What is Power-Based Trauma?
In my field, counselors, advocates, activists, scholars, and researchers use different terms to describe sexual assault, sexual harassment, and intimate partner violence. These terms include: sexual violence, sexual abuse, molestation, sexual trauma, military sexual trauma, rape, sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, child sex trafficking, childhood sexual abuse, child abuse material (because using the term ‘child porn’ insinuates consent), domestic violence, intimate partner abuse, dating violence, stalking, gender-based violence or harassment, relationship violence, power-based interpersonal violence, and power-based personal violence. Sometimes these terms are used interchangeably other times, they’re used to describe the specific act used to harm another human being. No matter the term we use, we focus on the fact that all of these acts are rooted in power and control. Meaning that the person committing these acts is using their power to control another human being. In some cases these acts are obvious (overt) but in other cases they are very subtle (covert).
After thousands of hours of research and working with survivors of sexual assault (including child sexual abuse), sexual harassment, and sex trafficking, I decided to define these acts in a way that describes the systemic issues that cause such harm. I call them power-based traumas. I define power-based trauma as the use of status, resources, interactions, or influence to dominate, exploit, and/or control a human being causing negative physical, emotional, financial, spiritual, and/or sexual consequences in their life. My definition is based on the embedded power dynamics and inequities that originated from colonizers’ behaviors and ideas that are still operating today. These behaviors and ideas such as rationalizing, denying, and/or ignoring the systemic abuse, discrimination, and oppression of children and women, have accrued over centuries, and are upheld by systems such as institutions, laws, policies, and social norms. Furthermore, racialized people and communities who have been historically marginalized suffer from power-based traumas at disproportionate rates.
Invitation for a Sacred Pause: I want to invite you to take a sacred pause to process what you just read. It’s heavy. Ground yourself in the present by slowly taking a big breath, inhale… now exhale. Notice your breath and the way your stomach expands and contracts. Look around the environment you’re in now. Say the colors you see aloud. Name any objects that stand out to you aloud. This is a great grounding technique to keep you in the present…not focusing on the past or the future. I hope this was helpful to you. Take what resonates with you and release what doesn’t. Be well.
There’s more to say about how these dynamics play out on systemic, communal, relational, and individual levels but I’ll end it here as this is a heavy topic to digest. If you’re ready to combat power-based trauma and want to learn more about how to do so check out my services. Until then, take good care of yourselves.
