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Helping Female Survivors with Jessica Pride & Verna Griffin-Tabor · The Trauma Therapist

0:00
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Trauma Evers Podcast.
0:02
Speaker 2: My name is Gamiferson and I interview incredible people who
0:06
Speaker 2: share the story of how trauma has shaped their lives.
0:09
Speaker 2: And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes
0:11
Speaker 2: to my guest and our sponsors. So five four, three,
0:22
Speaker 2: two and one, our folks, welcome back to the Trauma
0:26
Speaker 2: divers podcast. Very excited to happens. My guest today, Jessica
0:29
Speaker 2: Pride and Verna Griffin Tibor, co founders of Sirona Healing Center.
0:35
Speaker 2: Welcome ladies, Thank you.
0:38
Speaker 3: Thank you so much for having us.
0:40
Speaker 2: All right, so, Jessica Pride co founder, first, let me
0:44
Speaker 2: say just give everyone a little background of Sirona, what
0:50
Speaker 2: Sarona is here and just re reading from your website here.
0:54
Speaker 2: Sona Healing Center is the first of its kind private
0:56
Speaker 2: pay service that supports sexual assault IPv survivors in their
1:03
Speaker 2: healing after their traumatic event and avails the opportunity for
1:07
Speaker 2: a nude life ahead. Jessica Pride, co founder, is a
1:11
Speaker 2: sexual assault attorney and managing partner of the Pride Law Firm,
1:14
Speaker 2: with over twenty years advocating for survivors of childhood sexual abuse,
1:18
Speaker 2: sexual assault, and workplace harassment. She's been named Consumer Advocate
1:24
Speaker 2: of the Year and secured the largest settlement in US
1:26
Speaker 2: history for incarcerated survivors at one hundred and seventeen million.
1:32
Speaker 2: Vernon Griffin Tabor co founder, has over forty years of
1:35
Speaker 2: experience addressing sexual assault and relationship violence, serving as CEO
1:39
Speaker 2: Center for Community Solutions. Under her leadership, c c AS
1:44
Speaker 2: achieved numerous milestones, including founding the nation's first woman center,
1:48
Speaker 2: operating California's first temporary restraining order clinic, and running San
1:52
Speaker 2: die San Diego's only ripe great Crisis Center. Ladies, my god,
1:59
Speaker 2: I mean you guys are on a mission. Seriously, those
2:05
Speaker 2: bios are on fire. Before we get into it, share
2:09
Speaker 2: with our listeners where you're from originally and where you
2:11
Speaker 2: are currently. Vernon, why don't you start?
2:14
Speaker 4: I am originally from Maryland and spent for like the
2:17
Speaker 4: last thirty years in San Diego. Right now, I'm going
2:20
Speaker 4: between Las Vegas and San Diego, Okay, Jessica.
2:26
Speaker 5: And I am originally from Orange County, California, and.
2:32
Speaker 3: I went to UCI ant Eater Dot.
2:35
Speaker 5: And then came down to San die I'm gonna go
2:38
Speaker 5: to law school here at USD.
2:40
Speaker 3: Met my husband who is a very rare breed.
2:43
Speaker 5: He's a native Sandyegon, and we decided to stay here,
2:47
Speaker 5: open up shop and this is home.
2:50
Speaker 1: Okay.
2:51
Speaker 2: So I am noticing a buzzing sound. I want to
2:55
Speaker 2: see Vernon. If you turn off your mic, what happens? Yeah?
3:02
Speaker 2: That worked, okay, So I'm going to ask you when
3:06
Speaker 2: you're not talking to just make up. All right, So
3:13
Speaker 2: let's dive into this. First of all, how did you
3:17
Speaker 2: both meet? Let's start there, Jessica, why don't you start?
3:22
Speaker 4: So?
3:23
Speaker 5: Yeah, I was a baby lawyer and I got my
3:28
Speaker 5: first sexual assault case and it was the first time
3:31
Speaker 5: in my career that it actually didn't feel like work.
3:34
Speaker 3: I was up in the middle of the night.
