Sep 19, 2024
Nancy Morris is the host of the "SiblingsToo" podcast, dedicated to bringing awareness and reducing the stigma surrounding sibling sexual abuse (SSA). With a commitment to amplifying the voices of survivors, academics, and professionals, Nancy employs her platform to foster education, support, and meaningful conversations about the complex impacts of SSA on families and individuals.
Episode Summary:
In this captivating episode, Nancy delves into the upcoming
projects and thematic shifts that will shape the podcast's future.
The episode serves as an insightful guide on what listeners can
expect as the conversation around sibling sexual abuse continues to
evolve.
Nancy underscores the introduction of Teagan McLaren's impactful song "Breaking the Silence" as the new audio and video anthem for the podcast, reinforcing the ongoing mission to break societal taboos. Entwining anecdotes from listeners and feedback from academics, Nancy shares her enthusiasm for the growing community of support and awareness surrounding SSA, emphasizing the critical role of storytelling in changing perceptions and aiding healing.
Key Takeaways:
• Reminder of Teagan McLaren's Song: The podcast will
continue to feature "Breaking the Silence" by Teagan McLaren to
encapsulate the podcast's mission and ethos.
• New Messaging Initiatives: The podcast will
introduce fresh messaging aimed at reducing societal and
self-imposed stigma and giving voice to the voiceless across the
family dynamic.
• Upcoming Interviews: Future episodes will explore
diverse perspectives, including international viewpoints and
experiences from different family members affected by SSA.
• Focus on Education: There's a significant push
towards educating professionals, academics, and the public to
bridge the knowledge gap regarding SSA.
• Community Engagement: Listeners are encouraged to
share their thoughts, stories, and suggestions to help shape the
podcast and support those affected by SSA.
Notable Quotes:
• "Breaking the silence around sibling sexual abuse is
why the 'SiblingsToo' podcast exists to begin with."
• "I've heard from many academics, professionals,
lived experience experts, family members...that the genie that is
the secret of sibling sexual abuse will not be able to go back in
the bottle."
• "One of the ways to minimize stigma is to share
knowledge, to share opportunities for education, to teach people
some of the facts and outcomes and impacts of sibling sexual
abuse."
• "What happens now? Now that the genie is nice and
fat, or getting fatter anyway, what do we do next?"
• "I know this isn't necessarily a topic we want to be
talking about, but we need to. And the more we do, the easier the
conversation becomes."
Resources:
• Visit the "SiblingsToo" website
• Follow the "SiblingsToo" project on Facebook and Instagram
Stay tuned to the "SiblingsToo" podcast for more groundbreaking
discussions and essential resources that not only foster awareness
but also pave the way for effective prevention and intervention
practices in sibling sexual abuse. Your participation and feedback
are vital to continuing this important conversation. Listen to the
full episode for a comprehensive understanding, and join us in
making sure the genie remains forever out of the bottle.
Computer-generated transcript
Ep.57 – What’s Coming This Fall On The Podcast
Hosted by Nancy Morris of #SiblingsToo
0:00:01 - Well, it's great to be back in the #SiblingsToo
podcast hosting chair the fall of 2024. And we're back. So I want
to take a few minutes just to share with you some of what's coming
up in the next few weeks and months with the #SiblingsToo podcast
and project. A lot's actually going to be going on. There's going
to be some new projects. There's going to be some new work being
done with the stories that are being collected at the #SiblingsToo
website.
0:00:31 - We're going to be using some of the information
from those stories directly on the podcast to reinforce some of the
messaging, and we're going to be changing some of the messaging. So
there's going to be a lot going on in the next few weeks and
months. One thing I wanted to check in with you, though, right now.
Did you notice that Tegan McLaren's song Breaking the Silence is
now introducing all of the siblings to podcast episodes?
