Sexual Assault Recovery services assist adults whose lives have been affected
by sexual assault.
What is sexual assault?
Sexual assault is any sexual activity forced upon a person without her or his consent.
Sexual assault is alos any sexual activity between an adult and a child. Force is
sometimes physical force or violence or the threat of violence, but force is also coercion,
intimidation, bribery, and exploitation of power differentials (as between an adult
and child, boss and an employee, a professor and a student). Consent to sexual
activity can only be given when there is equal power between two people. Just knowing
one another does not imply consent. People are sexually assaulted by dating partners,
spouses, friends, parents, as well as strangers.
Who is affected by sexual assault?
Sexual assault affects everyone. It cuts across all party of society and doesn't
discriminate based upon age, ethnicity, class, religion, or regional geography.
Research suggest that 1 in 4 women and 1 in 7 men will be sexually assaulted at some
point in their lifetime, either as a child or as an adult. Regardless of the age at which
someone is assaulted, the effects can be profound. Family and friends are also affected
when someone they love is a survivor of sexual assault.
Reading Resources
Recovering from Rape, Linda Ledray
Quest for Respect, Linda Braswell
If You are Raped, Eliana Gil
If She is Raped, Alan McEvay and Jeff Brooking
I Never Called it Rape, Robin Warshaw
The Courage to Heal, Ellen Bass and Laura Davis
Victims No Longer, Mile Lew (male survivors)
Outgrowing the Pain, Eliana Gil
Recovery
Sexual assault causes emotional injuries that can last long after the physical effects
have healed. Whether someone has recently been raped, recently recalled being
sexually abused as a child, or had known about her/his sexual assault for some time,
the trauma of sexual assault leads to many different thoughts and feelings. These are normal reactions to the profoundly abnormal experience of being
sexually victimized. Reactions may include: Feelings of numbness, shame, confusion,
guilt, self-blame, being dirty or damaged, powerless, fearfulness, anger or the inability to
be angry, difficulties trusting people, and difficulties with sexual intimacy. These and
other reactions can disrupt aspects of survivors' lives. Recovery is not an easy process,
but it can be achieved with support and counseling. Please remember it can, over time,
get better.
Friends of the Family provides at no cost:
Professional Individual Counseling for:
-Adult sexual assault survivors
-Adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse
-Significant others and family members of sexual assault survivors
Professional and peer support groups
Hospital and legal accompaniment
Protective shelter
Legal advocacy
Parenting classes and support groups
Information, referrals, and consultation related to sexual assault
Please contact Friends of the Family if you, or someone you know, has been affected by sexual assault.
1. Call DCFOF 940.387.5131 to make an appointment with a counselor.
2. Attend support group.
3. After support group, some clients may enter individual counseling.
