Stories from Survivors

We’ve had the privilege of writing our own stories and sharing other’s.

Survival Isn’t Mandatory: A Memoir

We are so proud of our Co-Founder, Janet and her new book, Survival Isn’t Mandatory.

If you love a book of short stories that build to a crescendo and leave you wanting more, this is a book you must read.

Every step this shaky girl takes is to become brave. Her triumphs are real and so are the threats.

You will love this girl and root for her to win.

Our Silent Voice: Break the Silence

Our anthology provides a means for people to speak out about what many endure in silence. Talking about abuse that happens in the home is very difficult for everyone, victims as well as those who care about them. Our Silent Voice was founded on the mission to break the silence and begin the important conversations that lead to freedom and help prevent the ongoing cycle.

This book will change you and how you think and talk about this sensitive topic.

Read these brave and inspiring stories submitted by survivors of sexual assault, harassment, and domestic violence. Purchase your paperback or digital copy of this #1 best-seller today.

An Excerpt from “OSV: End the Silence”

“Secrets, sex, and shame. We have these things in common, like it or not. It’s so easy to blame ourselves. The walk of shame in the morning after a party, the “If only I had said no,” “I should never drink,” “Why didn’t I walk out?,” “Did I say yes?”. That shame is the lock that keeps us enslaved.

In the fight, flight, or freeze response spectrum, shame causes us to freeze. It causes brain fog, confusion, and an inability to process and move on. Our Silent Voice believes in the research that says yes, writing your story can be healing. Anthology contributor, April Bernard, puts the healing power of writing about trauma into her piece, “The Crevice”:

“To say this was an isolated incident is false, to say this was the first incident is false; to say this was the last incident is false. It took more events like this, more stripping down to desolate places before I forged strength to leave permanently. My shame locked me in that horrid relationship. This was his true manipulative power over me. For a long time, he managed to live with me in a crevice of promise and despair.”

Like April, we found the courage to break out of the shame and write our stories. An expert in shame research, Brene Brown, talks about compassion this way: “When we find the courage to share our experiences and the compassion to hear others tell their stories, we force shame out of hiding and end the silence.”

While it is evident that nearly everyone has or knows a story of trauma around sexual misconduct or abuse, it’s also clear that shame is interwoven with these stories. These pages reveal what we kept quiet about because we felt too ashamed to speak the words out loud.

Until now.”

— Chapter 1, “Shame: Everyone Has a Story”

To read more of Chapter 1, “Shame: Everyone Has a Story”, get your copy today.