Supporting Adult Survivors’ Healing Through Our Counseling Grants Program

No More Stolen Childhoods (NMSC) is committed to supporting adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse on their path to healing. We acknowledge the generational impact that ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) can have on families and in our communities. We also know that adults who’ve worked through their healing process are better equipped to navigate their own interpersonal relationships, physical health, and professional roles. Over time, their healing helps to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health and child sexual abuse and better equips our communities to prevent abuse from happening in the future.

At NMSC, we also believe that healing is most effective when adult survivors are in a safe, therapeutic setting with a provider who is professionally trained to meet their needs. Studies have shown that some of the biggest barriers to getting mental healthcare, particularly for those who have suffered complex trauma, are practical. The professional, academic, and interpersonal hurdles that many survivors face also become indirect hurdles to their recovery. This is a problem, as we do not believe people should have less access to care because they were harmed to a greater degree than many others. In 2019 our Counseling Grants Program launched, providing funds for the mental health treatment of adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse. Each grant provides for up to $2,000 of treatment costs per individual.

Since the program started, NMSC has awarded grants to 14 people across 5 Maryland counties and facilitated over 120 therapy sessions. We now have a growing waitlist of individuals interested in grants. This is good progress, and organizationally our plan is to grow this effort, however, we recognize that for each individual survivor, healing is beyond quantification. There is no measure for the impact of a survivor finding support that allows them to nurture their own family more fully; or of a college student whose therapy enables them to remain enrolled and graduate; or the relief of a parent who no longer finds their own child’s growth to be a traumatic trigger. As one of our partnering clinicians told us, “This grant has given [my clients] more than words can express…”

We are honored to be able to play a role in the incalculable good that echoes out from facilitating the healing of even a single survivor, and we invite you to join us.

If you are a clinician in Maryland and interested in a counseling grant for a client, you can read more and contact us here.

If you are a supporter of No More Stolen Childhoods and would like to make a contribution toward the healing of those in our communities who have suffered childhood sexual abuse, you can do so here.