3:35
Speaker 5: It was, you know, trying to solve this case and
3:38
Speaker 5: trying to get this surriver justice. And one I'm still
3:42
Speaker 5: friends actually with that client to this day. And I thought,
3:47
Speaker 5: I want to help this community. I mean, one being
3:49
Speaker 5: a surviver myself, but like, how cool that I could
3:51
Speaker 5: use my legal skills to help survivors. So I went
3:54
Speaker 5: to volunteer at our local rate crisis center where a
3:58
Speaker 5: v was the Sea, completed the sixty hour training to
4:05
Speaker 5: help survivors, and I actually wanted to be the person
4:08
Speaker 5: like when either someone calls in crisis or if someone
4:12
Speaker 5: gets sexual assaulted and they have to go to start exam,
4:14
Speaker 5: I would be the person that would go and you know,
4:16
Speaker 5: hold their hand and explained what their rights were. And
4:19
Speaker 5: when I completed the training, he was like, wait, actually
4:22
Speaker 5: we have something for you. Can you help us with
4:25
Speaker 5: cases because the grant wouldn't allow them to do civil lawsuits.
4:30
Speaker 5: So I started doing that and then actually ended up
4:34
Speaker 5: starting and came and did my own law firm where
4:36
Speaker 5: all I got to do, all I get to do,
4:39
Speaker 5: and I'm privileged to do, is to represent survivors. And
4:42
Speaker 5: so I continued to volunteer with THEE and actually then
4:46
Speaker 5: became president of the board and did that for God
4:49
Speaker 5: a really long time. And just I loved these heart
4:54
Speaker 5: and her passion for helping survivors. I think she got
4:57
Speaker 5: is forty years fee. I think it's been there's been
5:00
Speaker 5: a long time that she had been there at CCS.
5:03
Speaker 5: And then one day we were dreaming at a conference
5:06
Speaker 5: and we thought, God, you know, we saw this gap
5:09
Speaker 5: in the market where survivors weren't able to find a
5:13
Speaker 5: healing center where they could get a combination of holistic
5:16
Speaker 5: mixed with clinical work, and so both of us said, someday,
5:22
Speaker 5: it's so nice if we could open up a healing
5:24
Speaker 5: center ches for survivors. And then at some points she
5:27
Speaker 5: called me and goes, it's someday, let's go now, And
5:31
Speaker 5: so we did, and here we are.
5:34
Speaker 3: But I'll let you tell it her side, her version
5:36
Speaker 3: of the story.
5:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, please, ditto ditto.
5:39
Speaker 4: When I was running Center for Community Solutions, I ran
5:43
Speaker 4: it for twenty five years, and when I met Jessica,
5:48
Speaker 4: I was so amazed at her passion for representing sexual
5:55
Speaker 4: assault survivors and everything she did to put her arms
6:00
Speaker 4: around and make sure that while folks were going through
6:03
Speaker 4: the civil litigation they had the support they needed. But
6:07
Speaker 4: to back up for a second, so many survivors of
6:11
Speaker 4: the rapes that get reported only and they if they
6:14
Speaker 4: want a criminal justice resolution, only three percent ever get that.
6:20
Speaker 4: And what jess has done civilly is not only get
6:24
Speaker 4: people the resources to heal, but also many survivors what
6:29
Speaker 4: they want is accountability, and being able to go through
6:32
Speaker 4: a civil suit and get that resolution means some accountability
6:37
Speaker 4: because many people start to dealt themselves or have family
6:41
Speaker 4: friends that doubt them that these things really happen, and
6:45
Speaker 4: that's across the board, both for domestic violence IPv and
6:48
Speaker 4: sexual assaults.
6:49
Speaker 6: So yes, when just after she.
6:51
Speaker 4: Started volunteering, we talked to her about which she for
6:55
Speaker 4: folks who wanted a civil litigation resolution, would she consider
7:01
Speaker 4: taking these cases?
7:02
Speaker 6: And as I got to.
7:03
Speaker 4: Know her more, took her to lunch and persuaded her
7:08
Speaker 4: to join our board and then we went off and
7:11
Speaker 4: running doing many different things together. And when I left
7:15
Speaker 4: end of January twenty twenty three, I just and I
7:20
Speaker 4: started talking and said, you know what, this doesn't exist
7:24
Speaker 4: anywhere in the country. There are healing centers across the country,
7:28
Speaker 4: but none that focus just on sexual assault domestic violence IPD.
