It was a true wonder to work with Marisol, her husband Salvador
and their daughter Emilia. There was so much growth over the 6
months of therapy at PARTNERS, on all sides. I was able to learn
more about the beautiful resilience demonstrated by Emilia and her
parents to overcome and cope with such life-changing events as a
sexual abuse within the family, someone they had trusted entirely
previously. This family inspired me because instead of breaking
apart after a potentially conflictual and taboo matter, they stuck
together till the end, coming every single week to therapy.
Unfortunately for other families and fortunately for this one, most
often there is more than just one trauma that can devastate a
child.
If we look deeper though, Marisol opened up about a sexual abuse
she had survived when she was 3 years old, also by her cousin, back
in Nicaragua. She was able to open up thanks to the use of
PARTNERS state-of-the-art therapy we provide and the wonderful
training we have as state-of-the-art therapists! Even if Emilia and
her parents have graduated from PARTNERS, which is amazing, our
doors are open to stay in touch. I was recently told that
Emilia who was previously failing her math class and was probably
going to stay back another year in school, passed her tests and is
now entering 4th grade. Also with our follow-up evaluations, it was
noted that Emilia no longer had any PTSD symptoms. Her parents are
very involved with PARTNERS in helping raise awareness about sexual
abuse and its treatment in the Nicaraguan community of Queens
(schools, churches, bodegas).