Welcome! My name is Sean White and I am a Health Educator at AVI Health and Community Services. I designed and will facilitate the Men's Sexual Trauma Support group with the help of my colleague Dar Debrecen, who is a Health Educator and Wellness Counsellor. If you have any questions before signing up, feel free to reach me at sean.white@avi.org
Who is this group for?
This group is for male-identified individuals aged 19+, who have experienced any kind of sexual trauma.
Sexual trauma can be defined as: an experience that negatively impacts the way you think and feel about sex and sexuality, which often leads to challenges in forming and maintaining healthy intimate relationships.
When and where is this happening?
The program consists of ten weekly sessions that are 90 minutes each, with a one week break halfway through. The program will take place at AVI Health and Community Services: 55 Victoria Road, Nanaimo.
We hope to run this program several times throughout the year. If the dates below don't work for your schedule, let us know you're interested by filling in the form or emailing sean.white@avi.org and we will make sure to email you the next time it's scheduled.
When is the next run of the program?
The program will hopefully run again in late June/early July depending on when we recieve enough applications (so apply ASAP. The group can't exist without you). Each weekly session will take place on Wednesday evenings from 7:00pm to 8:30pm at AVI Health and Community Services.
What will I learn or get from the program?
Get support from/make connections with other survivors.
Identify how the trauma has impacted you.
Learn tools to cope with your trauma.
Reconnect with your body and/or partner(s).
Begin or continue the process of healing and moving forward.
Get help coping with anxiety and depression.
Learn about boundaries, safety, and consent.
Access our free library of self-help books.
Recieve a comprehensive list of resources for further counselling and support.
Course Curriculum
Week 1: Awareness
Be introduced to the course and go over a list of the potential effects of trauma to help identify how you've been affected.
Week 2: Acceptance
Focus on accepting how you are in response to the traumatic event in order to move on to processing, healing, and changing.
Week 3: Coping with Triggers
Learn to recognize what situations or experiences might activate your fight-or-flight response and practice a variety of techniques and skills to calm your nervous system and regain control and stability.
Week 4: Body Awareness
Understand how and why the body responds to trauma and learn how to listen to your body, give it what it needs, and set healthy boundaries with others.
Week 5: Sex Positivity
Use meditation and visualization practices to associate positive thoughts and feelings with sex and intimacy.
ONE-WEEK BREAK
Week 6: Changing Harmful Beliefs
Recognize any negative or harmful beliefs you might have around sex and intimacy and use a variety of techniques to unlearn and change those beliefs.
Week 7: Reconnect with Self
Find new and enjoyable ways to reconnect with your body and your sexuality with an open, curious, and non-judgmental mindset.
Week 8: Reconnect with Others
Find new and enjoyable ways to reconnect with your partner(s) both sexually and non-sexually using communication and consent-based practices.
Week 9: Exploring Consent and Boundaries
Understand the importance of consent and boundary setting and learn concrete skills to communicate effectively, set and maintain boundaries, and recognize when boundaries are not being respected.
Week 10: Moving On
Go over a brief summary of the previous weeks, reflect on what you've learned and how you've changed, create a plan to incorporate some or all of the learned exercises into your daily life, participate in a letting-go ritual to bring a sense of closure.
Program Fee:
We want the Sexual Trauma Support Group for Men to be affordable and sustainable and so there are three payment options to choose from.
The Rebalancing Access is $60 and this is for those with more than enough financial resources and a desire to support access for others.
The Fair Access is $40 and is for those with sufficient financial resources who can pay fair value for the experience.
The Supported Access is $20 and is for those with currently limited financial resources who will benefit from access supplemented by the community.
Payment can be made with cash or by e-transfer (details will come in your confirmation email).
Interested in Counselling?
AVI has free one-on-one counselling available for members of the 2SLGBTQ+ community. If you're interested in accessing these services, you can fill in an intake form here: https://form.jotform.com/223628330066250 or reach out to our counsellor Dar Debrecen at dar.debrecen@avi.org by email or text at 1-250-818-5540