7:36
Speaker 1: This topic.
7:38
Speaker 2: First of all, thank you, Thank you both for sharing that,
7:41
Speaker 2: and I can feel both of your passions and I
7:45
Speaker 2: love it, and that's why I love doing this work.
7:47
Speaker 1: But this topic is so crazy to me that so
7:57
Speaker 1: many people. It takes a long time for people to
8:01
Speaker 1: come out and share what's happened, and even then it's
8:05
Speaker 1: just a fraction who can do that. For whatever reason,
8:10
Speaker 1: a fraction of people get help. Jessica, you talked a
8:16
Speaker 1: little bit about your experience as a survivor. When you
8:22
Speaker 1: went into law was it? Did you have the idea
8:27
Speaker 1: that you were going to get into this field at all?
8:31
Speaker 6: No, I thought so.
8:35
Speaker 5: Actually, when I was going into law school at that time,
8:39
Speaker 5: my stepfather was alive and he was a lawyer and
8:43
Speaker 5: he practiced criminal defense and workers comp litigation. So the
8:49
Speaker 5: thought was I was just going to go, you know,
8:50
Speaker 5: work at the family firm. Unfortunately, he passed away right
8:55
Speaker 5: when I started law school and so and the firm dissolved,
8:58
Speaker 5: so that was not a not so then I thought, well,
9:01
Speaker 5: I'm going to go be like Suits, right or I'm
9:03
Speaker 5: gonna At that time, it.
9:05
Speaker 3: Wasn't Suits, it was Ali mcfeel or, I mean whatever
9:07
Speaker 3: the show was.
9:08
Speaker 5: And I thought, I'm going to be a big corporate
9:10
Speaker 5: attorney and I'm going to you know, broker mass and
9:14
Speaker 5: deals or something, and the universe had other plans. I
9:19
Speaker 5: actually was sitting at the table doing homework or studying
9:24
Speaker 5: for a test with my current with my husband, who
9:27
Speaker 5: was said my boyfriend.
9:29
Speaker 3: And he said we made a bet who could get.
9:34
Speaker 5: An internship first, and I won. I got the internship
9:39
Speaker 5: the next day. I don't know that I won because
9:42
Speaker 5: I never stopped working from that moment, I feel like
9:45
Speaker 5: he won.
9:46
Speaker 3: But I a big.
9:49
Speaker 5: Time firm, actually one of the biggest burns in the
9:51
Speaker 5: country who does personal injury litigation.
9:55
Speaker 3: Partner called me and said can you come on Friday.
9:59
Speaker 5: I think it was like Monday or Tuesday, and they
10:00
Speaker 5: were like, can you be here tomorrow to interview? And
10:04
Speaker 5: so I drug the Los Angeles did an interview and
10:06
Speaker 5: then he goes, great, can you start? Can you start tomorrow?
10:08
Speaker 5: And I was like, wait, no.
10:09
Speaker 6: No, no, no, I go to school in Cdiah.
10:11
Speaker 3: I go idiot, But it was such a great opportunity.
10:15
Speaker 5: Actually packed up my stuff, moved to Los Angeles, went
10:20
Speaker 5: to law school there at Loyola for as semester or
10:23
Speaker 5: for a time period. And while I worked there, and
10:27
Speaker 5: while I worked at that firm, I got to do
10:31
Speaker 5: a couple of trials with the partner and it's just
10:34
Speaker 5: made sense.
10:34
Speaker 3: Something clicked.
10:35
Speaker 5: It was like, oh, wait, I get to help people,
10:37
Speaker 5: I guess, actually help people who get hurt, normal everyday people.
10:42
Speaker 5: And then I realized that's where my heart is. It's
10:47
Speaker 5: always been. I mean, I've always been a public servant,
10:49
Speaker 5: always doing you know, whether it's make a wish or
10:53
Speaker 5: big brother, big sister, I've always been someone who wanted
10:57
Speaker 5: to help a population that had either been you know, vulnerable, disenfranchised.
