We are pleased to announce there are a few spaces left in our online writing group!
If you are an adult survivor of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) and would like to join, please send an email to groups@theflyingchild.com (places will be given on a first come, first served basis).
(If you have attended in the past you are more than welcome to come along again)
The groups are funded by The National Lottery Community Fund, and are FREE to join. Here is some feedback from previous participants.
Spaces for survivors of Child Sexual abuse (CSA) are few and far between. As a group we are hidden and can feel silenced. Even when people ‘know’, it can be hard to speak openly. We know the misconceptions people have, and the judgment that might be passed. We know exactly what speaking openly risks and what we might lose.
Thanks to The National Lottery Community Fund, our in-person, peer support group is now up and running. It is therapist and lived experience co-led, the aim being to create a sense of ‘us’ as opposed to the ‘them and us’ approach favoured by some but disliked by many. The encouragement is to share openly if you need to, leave armour and masks at the door, and to know that above all, you are welcome in the space. This applies to facilitators as well. If something feels relatable then why not say so? We can become so tied up in policy and protocol that we forget we are humans too. This can create a power imbalance within a group setting. It can also breed resentment. I used to ask, ‘but how do you understand? Have you experienced this yourself?’ and being frustrated by the cagey, neither yes nor no response.
CSA survivors who have experienced manipulation, betrayal or gaslighting to the extreme, deserve authenticity, connection, and sincerity, not rigidity and inflexibility.
As a group, CSA survivors are often placed in a peer support with others who have no experience of CSA. Whilst there might be similarities with those who have experienced sexual violence as an adult, there are also differences. I have benefitted from mixed groups – in many ways they were life changing for me and played a vital part role in my own journey, and I value beyond measure, the connections I made. However, at times I felt excluded from conversations because I was silenced by these differences. In my head they were significant, and I sat with a heavy feeling in my heart that others just wouldn’t – or couldn’t understand. So, I sometimes didn’t speak, even when I desperately wanted to. I longed to meet people ‘like me.’ I would have preferred a group of CSA survivors had there been a choice.
Spaces for survivors of CSA allow opportunity for us to meet and speak to others who can understand and relate in some way. Our stories may differ, but we will all face common challenges in a society that prefers to turn away from this form of abuse.
It is a privilege to meet such incredible and inspiring survivors at our different peer support groups, to hear their stories and to witness our isolated community coming together.
These 12 week in-person groups are not therapy groups. They are particularly suitable for those looking for survivor-led support but with the added reassurance of a highly experienced therapist and her well established (excellent!) self-development programme. The Surrey location is conveniently accessed on public transport with easy links to London.
Thanks to an incredible three years of funding from The National Lottery Community Fund, The Flying Child is delighted to be launching our very first therapist-led peer support group for survivors of child sexual abuse (CSA) in March 2023. With an estimated 11 Million survivors (1 in 6) in the UK, we know there are many in need of support, and we are so proud to say that our first 12-week group, taking place at The Lighthouse in Woking, is nearly full.
There has been such a huge response so far and, when full, we will be opening a waiting list for a second group later in the year. So, if you are a survivor of CSA and you would value being part of a support group with a trauma-informed approach and co-facilitated by a lived experience support worker, please do register your interest by visiting the peer support page on our website, or emailing admin@theflyingchild.com and we will keep you updated on forthcoming group plans and dates.
In addition to the 12 week programme, we are also facilitating online and in-person creative groups for survivors, providing the unique opportunity to express trauma through art and writing, meet other survivors and build networks in a supportive space. We are now taking names for our next available creative groups including our nine-week, in-person art groups, set to run from February 2023 onwards, and our six-week virtual writing groups, which will be starting in January 2023. Our aim is to provide a supportive space for people who have experienced Child Sexual Abuse. When we have the opportunity to make connections within the survivor community we reduce feelings of isolation, recognise the value of our own voice and begin to accept that CSA is not our shame to carry.
If you are interested in taking part in any of our creative groups – please contact us at admin@theflyingchild.com or, for more information on The Flying Child please visit our website.
