501 | Sex Trafficking: Understanding the Wounds and Helping Survivors Heal

Human sex trafficking is currently at epidemic proportions. This illegal activity touches all nations and has long-lasting consequences for survivors, all those involved, and society. Traffickers exploit both genders, all ethnicities, the aged and young, and the educated and unschooled. The effects of trafficking on the victim are numerous and profound. Yet, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the vast majority of sex trafficking victims in the U.S. are adolescent females. In this workshop, psychologists, licensed mental health professionals, medical professionals, and ministry leaders will learn how the sex industry exploits the normal development of children and adolescents to traffic them, specifically how traffickers work to manipulate the worldviews and identities of their victims. Participants will examine how exposure to chronic victimization increases the risk of physical and psychological difficulties, even creating symptoms from impaired cognitive functioning to complex trauma and dissociative identity disorders. This workshop provides a detailed understanding for participants of the abuse most survivors experience, how to assess these experiences, the resulting diagnoses, and specific treatment interventions to heal the wounds of trafficking.