There's been a nationwide increase the last couple of weeks in survivors of sexual assault seeking some type of crisis counseling. The Ford-Kavanaugh testimony, senate hearings, and tomorrow's confirmation vote have triggered a lot of survivors into reliving their own assaults. KNAU's Gillian Ferris spoke with victim-witness advocates Hollie Vargas and Kristen Ribich about the experience of being re-traumatized, and victim resources available in northern Arizona.
HV: My name is Hollie Vargas, and I am the Sexual Violence Victim Advocate at Victim Witness Services for Coconino County.
KR: My name’s Kristen Ribich. I run Victim Witness Services satellite office on NAU campus, and I am also the Victim Witness Advocate at that office.
GF: Since the Kavanaugh accusations, senate testimony, and now confirmation process, you’ve been seeing more people coming in for crisis counseling.
KR: I think a big piece of it is just the fact that there’s so much saturation on social media, on general media, the radio, the TV. It’s really hard for people who have had traumatic experiences – specifically surrounding sexual violence – to escape and be able to take care of themselves. I think we saw this a little bit during the beginnings of the Me Too Movement, and this has sort of continued to ramp things up, especially with some of the extreme reactions that we’ve seen to all of the things that are going on in the media.
GF: Can we talk a little bit about what happens to the brain when trauma occurs? Hollie, maybe you can address that.
HV: So, our brain will switch mode from the normal part of our brain where we make decisions into a survival mode. And that’s kind of where we hear these terms “fight”, “flight”, or “freeze”. And during that survival mode, our brain is not recording the same way. It’s kind of like our VCR is shut down for a second. If you can picture a box full of puzzle pieces, like 400 puzzle pieces, and I just throw those pieces on the ground, and tell you to put the puzzle together, but I throw away the box. And so you’re trying to piece these things together slowly – and it might all come together – but it does take a while for those memories to come back.
GF: Through this testimony and confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh, there’s been a lot of banter back and forth on social media especially, about, well…you should have reported it. Why don’t people report sexual assaults?
KR: There’s no guaranteed outcome when you report a sexual assault. There’s no guarantee how you’ll be treated through the process, how other people will react to you, and it can be a very lengthy process. And also, you’re being asked very detailed questions, very specific questions, and that can be re-traumatizing for a lot of people.
HV: I’m finding this more lately, but I have people who don’t want to tag this word “rape” or “sexual assault” onto what happened to them. Like, them saying it out loud is this really intense experience for them, you know. And as I’m talking to them about what happened, and explaining to them how the law defines this and it sounds like this is what happened to you, they’re hesitant to say, ‘I was sexually assaulted’.
GF: Because those words make it real?
HV and KR: Yes. Yep. Exactly.
GF: Some of the clients that you’re seeing…what have they come to you saying that they’re having trouble with? Are they having trouble sleeping? Do they feel unsafe? What are the symptoms of this kind of trauma and this kind of trigger?
KR: I think all of the above. And I think it’s pretty normal when somebody is triggered after a traumatic experience to have nightmares, to have trouble sleeping, to have a lot of difficulty focusing and going about, kind of, their normal day-to-day routine. You know, I think it’s pretty understandable that so much conversation surrounding sexual violence and sexual assault, especially it’s sort of ever-presence at the moment, would be very triggering to a lot of people.
GF: No matter what happens with this senate vote, what is available to people in the community of northern Arizona to get counseling, to get help if they need to? Kristen?
KR: We are absolutely available for all of Coconino County. We are available 24/7 by phone or in person if you’re in the greater Flagstaff area. I definitely encourage folks to reach out if they’re feeling like they need to talk, or if they’re just looking for resources. They don’t really have to tell us a lot of the details about why they’re looking for support services. They can just say that they’re looking for some support, and we can connect them with that.
HV: A big part of our job is empowering them with the decision making part of it because when something like a sexual assault has happened to somebody, they feel a loss of control. So we’re trying to give some of that control back to them and make sure that we’re allowing them to make the decisions: if they want to report, if they want to get a forensic exam, if they want to get some sort of Order of Protection, we give them those options, we explain them, and let them make the decision.
Victim resources in Coconino County:
24/7 Hotline: 928-679-7770
24/7 Free Crisis Text Line: text 'home' to '741741'
North Country Health Care Sexual Survivors Support Group Meetings: Information at 928-522-9460
Trauma-Sensitive Yoga Classes: For infomation, call 928-679-7770
Therapy Dog Support: Contact Hollie Vargas at 928-679-7777
National Sexual Assault Hotline: 800-656-4673
