For Loved Ones

Watching a family member, friend, or partner experience a trauma is extremely difficult. You might feel angry, sad, or hopeless, and although you want to help, you may not be sure how. Your loved one may even be pushing you away or expressing anger towards you. Trauma can make it hard to accept help, and can lead to behavior that is confusing both to them and to you. Recovery is a difficult time for everybody involved.

If you have found yourself in this situation, we welcome you to the S2S Loved Ones section. We are here for family, chosen family, friends, and anybody who has a young survivor in their life. Our pages are labeled by types of loved ones. We invite you to explore and find yourself in any page that feels right for your relationship to a survivor.  Our team understands that sexual trauma has the ability to affect familial structures, friend groups, and interpersonal relationships, and we want to help guide you towards effective ways to help the survivor in your life. Loved ones are themselves secondhand victims of sexual violence, and we are here to help you, yourself, cope with the effects that their trauma may have on you. 

If you or your loved one is in crisis, or if you just need to speak to a trained, confidential adult, we encourage you to contact:

In the US:  The National Sexual Assault Hotline (open 24/7): 1-800-656-4673.

From Canada or the US: 1.888.407.4747