Tips for Dealing with Sexual Assault by a Spirit

[Moonfire]

Ok, so, long story short, I had a nasty entity that sexually assaulted me for a long time. Now its gone but any kind of sexual remarks towards me regardless of the gender its from makes me EXTREMELY uncomfortable. Even joking makes me completely pull away and withdraw, sometimes I've been close to hyperventilating.

I'm working on getting an appointment with a therapist/psychiatrist or whatever to work out some other issues that I have up my alley however I can't just say to this woman, "I was sexually assaulted by a spirit" and not be put in an institution or something."

So I ask you, does anyone have any tips on how to deal with this kind of thing? This isn't something I can just tell anyone but I don't want to be practically shutting down anytime someone drops an innuendo my way specifically involving me.

[Xiao Rong]

Well, with regards to your therapist, I don't know if you've found one in particular, but in general I think that therapists have a responsibility to honor their clients' religious beliefs, including belief in spirits. You can always test the waters a bit by mentioning spirits and seeing how she reacts, and then going from there. (and institutionalization is VERY uncommon these days)

Regardless, what you're describing (like the hyperventilation, dissociation, etc.) sounds to me very much like a trauma response, which makes sense in context of sexual assault. If you're interested, I would recommend practicing grounding and centering. Your trauma response in many ways a physiological reaction -- your body associates certain stimuli, like sexual innuendo, with a fight-or-flight-or-freeze response, which may have been an adaptive strategy when you were still regularly encountering the spirit, but is no longer helpful. Grounding and centering are exercises that help anchor you in the present moment, which can help you retrain your body (to make new associations, if you will) to recognize that you are in a safe environment and to help make the appropriate emotional/physical response (e.g. being able to respond to someone you're attracted to who is flirting with you). These exercises can range from deep breathing exercises, to naming 5 details about your immediate environment (e.g. what color are the walls? What can I smell?), to visualizing something that comforts you (e.g. imagining the feeling of a warm cup of tea in your hands). I feel like witchcraft is really helpful for things like this, since meditation and visualization are already important parts of a witch's toolkit.

[SnowCat]

Sexual assault, no matter how it happened, is traumatic. Any therapist is ethically and legally required to listen and treat in a non-judgemental fashion. I think Xiao's idea of testing the waters is a good one. The grounding exercises are a good idea too. It isn't something that will resolve overnight, but it can get easier with time and effort.

Snow