11:02
Speaker 5: You know, it was kind of I hate bullies. I
11:05
Speaker 5: hate bullies, and I hate corporations that take advantage of
11:07
Speaker 5: people and hurt people. And so you put that together,
11:11
Speaker 5: and then you know, I came down back to San
11:13
Speaker 5: Diego because my husband's from here at the biggest personality
11:16
Speaker 5: firm here.
11:17
Speaker 3: And then I got my first sexual assault case.
11:19
Speaker 5: And then it was like, wow, now all the stars
11:22
Speaker 5: have aligned, and you know, twenty years ago, nobody wanted
11:25
Speaker 5: to do those cases. I mean, there were a couple
11:27
Speaker 5: people outliers, right, there was glory alread there's some other
11:31
Speaker 5: couple of firms, but that wasn't.
11:33
Speaker 3: Really People always said, how do you get paid?
11:36
Speaker 5: How do you get paid?
11:37
Speaker 3: Because how do that? How does that work out?
11:40
Speaker 5: And that really wasn't the thought, right I guess it
11:43
Speaker 5: was how do we help people? And if the money
11:46
Speaker 5: comes great, you know, Unfortunately I mean or fortunately, I
11:50
Speaker 5: guess I've been blessed and it did work out. I
11:53
Speaker 5: always say I tell V all the time, both of
11:54
Speaker 5: us say, I want to keep working till I don't have.
11:56
Speaker 3: A job anymore.
11:57
Speaker 5: I'm trying to work like chip away at it, like
12:01
Speaker 5: how many more people do we have to hold accountable
12:03
Speaker 5: that before perpetrators go like, oh my god, label can't consent,
12:08
Speaker 5: Like god, why why is that such a tough concept?
12:11
Speaker 2: Like because then she's chomping at the bit. How did
12:16
Speaker 2: how did this passion come?
12:19
Speaker 4: You know, since I was a little girl, I would
12:24
Speaker 4: see violence. I'd see bullies, I'd see racism. I knew
12:31
Speaker 4: in my heart of hearts that this violence was preventable,
12:36
Speaker 4: and it just drove me as a child, I was like,
12:39
Speaker 4: what's wrong with me? Why don't other people stand up?
12:41
Speaker 4: Why don't they? Why am I the person? As a child?
12:45
Speaker 4: And as I followed that passion, I started working with youth.
12:50
Speaker 4: There was a time I worked with Federal Bureau prisons
12:54
Speaker 4: with rapists and pedophiles, and that drove me to want
12:57
Speaker 4: to get on the front end of it. And so
12:59
Speaker 4: I started designing programs for child abuse. And I saw
13:04
Speaker 4: bigger opportunity to make a difference in my community in
13:09
Speaker 4: San Diego when I was asked to come in and
13:13
Speaker 4: apply for the CEO job at Center for Community Solutions,
13:17
Speaker 4: And I have to tell you, I have never seen
13:20
Speaker 4: such such courageous, strong people the will to heal, to
13:28
Speaker 4: have a different life for themselves, and to know that
13:32
Speaker 4: this trauma doesn't have to define you. When so much
13:36
Speaker 4: in the public, what were you wearing, what were you drinking?
13:39
Speaker 6: Why don't you just leave? Did you know what you
13:41
Speaker 6: were signing up for?
13:42
Speaker 4: All of that puts the responsibility on the person who's harmed.
13:47
Speaker 6: How is it that.
13:48
Speaker 4: We're raising people who are committing this kind of harm?
13:52
Speaker 4: That should be the question. We even had people coming
13:55
Speaker 4: in kind of hands shaking to get services because they'd
14:00
Speaker 4: gone to a private practitioner and somebody said, well, you
14:04
Speaker 4: went to the hotel room, what did you think you
14:05
Speaker 4: were signing up for? And the person was just destroyed
14:10
Speaker 4: and felt like they should stop telling people and that's
14:13
Speaker 4: the worst that can happen is to shut down. But anyway,
14:16
Speaker 4: they came and found us handshaking, but found that we
14:20
Speaker 4: were not that we are not victim blaming uh, and
14:24
Speaker 4: that we do and we did have the best possible
14:27
Speaker 4: supports for a crisis.
