You have made it to the last lesson! We hope that as you have been following each of our lesson plans, you have learned the symptoms of child abuse and neglect, the potential effects on the body and mind, the understanding of how it can affect adulthood, and the coping strategies to living a resilient life. It is time to learn about the most important part of the healing process; where to ask for help and how you can learn to help yourself.
For many of us that have been through abuse in our childhood, because of our vulnerability, it can be hard to ask for help. Many of us believe that we can get through our struggles alone, and that has never been the case. It could be something so minor, or something so traumatic; you will always be able to find trained professionals that are here and willing to help with any situation throughout your life (Levoy, 2016).
Benefits of Online Organizations
There is a great organization called HAVOCA (Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse). There you can find many resources that will help you begin to heal from a traumatic past. Within this site there are links to finding a therapist, a support group, or even just a simple survey that you can take in order to help them collect child abuse statistics. We would highly recommend taking a look at this site to see what it has to offer you. Below we will attach a list of other websites specifically tailored to those who have been abused and neglected.
1. Adult Survivors of Child Abuse-http://www.ascasupport.org/
2. American Psychological Association- https://www.apa.org/
3. National Sexual Violence Resource Center- https://www.nsvrc.org/
4. Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network- http://www.rainn.org/
5. Sidran Institute- http://www.sidran.org/
6. The Blue Ribbon Project- https://blueribbonproject.org/
7. HAVOCA (Help for Adult Victims of Child Abuse)- https://www.havoca.org/
Where Else Can We Find Help?
There are many other sources of help outside of the internet. It is easy to google therapists and psychologists in your area, and that is likely the most effective help you can get. We understand that sometimes receiving therapy is not an option for everyone. If that is the case for you, simply reach out to a trusted friend or family member that you feel you can talk to.
Finding a trusted adult you can talk to can still be a great help in the healing process. It allows you to talk about the things you have been through and express how you have felt since then. Opening up and being honest about your true feelings can allow you to feel like a burden has been lifted from you. By talking about your childhood abuse experiences, you allow room for coping and beginning a resilient life.
Finding Different Outlets
There are many different things you can do to release the emotions that have been bottled up for years. Finding different outlets is extremely important because going to therapy or talking to trusted friends and family is just the beginning of your healing process. It is imperative that you find things to continue to help you express how you are feeling in a healthy way. Below we will go into some different outlets that have been proven successful. We have tried many of these outlets and they have really helped us cope with what happened in our lives.
Yoga
Yoga is a great outlet, and it is very easily accessible. You can either take classes in person, or simply download an app onto your phone do it right there in your home. Here is a graph on the benefits of yoga and what it can do for you. As you can see, there are many benefits to yoga and the mind. In this chart it shows significant improvement in concentration, mental clarity, emotional balance, energy level, productivity, inner peace, and self-confidence.
(http://www.ishayoga.org/program/nepal/benefits-yoga) site for the chart
Here is a short list of some Yoga apps that are available for download: *Subscriptions may apply*
Daily Yoga - Workout & Fitness
Yoga for Beginners - Mind+Body
Yoga - Down Dog
Lotus - Yoga and Workout
Gio - Yoga and Meditation
YouTube is another free and great source
Writing/Journaling
Writing or journaling is another outlet that has proven successful. Simply get a piece of paper and start writing what you are feeling. No one has to read it and it doesn’t even have to make sense. Just simply get your emotions out on paper! This is free and easy therapy for those that either cannot afford to talk to someone, or even someone who simply doesn’t want to talk to someone yet because they are too embarrassed or ashamed.
Hobbies
It is always important to have hobbies to help ease your feelings and get some of your emotions out as well. There are many clubs that you can join that play games such as soccer, football, swimming, tennis, and basketball. If you want to have a hobby that doesn’t involve a ball, there are other options. You can hike, read, write, or even cook! All of these allow you to invest your time, emotions, and creativity into something.
(https://askdrnandi.com/benefits-of-hobbies/) cite for picture
Meditation
This is something that is very easy, very cheap, and is also available for download onto your phone. Meditation is often what therapists and psychologists recommend when treating people with a wide variety of disorders. Meditation reduces stress, controls anxiety, promotes emotional health, enhances self-awareness, lengthens attention span, may reduce age-related memory loss, can generate kindness, may help fight addictions, improves sleep, helps control pain, and it can decrease blood pressure (Thorpe, 2017). Yogacan also be done anywhere! As you can see, there are many benefits of meditation, even outside of your journey to healing. Just like yoga, there are many different apps you can download that provide meditation sessions to listen to.
Here is a short list of some meditation apps available for download: *Subscriptions may apply*
Headspace: Meditation & Sleep
Simple Habit Daily Meditation
Insight Timer - Meditation App
Oak-Meditation & Breathing
Meditation and Relaxation
Work Out
Our last outlet we will talk about is working out. Working out can not only help clear your mind, but it can improve mental health and increase self-confidence. Hobbies and yoga are both different types of workouts, yes, but we are talking like lifting weights and doing cardio.
Through gym workouts you can clear your head by just throwing in some headphones and releasing some endorphins. Working out can make you feel happier, help with weight loss, is good for your muscles and bones, can increase your energy levels, can reduce your risk of chronic disease, can help your skin, helps your brain health, helps with relaxation and sleep quality, and it can reduce pain. (Semeco, 2017).
Take Action
Our take action for this final lesson plan is to watch our video that we have created for you and to go ahead and fill out our survey, we will attach our link below. We sincerely would like to thank all of you for the time you have all taken to read through our lesson plans. This website was designed for those who are victims of any type of abuse or those who know someone who has been through abuse. We hope that by having read our lesson plans, you are able to begin coping in a healthy way and getting the help you deserve.
This is our link to our survey questions! Please be sure to fill out our 3-minute survey. It would really help us out a ton to get your feedback!
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