Survivors Are Speaking, Are We Listening?

September 10, 2025

Last week, 10 women, all survivors of sexual abuse, stood before a world-wide audience with cameras rolling and microphones on to tell their stories of being groomed, manipulated, and sexually abused as girls and young women. Each of these 10 women have traveled their own journey of pain over the past decades, likely never imagining that they would share the humiliating story of being coerced to engage in sexual acts with adults, mostly men, 2, 3, or even 4 times their age.

Can we hear what they’re saying? Can we gather a small measure of their courage to listen to their words, allow the picture in our minds of a young girl’s innocence being stolen day by day? These are things we don’t want to think about, much less know about. It’s so easy to discount their truth, to find reasons that their words must not be true. Why did they wait so long to speak up? They all look fine now. Why didn’t they just leave?

There are countless reasons that most sexual abuse survivors wait many years to disclose their abuse, if at all. One of the most common reasons survivors to not tell of their abuse is the fear that they won’t be believed. Because sexual abuse most often occurs behind closed doors, there are no witnesses to the act. Are we now willing to bear witness as survivors speak their painful truth?

There are numerous very significant reasons that it’s critically important to listen to and believe survivors, standing up for fundamental human dignity, possibly being the most important. I also believe that daring to truly hear survivors’ stories is the most potent tool we have to end the extraordinary prevalence of sexual abuse. Sexual abuse thrives in a culture of secrecy and silence. In essence, our silence, our unwillingness to hear these stories, allows sexual abuse to continue. This is most certainly true for children and young people who have been sexually abused who have no voice to speak up.

I would love to believe that our culture is at a crossroads – that this is our awakening - to know that each of us can be a part of bringing the truth and reality of sexual abuse out into the daylight. That our awakening, our courage in listening, hearing, and deeply caring about survivors, will mark the ending of the proliferation of sexual abuse. What I do know, without a doubt, is that each of us can determine within ourselves to be a part of the solution. Now is the time, take a deep breath, allow yourself to see the suffering of survivors, take the time to listen, hear, and believe survivors’ words, and know that you are doing your part to end the silence and eventually to bring an end to the tragic and life-changing  pain of sexual abuse.

Janice Palm, LMHC, Executive Director

Subscribe