The encouragement and dynamic found in a Peer Support group meeting can be life changing.
Men with shared experience of sexual trauma meet in a climate of complete acceptance and mutual understanding. There is solidarity, respect and healing to be found there. Some of Mosaic-Tiaki Tangata's clients share their experience here. Names have been removed to respect confidentiality.
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MOSAIC has been an indispensable resource for me at a time of great confusion and pain. Being able to meet other guys with similar stories has helped me more than anything else on my journey to recovery.
The MOSAIC team have been endlessly supportive and have a great wealth of knowledge that they put to great use in helping survivors like me. Knowing that there's always a safe haven to come to on Thursday nights has been a real blessing and has helped me feel less alone.
More and more men are coming out with their stories and beginning the road to healing and I know that it's in large part thanks to the existence of services like MOSAIC that they feel safe to do so.
They have given me hope for the future when I was desperate and they deserve all the funding they need because it is only through sensitive and responsive services for victims and survivors, ones willing to give them a voice and a safe place to heal, that real change can be made in our society with regards to ending the scourge of child sexual abuse.
Understanding that there are many guys who have suffered the same abusive behaviour as children, we are now able to appreciate that we are not alone with our history.
Many of us share the same effects, so as a group, we are able to provide useful and meaningful solutions to problems that we previously battled with alone.
I was in a deep hole trying to get out of it till I went to the support group they a like a ladder I am slowly climbing out of with their help I find it’s a great help they are doing for each of us so if anyone that got abused you a all welcome to come and see I know its helped me a lot and still is if we didn’t have a support group we would all be in hole trying to climb out of it bye for now.
The group is a good opportunity to talk/hear/explore issues with other male survivors of sexual abuse. We work at creating an accepting, supportive and positive atmosphere. Each meeting follows an easy format, with a previously agreed theme for discussion.
I realise that I am not alone. All this helps give energy to pursue my own growth journey and to deal with/explore any consequences for me of the perpetrators abuse. I am noticing an increase in self-confidence and strength within myself.
I was in a deep lonely black hole and could not see any purpose in life nor any future for me! I was all alone. No one cared about me! I was considering ending all my pain and suffering, I couldn’t go on. Meeting with other survivors is helping me out of that dark place and recover some sanity.
I have found that I am not alone. I can talk with other male survivors who understand what it is like. They don’t judge me, they understand. I am learning that being with them and sharing is really helping me.
I got abused by 3 people in my life they was so close to me from sexual abuse to mental abuse for years I had carried around a mask to hide it from other people in my life and I was in a dark deep hole calling out for help but would people listen to my cries nope so I sat in this hole for years till I read in the paper about the support group so
I went to see what it was like and I found it so good and helpful the support group is like a extra part of the family they know what it is like to be abused they are like the family I never had so to all you people out their that had it happen to you please come along and see for yourself its helping me it will help you too, bye for now and take care.
Being able to share challenges and experiences with people who have been through similar problem situations and is an opportunity I have not had in the past. Finding that other men have had the same concerns, the same bad experiences and being able to discuss strategies for coping and healing has been a breath of fresh air.
Joining the MOSAIC peer support group has had a major effect on my ability to cope with the trauma & difficulties that have arisen out of dealing with the effects of childhood sexual abuse.
Although engaged in professional therapy prior to joining the MOSAIC support group (in which I was making good progress), I was still struggling to cope with some facets of life & interpersonal relationships, and I often felt very isolated and depressed despite having a loving family and supportive friends.
Since joining the peer support group, the opportunities to discuss experiences, strategies for coping and ways of healing, with men who have been through similar trauma has helped me on my journey dealing with sexual abuse. Being involved in the group is having positive effects on family, friendship & workplace interpersonal relationships and communication, with family and close friends commenting that I appear more confident & less depressed.
Childhood sexual abuse is a challenging, complex, painful issue to deal with & I recommend the MOSAIC support group as a valid healing strategy to men who are (or want to) deal with childhood sexual abuse, noting that the support group is particularly effective when combined with professional therapy with a registered clinical psychologist.
Joining the MOSAIC support group has been a very positive experience and has proved to be more valuable than I anticipated.