When Survival Becomes Your Whole World: Healing from Sexual Assault
The news cycle has been relentless lately.
With the Epstein files being released - millions of pages, photographs, and details splashed across headlines - survivors everywhere are being confronted with reminders & triggers they didn’t ask for and were surprised to see. If you’ve found yourself anxious, overwhelmed, triggered, or reliving your own trauma while scrolling through the news, you are not alone.
Sexual assault can change how everything feels and stays in your body, reactions, and how you view the world. Places or people that once felt safe may not anymore. Relationships can get harder, trust can feel out of reach, and a lot of the time you’re simply focused on making it through the day.
If you’re reading this, you might be a survivor looking for a path forward. During this trying time in the world, healing is still possible. It won’t look the way you expect, and it won’t happen on anyone else’s timeline but your own.
The Weight of Trauma
Sexual assault isn’t just a single event. Instead, it’s an ongoing experience your nervous system carries with you. Your body goes into survival mode. Some shut down emotionally, feel numb, disconnected, or dissociated. Anxiety can creep up and sleep cycles such as insomnia or oversleeping can occur. Relationships that once felt comforting can feel threatening even when they’re safe.
This isn’t weakness. This is your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do: protect you. The problem is nervous systems do not always know when the threat has passed: this is where therapy comes in.
Therapies That Actually Work For Sexual Assault
Not all types of therapy work for each individual. Each individual is unique and needs a different type of therapy to best suit what they were experiencing during this hard time. An experienced therapist who understands this can help you understand how trauma lives in the body and the mind. At Healing Hearts, Healthy Minds, I use three evidence-based approaches that work together to help you reclaim your life.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) helps your brain process traumatic memories differently. When you experience sexual assault, your brain can’t file that memory away the way it does with everyday experiences. It gets stuck, replaying at the worst moments, triggered by things that feel random.
Through EMDR, I work virtually with you to calm the nervous system and help your brain reprocess what happened. This will not allow you to forget it, but instead, heal. Many survivors describe it as finally being able to put the memory where it belongs: in the past, not the present.
DBT: Building a Life Worth Living
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy gives you the tools to regulate emotions that feel completely out of control. After trauma, your emotional responses can feel overwhelming. DBT helps you develop skills for distress tolerance, emotion regulation, and navigating relationships in ways that feel safe.
This isn’t about “getting over it” but managing the stress that comes with everyday life when your nervous system has been fundamentally altered by trauma. It’s about building coping strategies that actually work; not the ones people tell you should work.
CBT: Changing the Patterns
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps you recognize and shift the patterns of thinking that keep you stuck. After sexual assault, negative beliefs about yourself can take root such as: “It was my fault,” “I’m damaged,” “I can’t trust anyone.” These beliefs aren’t true, but they feel true to you. CBT helps you challenge and change them.
Healing Hearts Healthy Minds Is Here to Help
Whether you’re a teen, young adult, or parent struggling with your own trauma while trying to support someone else, this work is about reclaiming dignity, connection, and possibility. It’s about truth-telling and healing in a space that’s safe and collaborative.
I’ve worked with survivors for over a decade. I understand trauma isn’t something you just “talk through.” It requires specialized, trauma-informed care that meets you where you are. The path forward isn’t about forgetting or minimizing what happened. It’s about integration and healing so you can build the life you deserve.
If you’re ready to take the first step, or even if you’re just curious whether therapy might help, I offer a free 15-minute consultation to see if we are the right fit for each other.
Denise Takakjy, PhD, LPC-PA, LPC-NJ, LPCMH-DE, NCC, C-DBT provides trauma-informed virtual therapy for teens, young adults, and parents in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Connecticut. Schedule your free consultation or call (484) 302-7298.*