14:30
Speaker 6: So that's what the journey has been.
14:33
Speaker 2: I love it. I love it. What when you decided
14:37
Speaker 2: to put Sarona Healing Center together? What was the mission?
14:43
Speaker 2: What was the quote unquote gap in the in the
14:46
Speaker 2: field that you were seeing that you wanted to address.
14:50
Speaker 4: I think so because we were a nonprofit, we always
14:57
Speaker 4: had a wait list.
14:58
Speaker 6: Number one.
15:00
Speaker 4: Number two is not everybody needs more, but some people
15:05
Speaker 4: needed more. They needed more than once a week in
15:08
Speaker 4: counseling and once a week in group. And we wanted
15:13
Speaker 4: to see We wanted to see a holistic practice. We
15:16
Speaker 4: wanted the best trauma therapy with modalities that support it,
15:23
Speaker 4: that are already that are also research based, but that
15:27
Speaker 4: also can help relieve the central nervous system, like trauma
15:30
Speaker 4: in formed yoga, breath work, sound coupled with the best
15:34
Speaker 4: we could find in terms of therapy. So, because I
15:38
Speaker 4: didn't have that to offer, and I heard people begging
15:41
Speaker 4: to have more, that's when just and I began talking
15:45
Speaker 4: about we've got to do it. It doesn't exist anywhere
15:47
Speaker 4: in this country for this particular population.
15:50
Speaker 6: Just what else did I leave off?
15:55
Speaker 2: No?
15:56
Speaker 5: I think that the research also shows that when survivors
16:01
Speaker 5: get trauma treatment early on, and when you combine it
16:06
Speaker 5: with not only clinical work with holistic care, the healing
16:12
Speaker 5: is exponential. And so really, we want to help survivors
16:17
Speaker 5: heal that's the mission. What can we do to be
16:19
Speaker 5: a support system for survivors and to take the best
16:24
Speaker 5: research out on the market, the best different you know, practitioners,
16:28
Speaker 5: and you know we're also talking, you know, with a
16:31
Speaker 5: local university about really pushing the envelope so that we
16:34
Speaker 5: have the best cutting edge treatment options available to a survivor.
16:39
Speaker 2: Now are we talking about are you do you provide
16:43
Speaker 2: treatment for just women? Mostly women? I'm assuming.
16:48
Speaker 4: The first phase is for women eighteen and older, but
16:52
Speaker 4: there's also men, and then we also want to do
16:55
Speaker 4: lgbtqgo plus and so. But are we just to say, Okay,
17:00
Speaker 4: we're going to start first phase women over eighteen and
17:03
Speaker 4: then scale up as we.
17:05
Speaker 2: Go with the idea that most people who have experienced
17:13
Speaker 2: into personal violence don't get treatment, how do you reach
17:17
Speaker 2: out to them?
17:21
Speaker 4: Well, right now, you're giving us a golden opportunity whether
17:24
Speaker 4: people come to Sarona Healing. But we try to do
17:28
Speaker 4: everything we can to put the message out. Jess and
17:31
Speaker 4: I have been in San Diego a long time, so
17:33
Speaker 4: we do have quite a few contacts in that community.
17:36
Speaker 4: We belong to our statewide coalitions in San Diego. We
17:42
Speaker 4: do because we've been there a long time and doing
17:46
Speaker 4: this work. We do have some really good contacts. So
17:50
Speaker 4: it's multiple ways through the district attorney, through the police,
17:54
Speaker 4: three nonprofits, so it's many, many different ways. Jess, you
17:59
Speaker 4: want to add to how we get the word out.
18:04
Speaker 5: Yeah, we're just trying to spread the word through all
18:06
Speaker 5: of our different networks and you know, speaking opportunities, you know,
18:10
Speaker 5: putting things out on social media, that kind of thing.
