficking locally, it also acknowledges there is still much work to be done.  The Report urges that “officials across government should work to challenge stereotypes of a typical victim of human trafficking.”  For example, the United States must continue to increase appropriate training and clarity provided to law enforcement and prosecutors in cases in which human trafficking victims are compelled by their trafficker to commit illegal offenses (“victim-offender intersectionality”).  “Forced criminality takes the form of begging, prostitution, cannabis cultivation, and theft, among others.  An untrained law enforcement officer or benefits adjudicator may not realize an individual is a victim of human trafficking before making an arrest or a decision on available benefits. These assumptions can also make victims more reluctant to seek help.  Proactive efforts to recognize and mitigate these assumptions are therefore critical.”

Below is a summary of countries whose Tier status in the 2019 TIP Report changed from 2018.  To read the entire TIP Report, visit the State Department website: https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-trafficking-in-persons-report/


Moves Up (24 countries)

 From Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 2
Chad
Eswatini
Guatemala
Guinea
Haiti
Hong Kong
Kuwait
Macau
Madagascar
Mali
Mongolia
Niger
Nigeria
Senegal
Seychelles
Suriname
Tajikistan
Togo
Zimbabwe
St. Maarten* (*last year was a “Special Case” due to damage caused by Hurricane Irma) 

From Tier 3 to Tier 2 Watch List
Belize
Bolivia
Gabon
Laos 

Moves Down (25 countries)

From Tier 1 to Tier 2
Aruba
Denmark
Germany
Italy
Poland
Slovakia 

From Tier 2 to Tier 2 Watch List
Afghanistan
Azerbaijan
Barbados
Brunei
Cambodia
Congo, Republic of the
Curaçao
Kazakhstan
Lesotho
Malawi
Marshall Islands
Romania
Sri Lanka
Tanzania
Vietnam 

From Tier 2 Watch List to Tier 3
Bhutan
Cuba
The Gambia
Saudi Arabia

Sources

1 https://www.globalslaveryindex.org/2018/findings/country-studies/united-states/

May 22, 2019 by Guest

Now I Have a Way to Help

By: Ambassador Bridget Crawford

You ever had a little person, maybe your own child pulling on your clothing in an attempt to get your attention? Or maybe they put their small innocent hand inside of yours, prompting you to follow? That familiar tug is what I felt when I began to hear about the reality of sex trafficking. My heart was being tugged. I was captivated by the gruesome reality that young adults and vulnerable children were being forced to have sex, at the expense of someone else’s greed and lust. I was angry. I was appalled. I was devastated. I knew we lived in an evil world, but this hit me differently. I listened to stories of survivors, and it broke my heart. To hear their pain, to listen to what they were subjected to, was not okay, at all. No one should be subjected to that kind of life. That’s abuse.

My sister once said to me “for someone to traffic someone, they have to view them as less valuable than themselves.” Those words never left my heart. One of the quickest ways to anger me is to see someone devalued, treated as less than.

Sex is a precious gift given by God, to be shared between husband and wife. No one should have that gift taken from them, or used for someone else’s selfish pleasure. The victims are precious to me. The survivors are precious to me, and I thank my friend, Sara Jones for telling me about Shared Hope. It is an amazing organization, and now, I have a way to help. Now,  I have a way to help combat this issue. Now, I have a way to fight!

If you have been wanting to do something about this issue, but just haven’t figured out where to get started and how to get started, Shared Hope is an awesome place to start. You won’t be alone in the fight.

Become an Ambassador of Hope.

Contact your legislators.

Donate to Shared Hope.

Download Shared Hope’s Internet Safety Toolkit.

March 13, 2019 by Guest

Child Victims of Sex Trafficking Receive Mixed Messages: If We Aren’t ‘Aggressors’ Then Why are We Arrested?

