Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2791

Tonight's special guest is Emily Samuelson, Ph.D., from Baltimore, Maryland, a returning NAASCA family member and the Director of the 'Soaring Project.' A psychologist who specializes in treating trauma, she's also a survivor of incest in her childhood and has written a book about her experience, "Soaring Above the Ashes: Thriving After Childhood Sexual Abuse."  Emily was sexually abused as a child by her father, whom she adored. She explains, "Somewhere in my childhood, I boxed up the memories and lost my connection to the truth of what happened to me. It wasn't until I was 39 years old that my memories broke through. "This was after a betrayal when my daughter was 5 weeks old, and separation and eventual divorce 6 months later; a breast cancer scare; a job where I was a scapegoat; and news that my mother had two different kinds of cancer. That's what it took to break me open." She goes on, "I got PTSD and lived in a nightmare of flashbacks for many months. I worked on healing for the next 20 years." Her book, "Soaring Above the Ashes," has stories of women and men survivors from face-to-face interviews all over the country. Each story has a black and white portrait. They are proud faces, free of shame. Each face says, “Look me in the eye. It happened, but it didn't break me.” Emily shares, "The story of my healing journey is woven between the chapters. Although I am now thriving, I continue to work on becoming more whole, my deepest wish." She's a passionate activist on behalf of sexually abused children and adult survivors. Emily knows it is possible to heal.