18:14
Speaker 5: I mean, we can help survivors across California. At this point,
18:18
Speaker 5: our practitioners are only licensed in California, but the hope
18:22
Speaker 5: is that, you know, we've got a crawl before you know,
18:24
Speaker 5: we can walk in and run.
18:25
Speaker 3: We're building it up.
18:27
Speaker 5: Eventually, we'd love to offer these services across the country,
18:31
Speaker 5: but you know.
18:32
Speaker 3: We're starting. It's new, it's exciting. We're growing.
18:35
Speaker 2: And is Serona Healing Center Is it a brick and
18:40
Speaker 2: mortar facility and as well as online or what so?
18:45
Speaker 5: Currently it's virtual, which it's coupled with in person retreats,
18:51
Speaker 5: day retreats or weekend retreats that are in San Diego, California.
18:56
Speaker 5: We did have a location, unfortunately we ran into some
19:00
Speaker 5: permitting problems, so we're working on that issue. Eventually we
19:05
Speaker 5: will have a brick and mortar and we will have
19:07
Speaker 5: an inpatient option where people can stay for a week
19:12
Speaker 5: or a month to receive some more kind of intensive
19:16
Speaker 5: care or intensive outpatient just come for a day treatment program.
19:19
Speaker 5: But in the meantime, it gives us a really good
19:21
Speaker 5: opportunity to help survivors on a bigger scale, all the
19:25
Speaker 5: way across California, and we found that, you know, through COVID,
19:29
Speaker 5: virtual treatment is effective. Most people actually now opt for telehealth.
19:35
Speaker 5: So we are giving survivors an opportunity to actually do
19:39
Speaker 5: it from the comforts of their own home, in a
19:40
Speaker 5: place where they feel comfortable, until they build some trust,
19:43
Speaker 5: and when they feel ready, they're welcome to come to
19:45
Speaker 5: one of our retreats in person.
19:48
Speaker 2: I think this is a very interesting timely conversation, as
19:53
Speaker 2: you know, with the backdrop we have the whole Epstein
19:55
Speaker 2: stuff going on, and then me too, of course a
19:59
Speaker 2: few years ago from your experience, is interpersonal violence decreasing?
20:15
Speaker 2: Do you want to say s specifically like domestic of violence?
20:20
Speaker 4: You know, because the numbers are going down slowly, the
20:27
Speaker 4: amount of time that people really report are still down,
20:33
Speaker 4: whether it's shame, guilt, for something that they're being harmed for.
20:38
Speaker 4: But no, I think the public increasingly is becoming aware
20:44
Speaker 4: of really listening to your family members or friends when
20:48
Speaker 4: they are believing them instead of denouncing it. And then
20:52
Speaker 4: same thing with sexual assault. So the numbers across the
20:57
Speaker 4: country are slightly down, but I don't know that I'm
21:02
Speaker 4: totally optimistic about that, but I do see people coming forward,
21:06
Speaker 4: and I am hearing a public that's much more aware
21:09
Speaker 4: about really believing and listening, because those are the first steps.
21:14
Speaker 4: Once somebody gets questioned about whether this really happened, it
21:18
Speaker 4: really does shut them down, and then the likelihood that
21:20
Speaker 4: they're going to seek help minimizes. And then untreated trauma
21:27
Speaker 4: it shows up in all kinds of places emotionally, physically, psychologically,
21:33
Speaker 4: and it really doesn't have to be that way because
21:35
Speaker 4: there really are really good treatments and services at our.
21:42
Speaker 6: Center at Serena.
21:44
Speaker 4: We tailor make it to the individual. We don't do
21:47
Speaker 4: cookie cutter. We explain to them everything that we're providing,
21:51
Speaker 4: and it's similar guy to a intensive outpatient program, only
21:55
Speaker 4: it's virtual at this time.
21:58
Speaker 2: So just a place to kind of dive in a
22:02
Speaker 2: little bit. Someone comes to you, what's the process. What
22:09
Speaker 2: do they do? Email, you call, you walk us through.
22:12
Speaker 4: They can email, they can call us, and the first
22:15
Speaker 4: point of contact is our care concierge, who sorts through
22:21
Speaker 4: what's going on with them, what do they need, really
22:25
Speaker 4: walking them through the whole litany of what we provide,
22:29
Speaker 4: and then carving out what is the best match for them,
22:34
Speaker 4: what kind of supports would be the best for them.
