Sex-trafficking survivor counselling coming to Hamilton
Starting mid-February Hamilton's sexual assault centre will begin offering counselling specifically geared toward survivors of human trafficking - a growing need in the community to help survivors cope with trauma.
The sex-trafficking survivor counselling program, which launches Feb. 15, is for anyone - of any gender - who is 16 or older and who has left human trafficking at any point in their lives, said Miranda Jurilj, public education co-ordinator for the Sexual Assault Centre for Hamilton and Area (SACHA).
We know trauma doesn't end," she said, adding that this program is meant to be a safe place where someone will listen and believe survivors.
Survivors don't need to be referred by another agency, they don't need to have reported to police or pursued charges against their trafficker. A survivor may have recently left human trafficking, or it may be something they are only just coming to understand years later. There is no time limit, she said.
SACHA is part of the Hamilton Anti-Human-Trafficking Coalition. One of the topics they've talked about is the lack of supports for survivors outside of emergency or crisis scenarios when someone first escapes. That's where the idea for the counselling program comes from.
The sexual assault centre's other programs continue to be available for human-trafficking survivors, but Jurilj said there is a need to specifically address the pervasive and diverse impacts of human trafficking.
Survivors don't have to talk about what they experienced, if they don't want to, but they may want to talk about how it affects them now, their relationships, their perceptions of self-worth, she said.
We know the way it looks from every individual survivor is different ... the ways it affects everyone is not linear," Jurilj said, adding that a journey toward healing has many ups and downs, twists and turns.
The program, funded through the Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services, has a dedicated human-trafficking counsellor hired to work three days a week.
Starting Feb. 15, anyone interested can call SACHA or fill out a form on their website. To start, the counsellor will do an intake with survivors, explaining the program. If interested they can access 16 counselling sessions that are 50 minutes each.
Other sexual assault centres in Ontario have implemented similar programs.
Part of the anti-human-trafficking work done at SACHA also includes public education. All of their counselling and programs have a feminist, anti-racist and anti-oppression approach, she said.
Jurilj said it's important to note that SACHA takes a stance that sex work is distinct from human trafficking.
The really key part of human trafficking is that there is not consent," she said, adding that it can involve coercion, manipulation, control through threats of violence, isolation and blackmail.
Sex work is about consent, it is the choice of the person doing the work, who has weighed the pros and cons themselves and they receive the benefits of doing that work.
At it's core, all forms of sexual violence are connected to oppression, Jurilj said. There is a misconception that it's about sexual pleasure; it's actually about the perpetrator achieving power and control.
A powerful part of counselling" is working on the understanding that it was entirely the perpetrator who caused harm.
To learn more about sex-trafficking survivor counselling, visit sacha.ca/services/stsc. To reach SACHA's 24-7 support line, call 905-525-4162.
Nicole O'Reilly is a crime and justice reporter at The Spectator. noreilly@thespec.com