Grooming

When a person manipulates you against your trust it’s called grooming. And grooming can happen to anyone but it does not happen overnight and by the time you realize something is wrong you feel like you can’t stop it. The stories about coaches or church leaders or anyone else can happen. In the beginning, grooming just looks like friendship because praise, attention, and even some affection can feel harmless at first. No matter how much power someone has or you might think what happens when you say no if they make you feel uncomfortable, they are in the wrong. Even if it has gone a long time and you gonna long along with them, you can still speak up for yourself, getaway, or get help if you see or experience abuse.

We find the best way to process through the shame and to heal from the abuse and grooming is to find a therapist who can help. We also find groups to be really, really healing because often we think we’re the only ones, it was our fault, we brought it on ourselves. But to hear other people sharing their stories and experience, can be really healing because we realize that we’re not alone that it’s not our fault.