22:37
Speaker 4: And then we have one of our therapists take the
22:40
Speaker 4: lead and they coordinate all the other supports, and so
22:44
Speaker 4: someone can be seen three times a week for different
22:48
Speaker 4: kinds of supports, and the team works there. It's a
22:52
Speaker 4: multidisciplinary team and they work really closely. It's I have
22:57
Speaker 4: been blessed to work at great places. This is it's
23:00
Speaker 4: the best multidisciplinary team I have ever seen in terms
23:04
Speaker 4: of the talent, the expertise, and the sincere awareness of
23:08
Speaker 4: the many issues that survivors go through.
23:13
Speaker 2: Now, Jessica as the attorney, how and when do you
23:19
Speaker 2: come into work here?
23:25
Speaker 5: I guess I would say I was, I'm the visionary
23:30
Speaker 5: with the we dreamed of this together, and then I
23:33
Speaker 5: was the money. I would say, probably behind it, which
23:37
Speaker 5: is where I came in. I don't have any I'm
23:39
Speaker 5: not a therapist, I'm not a healer. I don't have
23:43
Speaker 5: any expertise in that, and so I know when to
23:45
Speaker 5: you know, sit this one out and let the people
23:48
Speaker 5: who have a better.
23:49
Speaker 3: Experience take lead.
23:52
Speaker 5: My dream was just to put it out there, to
23:54
Speaker 5: put it out there, to give it life. I actually
23:58
Speaker 5: used money that we earned here on an attorney's fees
24:03
Speaker 5: from cases of sexual salt survivors, and so I think
24:07
Speaker 5: that's such a beautiful message to take something terrible that
24:11
Speaker 5: happened to someone else to then take that money and
24:14
Speaker 5: I literally poured it into this healing center to do
24:16
Speaker 5: something beautiful for another human to.
24:19
Speaker 3: Help them heal.
24:21
Speaker 5: So I love that healing message and how that feels
24:24
Speaker 5: for me and for our family.
24:26
Speaker 3: We're happy to do it.
24:28
Speaker 5: But if people have i mean legal questions, right, I'm
24:30
Speaker 5: always here, like, if you need something, let me know,
24:33
Speaker 5: you know, if they want to explore whether or not
24:35
Speaker 5: they have a sexual assault case to hold their perpetrator accountable.
24:39
Speaker 5: I mean, I'm always available to talk to any survivor
24:41
Speaker 5: who would want to talk about that. But honestly, my
24:44
Speaker 5: role in Sarona is just to I just want to
24:46
Speaker 5: see it fly and be successful and help people.
24:52
Speaker 2: Again, this issue, to me is just brings up a
24:57
Speaker 2: lot because I think I know obviously a lot of
25:01
Speaker 2: people don't have the wherewithal to reach out. They feel
25:06
Speaker 2: they're not going to be believed or blamed, you know,
25:09
Speaker 2: they're Vernie. You talked about your experience dealing with perpetrators.
25:18
Speaker 2: That is often a hot button issue for people. How
25:22
Speaker 2: could you work with perpetrators? What was your experience in
25:26
Speaker 2: that field.
25:28
Speaker 4: At the time, there weren't some really good treatments. It
25:33
Speaker 4: was called Batter's intervention. I mean, everybody wants to sign
25:36
Speaker 4: up for that, right But as time has gone on,
25:38
Speaker 4: there are better supports if somebody is motivated. If they're
25:44
Speaker 4: not motivated, you can send them to all the therapy
25:48
Speaker 4: and the groups and mentorship and not create change. It's
25:52
Speaker 4: about rebuilding empathy for those folks who have that capacity
25:58
Speaker 4: so that they're not treating another individual like an object.
26:02
Speaker 4: There's a great book called why Does He?
26:05
Speaker 6: Why Does He do That?
26:06
Speaker 4: It's it's really from someone who did specifically treatment for
26:10
Speaker 4: folks who are perpetrating violence on their significant others, and
26:16
Speaker 4: he really had done a lot of research.
