By Nicole C. Brambila
Desert Sun
March 1, 2010
http://www.mydesert.com/article/20100301/NEWS01/3010301/1026/news12
PALM DESERT (CA) -- Dave Pelzer says he suffered unspeakable abuse — emotionally and physically — from the one person he should have been able to trust: his mother.
The Coachella Valley author and lecturer will share his story of hope with abuse survivors at the "Adults Healing from Child Abuse — It Happens to Boys Too" conference beginning Friday in Palm Desert.
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| Dave Pelzer, author of the autobiography “A Child Called ‘It': One Child's Courage to Survive” will share his story with abuse survivors at the “Adults Healing from Child Abuse — It Happens to Boys Too” conference starting Friday in Palm Desert. |
"If you can survive, you can be a good person," said Pelzer, 49.
"I've never been about abuse. I'm more about resilience and responsibility.
"At the end of the day, we are all the product of our choices."
The conference is the brainchild of Carol Teitelbaum, founder of the Rancho Mirage-based Creative Change Conferences and a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Last year's conference drew roughly 130 people. Teitelbaum expects 200 this year.
The conference sprung from a men's support group headed by Teitelbaum that seeks to help men deal with past abuse.
One in six boys and one in four girls are abused. The abuse in boys tends to go unreported because of shame, Teitelbaum said.
"Boys don't tell about being abused," she said. "In our society, men are the perpetrators and women are the victims. So, they bottle up their feelings. They end up raging."
The two-day event also features keynote speakers Robert J. Ackerman, author of "Silent Sons," and Jerry Moe, director of Betty Ford Center's children's program.
Also participating in the conference are Bill Protzmann, who teaches music as the path to healing, and local abuse survivors, such as David Price.
Price was among the very first to sue the Catholic Church in 1994 when he publicly accused an Orange County priest and his high school principal of molestation. Price self-published his story, "Altered Boy, Altered Lives" in 2008.
"One in six boys are sexually abused," Price said. "How many of them are coming forward? We still don't let them come forward, and we're talking about it a hell of a lot more than we did.
"Sexual abuse doesn't only affect the victim. It really does affect the whole family circle.
"Society doesn't really want to talk about it, and we've got to."
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