Most of the kids try not to think about it and that's part of what creates their trauma
response is that the brain is trying to make them think about it but it hurts too much
and it's too painful and so they try to make those thoughts go away.
So part of the treatment that we do here is to do a narrative and the narrative is the
time when they talk about what happened to them and it's a very important and moving
part of the treatment because it allows them to get out what they've been afraid to think
about or afraid to talk about.
Sometimes things we experience in life make us feel like we have no voice and sometimes
children feel that way.
I can't tell anyone.
No one believes me.
When I did tell no one believed me and so it begins to silence that voice but when you
have the opportunity to know that someone hears you and they're listening and they believe
what I'm saying it gives power to your voice.
Past Place is a non-profit organization that coordinates the investigation and treatment
of the most serious cases of child abuse.
We're able to provide forensic interviews where a child has a safe place to share their
story of abuse, advocacy support so parents can have all the resources they need, medical
exams and therapy which ensures that kids can heal emotionally.
Past Place really just isn't here for the child, we're here for the whole family.
All we know is that the key to ensuring that a child is never abused again is to have a
supportive parent so our advocates really wrap their arms around that family so that
they can move forward and start picking up the pieces of their life.
In addition we provide training to professionals and the general public on child sexual abuse
prevention and how to recognize and respond to abuse when they see it and we're training
thousands of adults in our community.
Past Place embodies what we really look for in a partnership.
It enhances our ability to serve our community and what we've seen is it's an opportunity
to take a holistic approach.
It's not looking at just what happened criminally, it is looking at the whole family and trying
to bring some peace but also resolving the situation that has a criminal impact on it
so it creates an opportunity to do our work and then they bring a level of expertise that
really enhances our ability to better serve the most vulnerable.
What they leave with is like night and day.
Oh gosh, to see a child who comes in sometimes just with that fear interpretation and as
they begin to go through the process here, their posture is completely different.
Their parents posture is different.
It's as if fear interpretation has been replaced with hope which to me is a great demonstration
of what they have experienced here at Past Place.
When they're done with their treatment here what we do is we have a ceremony where they
shred that narrative and put some of the pieces of it into a balloon and we go outside and
we often have many of the staff there to support the kids, their families there and they release
that balloon with their narrative, with their trauma words in it.
It's symbolic for them to be able to say, this is done and I don't have to carry this
with me anymore.
And I always tell the kids that they'll never forget what happened to them.
They will always remember, but it's not going to have that emotional power over them anymore.
We had a child one time say, as she let her balloon go, she said, thank you God for the
best year of my life.
And that was so touching, I think it was touching to all of us there because who would think
that a year of therapy would be the child's best year of their life, but to her it was
because it was so safe and healing for her.
