Michelle Sleight - Empowered Survivor

But some of these children are going to come into your workplace or come into your environment somewhere along the line and they are going to have become sexual predators.

So, let's have a look at how, how this really is something that we all need to be paying attention to.

So it is a major problem.

It is not just something that happens.

It is a major health and welfare problem.

And the old tick and flick, which is what corporate companies especially do and have done for many, many years around occupational health and safety.

So just a quick round the room, let's see how we all manage risk.

Who here has comprehensive car insurance? They think that doesn't matter what happens, it's not coming out of my pocket. And who here thinks, no, no, third party's enough for me.

The important words there that I've highlighted are "must eliminate", "minimise","reasonably practical", and "minimise".

Alright? Very, very important.

These from the bullying up are the areas in which I work because they all relate in some way to people who behave in an inappropriate way and cause harm to others.

However, it now comes into your business world, into how you're a business and what you're required to be doing and the way in which you are doing the training and including this as something that is going to be part of the new legislation.

So this is something that affects us all. We've either been exposed to it in the media,you know, like myself. You might have heard about it at school,in the workplace, in the local area, your clubs,maybe down at the basketball,someone talking about this.

So I remember sitting on the floor, crying, hiding, couldn't, didn't want to go near the window.

I was like, ha ha ha.

Yeah. And I thought, I don't want this.

These wonderful people and we walked on and treated like a doormat.

And we're powerless to do anything about it because we're living in this isolated, triggered place, but it doesn't have to stay that way.

To be honest, most people are very unhelpful to victims.

I know that's sad, really sad and mean thing to say.

They don't want to be.

And the thing is like what you said, the disconnect, I think the disconnection, it's also the body disconnection, isn't it?

I am here to tell anyone and everyone, there is never a moment in your life that you will entirely forget.

And I, so all my relationships were dramatically affected by that. And that does happen to us, the relationships become dramatically affected.

So I'd like to start with a little bit of history to answer your question.
Yeah.
So I've been sexually assaulted a lot.
It started at the age of 5, and.
Mm hmm.
And I knew that what happened to me was not okay.

And to sit in the crowd of people and listen to some of the things that come out of their mouths, and how wrong and incorrect it is, but how dangerous it is and how that trigger is so hard to live within that space and in that time.

An Important Discussion about sexual assault.

It's all about starting a conversation.

So I am a woman standing here to day, and I am nobody special.

I just believe that it's time we said enough and we raise our voices together, and we put an end to this very destructive culture around sexual assault.

Having been through so much trauma myself, I've evolved, so to speak.

You know, I've come out the other side, and I'm very passionate about my mission, and I am a voice that can't be silenced.

Now, some people believe that young children who have been r***d are too young to understand what happened to them.

And I'm here to tell you that's cruel, because I know it's not true.

Now, none of us expects to be r***d, because we're just not the sort of person that happens to.

And when we are, we're left dead, alone, terrified and confused, with no skills or resources to cope.

Now, many people are exhausted from trying, and they stretch to the point where they think, I can't go on.

I can't take anymore.

But nothing works, and I just want it to stop.

Now, so many of us incorrectly blame ourselves, right.

And that is widely due to ignorance and misunderstanding in our society around sexual assault and consent.

Now, I've gone down a number of pathways that I found did not work for me, and others say they did not work for them either.
And there's another complication around the success of therapy, which depends on a range of things going on in an individual's mind.