In February, Kansas Judge Michael Gibbens came under fire in national news for claiming that two girls, ages 13 and 14, acted as “aggressors” in a situation of exploitation in which a 67-year-old male, Eugene Soden, paid them to have sex. While public reaction to Gibbens ruling was appropriately harsh, the reality is that his decision is reflective of a much larger societal and legal paradox.

Informing his ruling, Gibbens made multiple statements that less harm was done to the girls because he felt they had acted “voluntarily” and were paid. In speaking of the 13-year-old, Gibbens questioned:

“So, she’s uncomfortable for something that she voluntarily went to, voluntarily took her top off for, and was paid for?”

“I wonder, what kind of trauma there really was to this victim under those peculiar circumstances?”

As a society, we must ask, why did money sanitize what, in any other circumstance, would be considered child rape? And more concerning, how did the exchange of money shift the narrative so dramatically so as to characterize children as aggressors in the crime of which they were victims?

The answers lie in the paradox in which victims of child sex trafficking are legally apprehended and consequently, socially stigmatized.  Twenty-five states, including Kansas, still allow commercially sexually exploited minors to be charged and prosecuted for prostitution and human trafficking offenses despite federal and state laws that recognize these same minors as victims of child sex trafficking. This paradox still exists despite an increase in awareness, and specific laws to protect children from such offenses over the last couple of decades.

As recently as 2018, Shared Hope International scored Kansas an “A” for having strong laws to address child sex trafficking. Yet, even within a state that has received an “A” rating, more than 79 minor human trafficking victims between 2013 and 2018 were detained in a juvenile detention center, sentenced to an average of 33 days. Criminalizing youth who have experienced the horrors of commercial sexual exploitation, and oftentimes survived traumatic experiences that predate the exploitation, is not only the gravest of injustices but also prevents survivors from receiving critical services and ongoing, specialized care.

Laws, and the manner in which they are applied, should reflect a community’s attitudes and beliefs.

The law in Kansas fixes the age of consent at 16 in apparent recognition that sexual contact between an adult and a minor is not consensual. Despite this long-standing law and an increased understanding of the damaging effects of sexual violence, victim-blaming toward sex trafficking survivors remains. Gibbens’ comments towards the children in this case, reflect a culture that seeks to diminish or justify the harm of buyers and abusers by placing responsibility within the victims. The reactions of citizens, in which nearly half of the comments on social media placed blame on the minors and used terms such as “delinquent,” “out of control,” “promiscuous,” “prostitute,” and “choice” illuminate the reality of this disconnect. Illustrating this further, in response to Gibbens’ ruling, Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt proposed a new law that would prevent judges from reducing sentences for adult sex offenders because a child was labeled the “aggressor.” Kansas lawmakers rejected the bill.

Thus, amidst anti-trafficking awareness campaigns and fancy fundraisers, as Kansans we must ask ourselves: How do we really view individuals who have been victimized by and survived human trafficking? If we truly care, how do we shift our culture to recognize all survivors of sexual violence, including child sex trafficking, as unequivocally blameless in the conduct that constitutes their very victimization? How do we ensure that individuals victimized are afforded services, protection, and responses free of judgement and injustice, while simultaneously developing modes of accountability for offenders?

We must put an end to the paradigms, practices, and policies that allow survivors to be criminalized for surviving their victimization while perpetrators get a pass. Instead, we must believe the experiences of child victims of commercial sexual exploitation, and hold forth the truth of their innocence.  We must protect survivors and provide access to holistic services. We must demand justice.

For more information, please visit the Center for Combating Human Trafficking (CCHT) and Shared Hope International.

About the Authors:

Linda Smith served as state legislator and Member of Congress from Washington (1983-1998). She founded Shared Hope in 1998.

Dr. Karen Countryman-Roswurm is the Founding Executive Director of the Center for Combating Human Trafficking (CCHT) as well as an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at Wichita State University. Grounded in her own life experiences of overcoming streets and systems, Dr. Roswurm has over two decades of personal, professional practice, and community-based research expertise in the Anti-Trafficking Movement.

 

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