26:18
Speaker 6: It's a really helpful book.
26:19
Speaker 4: If somebody's interested in really wanting to take a deep dive.
26:24
Speaker 2: So okay, I'm just remind everyone I'm speaking with Vernon Griffin,
26:30
Speaker 2: Tabor and Jessica Pride, co founders of Sarona Healing Center.
26:37
Speaker 2: As we kind of wind down here, what would you
26:40
Speaker 2: say your mission is together?
26:47
Speaker 3: I mean, I think it's a mission of love.
26:49
Speaker 5: We're here to help survivors heal to a place where
26:53
Speaker 5: they know they're believed. At Sarona Healing Center, we believe you,
26:57
Speaker 5: We believe you, We want to help you. We realize
27:00
Speaker 5: this is probably one of the worst times you've ever
27:03
Speaker 5: experienced in your life, and I just want you to
27:06
Speaker 5: know you're not alone. We get it, and we get it,
27:09
Speaker 5: and we're here for you.
27:13
Speaker 4: You're not alone, and this trauma doesn't have to define you.
27:17
Speaker 4: And you may feel all kinds of strange feelings, triggering,
27:22
Speaker 4: not able to sleep, flashbacks, these are all things that
27:27
Speaker 4: are natural and normal that your body is doing and
27:29
Speaker 4: in a reaction to such harm.
27:32
Speaker 6: So as much as.
27:34
Speaker 4: It's there is so much help there that we can
27:37
Speaker 4: provide to help calm your nervous system, both just holistically
27:43
Speaker 4: and yes, as jess said, we believe you. You won't
27:46
Speaker 4: be alone, and again, there's every reason to be hopeful
27:51
Speaker 4: you can heal, and we will carve out individually a
27:56
Speaker 4: program that's right for you and will be partnering with you.
28:00
Speaker 4: We believe in your strength and we know that we
28:04
Speaker 4: do this with a lot of not only expertise, heart
28:07
Speaker 4: and compassion.
28:09
Speaker 1: That sounds amazing.
28:10
Speaker 2: You guys both are amazing.
28:12
Speaker 1: My God, all right as you are.
28:18
Speaker 2: As we wind down here, how do people learn more
28:20
Speaker 2: about about what you're doing? What's the best way?
28:24
Speaker 6: I think to go on.
28:24
Speaker 4: Our website is probably the easiest because it's Serunahealing dot com.
28:30
Speaker 4: And on the.
28:30
Speaker 6: Website you'll get a full you'll get our.
28:33
Speaker 4: Messaging, but you also have glimpses of who our practitioners are,
28:39
Speaker 4: who our therapists are, and they defined briefly in a
28:42
Speaker 4: video who they are, what they do, why they do this.
28:46
Speaker 4: Our intent was to mitigate fear, so we wanted people
28:50
Speaker 4: to see who's doing this work, and we wanted them
28:53
Speaker 4: to hear directly from the folks providing it. So I believe, guy,
28:57
Speaker 4: thank you for asking. The best way is to go
28:59
Speaker 4: through our website again, Saronahealing dot com.
29:03
Speaker 5: We're also on Instagram at Sarona Healing all one word
29:08
Speaker 5: s I R O n A.
29:11
Speaker 3: And then the Lord Healing ah G A l I
29:13
Speaker 3: n G.
29:13
Speaker 2: Okay, we'll have all that linked up here at the
29:16
Speaker 2: show notes page at the Trauma Therapist podcast dot com.
29:19
Speaker 2: Your website's amazing. My guess is a lot of people
29:23
Speaker 2: would want to work with you, folks. I mean, my god,
29:27
Speaker 2: if I was seeing people, I would. But anyway, thank
29:32
Speaker 2: you so much for being here. Love to have you back.
29:35
Speaker 2: What you guys are doing, what your ladys are doing,
29:37
Speaker 2: is just amazing and super inspiring.
29:42
Speaker 4: Thank you for being here, Thank you for having us guys.
29:46
Speaker 2: You're welcome. We'll talk all right.
29:48
Speaker 6: Take care, Take care, Bie,