The Healing Power of Safe Touch for CSE Survivors

Nurturing the Body, Restoring Trust, and Empowering Survivor Resilience

For survivors of CSE, touch can be an incredibly complex and challenging aspect of their journey towards healing. The deep-rooted trauma from past experiences can manifest as an overwhelming fear that touch is dangerous, causing survivors to instinctively flinch, withdraw, or recoil from physical contact, even when the longing for safe and nurturing touch remains.

At the Organization for Prostitution Survivors (OPS), we understand these intricacies and offer a powerful tool for healing: "safe touch."

Our Movement & Mindfulness sessions creates a space where survivors can explore safe touch in a supportive and empowering environment. We provide "consent cards" during our group sessions, allowing participants to decide whether they prefer hands-on or no physical contact from the guide. This option has proven to be particularly beneficial for survivors who have endured coercive or manipulative touch in the past.

Within these sessions, trauma survivors have the opportunity to gradually reacquaint themselves with touch and rebuild trust in their bodies. The experiences can be truly transformative, offering opportunities for survivors to create new and positive memories, ultimately overriding the negative experiences of their past.

One courageous participant shared her poignant journey towards healing through safe touch. Having battled the trauma of "unsafe manipulative non-consensual touch" since her childhood, as a survivor of ritual abuse, she found immense healing through working with safe touch. Today, she attests to the possibility of experiencing touch in a positive and affirming way.

At OPS, we firmly believe in the power of Integrated Movement Therapy (IMT) to forge positive, long-lasting changes in both the body and mind. Through guided movement exercises and breathwork, we help survivors ground themselves and foster inner peace, creating stability that proves invaluable for those dealing with anxiety, triggers, or panic attacks.

We understand the unique challenges that touch can present for survivors of trauma. Therefore, by offering safe touch options within our programs, we provide survivors with the opportunity to develop new, empowering memories and experiences that contribute significantly to their ongoing healing and recovery.

Join us at OPS for our enriching Movement & Mindfulness sessions, held at 112 SW 157th St, Burien, WA, 98166. Every Tuesday from 1-2 pm, we welcome survivors of commercial sexual exploitation with open arms, offering drop-in hours designed to nurture healing and empowerment.

At OPS, we wholeheartedly believe in the resilience of survivors and are dedicated to ending all forms of gender-based violence. Together, we can create a future where safe touch is a reality for all survivors, where healing and recovery flourish, and where empowerment and resilience triumph over trauma.