Shweta Kapoor on Healing from Sexual Trauma

This article features OBOS content expert and psychiatrist Shweta Kapoor, MD, PhD, discussing healing from sexual trauma. While there is no cure for sexual trauma, we can learn to cope with the effects. Medications, such as antidepressants and mood stabilizers, can help us regulate our emotions. Therapies, such as dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT) and trauma-focused therapies, can help people learn how to respond to stress and negative life events. Some people may need more intensive treatment.

Along with explaining treatment options, Kapoor shares tips for caring for partners who are survivors of sexual abuse. Partners can learn more about trauma and triggers. They can attend to the needs of their partners, believing them and communicating clearly about sex. It is also important that the partners of survivors have a community of people to support them as well.

After trauma, we can have healthy and fulfilling lives and relationships. While we may never fully heal from the trauma, we can learn how to live with it.

Having lived with abuse for a prolonged period of time, it may seem like your lived trauma experience is woven into your emotional DNA. But with the help of treatment, your relationship with your life story evolves and changes. You can reach a place of belonging, self-love, self-compassion and growth.

SOURCE: Mayo Clinic • AUTHOR: Lisa Speckhard Pasque • LAST UPDATED: June 7, 2023