• June 5th & 6th, 2021 | Half Days (10am – 2pm)
• Free and open to all survivors of violence
• Registration is now closed. Questions? Please contact Jacquie Marroquin at jacquie@cpedv.org. 

​The Partnership’s Survivor Advisory Committee invites you to attend our virtual conference for survivors by survivors, The Survivor’s Experience. As survivors who know what it feels like to have lived through victim mentality and survivor mode, this conference will highlight the reasons why triggers of trauma often cause survivors to fall back on the Survivor Spectrum and be afraid to move towards THRIVING! 
 
Learn from those who have lived through violence, risen above it, and now choose to share their resilience through workshops that will address the ways guilt and shame can keep survivors stuck on the Survivor Spectrum. All workshops are created and facilitated by survivors of violence, and will be healing-centered, educational, interactive, creative, and uplifting.

Questions? Need Support? Please contact Jacquie Marroquin at jacquie@cpedv.org.

Workshops for Survivors, by Survivors

Workshop Tracks
Select a workshop track to see workshops details:

Victim Mentality

Hyper-Sexuality Post-Rape: The Duality of Coping & Building Sexual Intimacy

Presented by Angela Kim
This workshop aims to deconstruct misconceptions around hypersexuality after experiencing rape or sexual assault. The popular narrative regarding survivors of sexual violence is that post-rape, they may have a hard time being sexually intimate with partners or themselves due to the trauma they’ve experienced. While this is common and absolutely true, I aim to create greater awareness of hypersexuality as a trauma coping method.

Surviving Sexual Assault: Healing From Isolation

Presented by Yee Xiong
Sexual assault is traumatizing and a survivor’s healing journey can just be as painful as they recount and relive their experiences. Often times, survivors can isolate themselves from their community due to a lack of trust, anxiety, or PTSD. As advocates and professionals in the sexual assault awareness and prevention field, one must consider the long-term plans of how to integrate survivors back into society and empower survivors, especially after providing intervention services and resources.

Thriving from Trauma

Thriving: The Horizon

Presented by Symone Fairchild
Given the trauma that arises as a result of domestic violence, it is almost impossible for a survivor to fathom a reality outside of their own present environment. This is where outside, trusted influence comes in. Although I have always known that thriving existed, it wasn’t even in my scope of consciousness until a fellow survivor-friend gave me a bit of perspective. It completely and instantaneously widened my perspective and changed what was on my horizon. I began to put the puzzle pieces together of what my future was going to be and it certainly wasn’t just surviving! Thriving is THE reality for EVERYONE and it is individual to everyone. In order for a survivor to realize this, they must at least have the following: a trusted “village”, be pretty clear about personal dreams/goals, and have someone to lead them through their journey by the hand if need be (this could be a higher power OR a trusted mentor). This workshop will help you understand what thriving looks like for you.

Creative Healing with Purpose

Presented by LaRae Cantley
Join in an interactive discussion infused with creative artistic expression to encourage supportive social structures to center healing for survivors and partnerships with service providers in the overall treatment plan.
Starting with the awareness of where one is in their healing from the victim mentality aspect and some practical tools to “take care” while navigating the stages of grief * anger* blame* shame*denial*isolation*mis/distrust*and self-harm
Then engaging providers and survivors to partner together while navigating the journey of survivor mode through the healing center trauma-responsive education to understand the importance of social supports in connection to*Addiction*resources* understanding the survivor spectrum, mental and emotional health, and the patterns and behaviors that cause revictimization self-sabotage
Leading to leveraging your lived experience (skills gifts and talents) to build community, engage youth, build economic opportunity and systems change!!

Survivor Mode

Ready, Set, Stop. Become aware of your inner dialogue

Presented by Ferial Nijem
Become aware of your inner dialogue.  This is your roadmap to freedom and liberation. When you hear a voice in you head, you are hearing yourself think. You’re not hearing that with your ears, it’s your awareness.

When you become aware that you are awareness itself, you become less identified and attached with the world of effects and circumstances and situations and people and places and things and chatter outside of yourself. As you become less identified with what has forged itself as your identity based on a reaction to those things I mentioned before, you begin to be free and liberate yourself from the hamster wheel of victim consciousness.

This is a bold move! This daily practice allows you to align with the presence and the power of your true self! And let me tell you, your TRUE SELF is dynamic, magnetic and more brilliant than you could ever imagine!

Retrain Your Brain: Breaking Patterns, Cycles and Chains

Presented by Tiffany Duvernay-Smith
This workshop will explore:
- Survivorship and shifting from victim mode to thriving in empowerment
- Stigma reduction. Evolving by accessing mental health services such as individual and group therapy
- The relationship between thoughts, mood and behavior, our own self-talk and self-judgment. Actively participating in our thinking and breaking patterns
- Linking Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Substance Use, or any form of trauma and any form of unhealthy coping. Survivors are not alone in their unhealthy coping/choices. Discussing healthy self-nurturing as a tool
- How our brain responds to trauma, common trauma responses, healing from trauma
- The power of storytelling and public speaking. Inner work and self-love assist in shifting from a victim mentality to being able to engage in advocacy that supports other survivors. Self-advocacy and system advocacy as forms of recovery
- Trusting professionals using spiritual tools while navigating systems
- Healthy relationships, my marriage, hope and possibilities