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	Taking Steps to Healing By Michael Peeling Standard-Freeholder February 11, 2010 http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=2444499 CANADA -- The fruits of the Cornwall Public Inquiry are showing up at a counselling centre with the start of a program for female and male sexual abuse victims. In response to Inquiry Commissioner Normand Glaude's recommendations, the Ministry of the Attorney General (MAG) has provided funding for the Next Steps to Healing program. Next Steps is being run out of the same house on Amelia Street where Sexual Assault Support Services (SASS) for Women is located. SASS executive director Janet Handy, who sat on Glaude's advisory board throughout the Inquiry, will be running Next Steps as well. "We're opening our doors to men as well," Handy said. Wanda Seguin, a counsellor at SASS about to leave, was asked to stay on to run the six-month Next Step program. "We're sharing what we've been given," Seguin said. "We're giving back to the community. If we all did that, all of our little ones would be safe. Wouldn't that be amazing?" The 15-week program will take on two groups of 10; one of men and women, but the two groups will be counselled separately by Seguin. Handy said the program will start a third group if necessary or run a second edition of the program provided the $50,000 worth of funding from MAG holds out. Although, Handy hopes to be able to present Next Steps as a "best practices model" to the provincial government that receives ongoing funding. NEXT STEPS TO HEALING:Services provided for both male and female abuse survivors All of them will be regular clients of the Inquiry's counselling program, which ended last month. To make the women who attend SASS more comfortable, the male clients have their own separate entrance at the back of the house. Before the clients begin meeting as a group, Seguin is having one-on-one meetings with them to get to know each victim and establish trust. Handy said the program fills a need for a mentoring program and peer support. "This program focuses on strengthening resilience, social reconnection and ending isolation," Handy said. Handy and Seguin are survivors of sexual abuse themselves, which allows them to help clients as peers. "Peer education goes a long way in the healing process," Handy said. "It adds a lot of credibility when someone has gone through this themselves." Seguin, a member of the Mi'kmaq First Nation, near Halifax, will have group meetings with the men and women starting in mid-March, where they will all participate in a "healing circle." "It's an opportunity to listen, talk, share and give yourself a voice," Seguin said. "Everyone needs that." The group members will have a bite to eat together as well because "food is really important," says Seguin. They will also do something creative such as make a dream catcher or a rattle. "When you do something creative together, something beautiful can happen," Seguin said. "You can access that gentle place of creativity." Seguin explained that in a healing circle, everyone is equal and brings experience in how to survive the trauma of sexual abuse which they can share. Handy said it's important for survivors to see they can confront the pain of abuse and keep surviving. "You can feel the pain of abuse and not die," Handy said. "These people need to hear that." However, Seguin stressed that it is not her intention to "bring back all the dark stuff" in the victims' lives. Group members will also spend a week of the Next Steps to Healing program at the Sexual Assault Centre for Quinte and District thanks to MAG funding worth $95,000 announced last week. Glaude recommended the province hire the centre to provide its week-long wilderness retreat for abuse survivors. "That speaks to the fact they think our program is a good program," said executive director Kim Charlebois. "We were really, really pleased because we know that, but to have it recognized beyond us is really important." The Family Counselling Centre of Cornwall rounds out the collaboration by taking care of the registration for Next Steps to Healing.
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