A Pilot Study on Contextualizing Sexual Trauma Healing Strategies: Implications for Clinicians

Individuals from minoritized communities face a higher risk of sexual violence; however, they have fewer opportunities to access recovery services and resources. Understanding the processes of trauma recovery by identifying strategies that helped survivors in their journey is essential for clinicians to provide proper care to clients reporting similar traumatic experiences. In this pilot study, we explored the process of healing from sexual trauma by conducting two rounds of semi-structured in-depth interviews with six survivors from disability, gender, sexuality, and racially minoritized communities, offering insights into transferable healing strategies to support both survivors and those providing care. The transcribed data were coded and analyzed using NVivo to identify categories and subcategories informing the process of healing sexual trauma. Results showed that survivors' journey of healing was influenced by survivors' experiences of navigating sociocultural contexts and socializations, disclosure, trauma responses, and moments of relief. The processes that connected social-contextual factors and power and privilege with survivors' healing responses contributing to moments of relief were identified as notable factors that provided a positive shift in the participants' recovery journey. Due to the small sample size, the results of this study limit transferability of participants' experiences; however, they can be used as an initial finding for other large‑scale research aimed at exploring experiences of healing from sexual trauma. This article highlights considerations for clinical practice.