Clinician-Survivor-Driven Mentor Model™

Abstract

The Clinician-Survivor-Driven Mentor Model™ was developed from the joint discussions that took place in a conference hosted by the SAFE Coalition of Human Rights (SAFECHR) in 2014. Critical components of the Clinician-Victim-Survivor model are that the clinicians and survivors work directly with victims in helping them heal while at the same time, survivors receive treatment for triggers. The protection of survivors and victims, by the treatment team, helps attenuate the effects of the treatment by the clinicians alone so much so that the victims who have newly been rescued and placed have role models from those who have “been there.” Who better to provide hope than survivors? Yet, they struggle almost daily with bills, their histories of exploitation, guilt, shame, anger, and physical illnesses and are at times competing with their fellow survivors for recognition via demands to speak at conferences. Most have never been heard. Many quietly move on with their lives resenting the intrusion of press or others asking about their “stories.” There are a few, a very courageous few, who humble those of us in the field with their “experiential expertise”. This chapter provides those in the field with a blueprint to create therapeutic alliances with key stakeholders in the transition from victim to survivor and to thriver phases.