Melissa Barker - Sexual Violence and how to heal

Melissa Barker is the founder and CEO of The Phoenix Project, a social impact startup in the Bay Area, focused on empowering survivors of sexual violence, while connecting survivors to healing resources and community. 

Melissa is a survivor herself and is building Phoenix to make trauma-informed healing and care more accessible to survivors everywhere. She knows firsthand how hard healing can feel at times, but she also knows sometimes the only way out is through.  She wants to create a space where all survivors can have access to high-quality healing and care, so that they may (re)find their joy. 

Melissa holds a B.A. from UC Berkeley in Interdisciplinary Studies, an M.A. from Saint Mary’s College in Leadership Studies for Social Justice.  She is pursuing her Doctorate in Educational Leadership. Her doctoral research focuses on how survivors are finding healing in this post #MeToo world.

In this episode we discuss:

• How sexual assault affected Melissa emotionally, physically, and psychologically.
• How she went into trauma response after her assault and what that looked like.
• Why it’s normal for survivors to blame themselves and how challenging it is to move through the shame.
• Why she felt at the time of her assault, it was a better option to consider suicide than speaking up and sharing.
• How her unhealed trauma revealed itself through the years and how it impacted her relationships.
• How she healed through trauma therapy and came to the conclusion there needed to be more resources out there for survivors.  From that realization, she birthed the Phoenix Project: a digital space for survivors to come to be seen, witnessed, and empowered.

Connect with Melissa:
Website: www.iamphoenixproject.com
Instagram: @iam_phoenix_rising

Connect with Ashley:
Instagram: @someday_ill_get_there
Website: [email protected]