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SEXUAL TRAUMA ADVOCACY*
HOME*
WRITING*
ASTROLOGY*
BACKGROUND*
SEXUAL TRAUMA ADVOCACY*
In April 2024 I started a monthly, free, sexual trauma peer-support group for adults 21+ in Minneapolis called Devotion Recovery. The group is for those who are in the second stage of trauma recovery as outlined by Judith Herman, M.D.: remembrance and mourning. “In the second stage of recovery, the survivor tells the story of the trauma. They tell it completely, in depth and in detail. This work of reconstruction actually transforms the traumatic memory, so that it can be integrated into the survivor's life story [...] Reconstructing the trauma is ambitious work. It requires some slackening of ordinary life demands, some ‘tolerance for the state of being ill’” (Trauma and Recovery, 175-176). This group welcomes and encourages the recounting of details that may be deeply triggering and upsetting, because they have to go somewhere.
All attendees are granted five minutes for their share. We use an amber hourglass to time us. It’s ok if it is off by a few seconds, the beauty and the ritual is the reason, not perfect accuracy.
I make graphics to announce each month’s meeting on Instagram. I choose different photos I’ve taken, all of which include trees in some capacity. Bare or full. Many also feature pictures of the sun directly.
Meetings are outdoors from April to October in different Minneapolis parks, and we meet indoors from November to March. A central part of the group structure is the closing group co-regulating segment. The final 20-25 minutes of every meeting is dedicated to a practice that ideally brings attendees back to their bodies in a calm way. I recognize that there are many support groups that are strict about not allowing attendees to share detailed descriptions of their traumatic experiences because they do not want to cause further harm or dysregulation to attendees listening, or the person themselves who shares. Since I firmly believe that myself and others have a right to share their turmoils, as disgusting, disturbing, horrifying, painful, and scary as they may be, I wanted us to have an opportunity to come back to a more centered place before leaving the meeting. I wouldn’t feel good about asking people to come to a meeting that may very well be quite re-traumatizing and just tell them to go on their way afterwards. So group co-regulating is meant to address that. Wonderful guest practitioners have led us through yin yoga, meditation, crafting, bodywork practices, pour painting, and more. Engaging with local artists and healers and all around creative people is important to me. Particularly those who are women and genderqueer people of global majority.
From all corners of my heart, thank you to the guest practitioners who have guided us through so many beautiful practices thus far: Sarah Maricha White, rowan emmanuel, Jasmine McBride, Nadia Alsadi, Sun Yung Shin, Makayla Pratt, Allisun PR, Darla June Afternoon, Paige Reynolds, Rebecca Roepke, Xiating Chen, The Heartcraft Collective, Ayo Clemons, Asha Rowland, and Kwamboka Ndege.
Interested in $upporting this work?
Donate to @Shasa-Sartin on Venmo or $shasasartin on CashApp to support in paying the guest practitioners, and buying N95 face masks, snacks, and beverages.
Looking to keep up with the group and hear about resources regarding sexual trauma recovery?
Follow at @devotionrecovery on Instagram.
Want to learn more about the group, my philosophies, who inspired me, and check out relevant literature?
Visit the living ‘ABOUT’ document here.
ONE YEAR TREE PLANTING CELEBRATION, MAY 18, 2025
[Left]: Me holding a tiny baby tree which is barely visible but it’s there, I promise. [Right]: The graphic I made to announce and promote the One Year Tree Planting Celebration. I drew a slight variation on Alison Saar’s ‘untitled from Crossroads’ (1989) sculpture and made a collage around it. I was very inspired by Saar, Ana Mendieta, and Wangari Maathai.
To celebrate one year of the support group in May 2025, I collaborated with Mississippi Park Connection to organize a volunteer tree planting event in Minnehaha Falls Regional Park. I attended a tree planting they hosted in September 2024, and I had such a great time, I thought it would be a beautiful way to symbolize the work myself and fellow attendees do in meetings. Trees are also an important part of the images of the group, and of outdoor meetings themselves. We sit under trees in different parks in Minneapolis for shade and comfort.
The event was part of a greater restoration effort between MPC and Minneapolis Parks and Recreation Board to return indigenous plants such as elderberry and dogwood shrubs to the area
which was once overgrown with buckthorn.