U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government, Department of Justice.

NCJRS Virtual Library

The Virtual Library houses over 235,000 criminal justice resources, including all known OJP works.
Click here to search the NCJRS Virtual Library

Transgender Sexual Violence Survivors: A Self Help Guide to Healing and Understanding

NCJ Number
249882
Date Published
September 2015
Length
132 pages
Annotation
This self-help guide for transgender survivors of sexual violence addresses the complexities facing these survivors as they attempt to manage the feelings and memories caused by the assault and also attempt to cope with how issues related to their gender identity interact with and complicate their recovery.
Abstract
This self-help guide is for transgender or gender non-conforming individuals who have experienced sexual assault, sexual coercion, sexual threats, unwanted sexual or other physical touch, sexual violence within a dating or intimate relationship, or sex with an older person who should have known the survivor was too young to understand all the implications of sexual behavior. This guide has six main sections. The introduction explains how and why the guide was developed, what it contains, and how to use it. The section on trauma and its aftermath discusses what occurs to survivors' brains at the moment of trauma and why trauma memories and reactions are so different from other life experiences. Many of the long-term effects of trauma are explained. The third section reviews what FORGE, the Transgender Sexual Violence Project, and others have learned about transgender sexual assault survivors over the past decade and reviews popular myths about sexual assault. The fourth section focuses on options for healing, addressing talk therapy, medications, body-based therapies, movement-based therapies, other "alternative" therapies, faith-based assistance, and peer-to-peer help. The fifth section describes self-help exercises and reviews essays that can be used to promote survivors' well-being. The concluding section consists of appendices that profile additional resources, including guidance on what to do if the assault recently occurred; the features of a new Federal law that should improve the availability and quality of services offered to trans-sexual assault survivors; and information for those who may be in current relationships that are unsafe.