Support For Supporters of Victims/Survivors

Supporters are very important for victims/survivors and our recovery. They validate, sometimes in a very alienating world, and provide emotional, spiritual, financial, physical (in times of sickness or need of housing), informational, educational, legal, etc support. Supporters are anyone who dirrcly supports the victim/survivor in any of the ways mentioned above, including survivors of other abuse eg sexual assault survivors, counsellors, friends, non offending family, workers such as within the media or police, etc.

The important consideration for supporters and victim/survivors is that both people are striving for an independent and a self empowered life. Think of ways that provide support and not dependence.

There are no specific resources that I know of for supporters of AGMC. The best recommendation is to follow the same paths as victims/survivors and talk to counselling centres such as sexual assault for guidance in being a supporter. Counsellors will talk with friends and non offending family of survivors. These can be the counsellor of the survivor you are supporting or another. For details of counselling centres please therefore see the Survivors Support Page.

The Internet and Literature provide a lot of general information from survivors and supporters perspectives. Please see the Literature and Internet Information webpage

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The next best are Ritual Abuse books and webpages written for supporters, particularly counsellors and can be very helpful. They address programming and organised crime especially. Three well used ones are:

Satanic Ritual Abuse: A Therapist's Handbook by Dee Brown. This is a warm, encouraging introduction to the treatment of adult survivors written for therapists beginning work in this area.

Ritual Child Abuse Discovery, Diagnosis and Treatment by Pamela Hudson.This is a survey of symptoms of child survivors of extra-familial ritual abuse and a discussion of therapy with both agitated and 'frozen' children. Kind, respectful, and well written.

Breaking the Circle of Ritual Abuse by Daniel Ryder gives a survivors perspective and has many non survivor concerned perspectives including the media, counselling, police, community workers, etc.

All of these books can be ordered through Amazon.com

Webpages such as The Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime and Healing Page has information for the non survivor. This webpage has telephone training guidelines to assist counsellors talking to survivors.

For friends and non offending family, all the literature is helpful for loved ones. You need simply to understand what is going on for a survivor, and incorporate this within the general ways someone supports someone else. Allies in Healing: When the Person You Love Was Sexually Abused as a Child by Laura Davis is a very good as a specific guide to supporting someone who has been traumatised. Laura's book can be obtained at any good bookstore or through ordering at Amazon.com.

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