0:01:00 - It will be the song that is used for everything
that #SiblingsToo produces in audio format and even in video format
as we go forward. As I mentioned in the podcast episode where I
interviewed Tegan about the work that she did on the song, you
know, I think it's such a great song. And the messaging is really
important, not only for those who have survived sibling sexual
abuse, but for the rest of the entire family.
0:01:29 - In fact, breaking the silence around sibling sexual
abuse is why the #SiblingsToo podcast exists to begin with. So
let's just keep working. Let's keep the conversation going. I've
said in the past that one of the jobs I feel that I have, one of
the outcomes that I was hoping for was that the genie would be too
fat to fit back in the bottle. And I've heard from many people,
academics, professionals, lived, experience experts, family
members, the general public who are familiar with the podcast, my
Facebook friends, my Instagram friends, and so on and so forth,
that they strongly believe that the genie that is the secret of
sibling sexual abuse will not be able to go back in the bottle like
it has done in the fat in the past.
0:02:22 - Let's face it, the conversation about sibling
sexual abuse has been around for a while, probably a good 40, 50
years now. I've got books written by academics from the eighties
talking about SSA and the importance of bringing the conversation
to light. I've got research papers from the same sort of time. And
even before talking about the idea that there are impacts to
sibling sexual abuse for every member of the family, and those
impacts need to be discussed.
0:02:56 - Prevention needs to be prioritized intervention
needs to be thoughtful because SSA is so different from many other
forms of, and those sorts of discussions were being had long ago.
But because this is such a difficult subject and it is still
considered, you know, society's last taboo around family sexual
violence, people don't want to talk about it. But now I think the
genie's way too fat to get back in the bottle.
0:03:28 - And that's thanks to those who listen to this
podcast and other people who are out there in the world making a
lot of noise about SSA. And I don't mean noise in a derogatory way.
I mean people who are sharing their voice, their story, their
information, whether that is a person who was harmed, a person who
harmed other family members, parents, other siblings, other members
of the public, talking about people that they knew, and so on and
so forth. So now the conversations are becoming normalized. We
still have a long way to go, a long way to go, but they are
becoming normalized, and the genie is too fat to get back in the
bottle.
0:04:13 - That is, in part thanks to you, the people who are
downloading these podcast episodes and taking them to heart. And I
know a great number of the people who are listening to the
#SiblingsToo podcast also have contributed to the #SiblingsToo
awareness days that have happened in 2023 and 2024. On April 15,
there will be another 1. April 15, 2025 for sure. The form of it, I
don't know yet. We're working on that. But it is coming.
0:04:44 - And it's those people such as yourself listening
now, and the others who have either listened to the podcast or
engaged with the videos at the #SiblingsToo YouTube channel, who
are responsible for ensuring that the genie doesn't go back in the
bottle. And I thank you for that. I thank you for the time and
energy that you give to this podcast and to the work that I and
others do, whether those others are lived, experienced folks or
academics and professionals who are now really on the forefront of
providing care and education and support and guidance to those who
have been impacted by SSA and those families who want to prevent it
from occurring in the first place.
0:05:30 - So thank you for that. So what's coming? What. What
are we going to be talking about? Well, as I said, there's going to
be some new messaging coming out of the #SiblingsToo podcast
directed towards society as a whole. New information that I hope
will speed up the idea of not only raising awareness, but reducing
the stigma, which to me, is the real villain in sibling sexual
abuse. Not only societal stigma, but the self stigma that family
members put on themselves about this topic.
0:06:06 - The one of the ways to minimize stigma is to share
knowledge, to share opportunities for education, to teach people
some of the facts and outcomes and impacts, et cetera, of siblings
sexual abuse, so that there isn't a gap of knowledge that sort of
stigma can squeeze into. And that's where it is. It's usually in a
gap of knowledge. It's usually in, you know, a space where people
don't have the right information.
0:06:35 - So I'm really going to be leaning into education.
And as it comes to the #SiblingsToo podcast education for
professionals, those on the front line, social workers, counselors,
therapists, psychotherapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, those
that work in areas of social services, family services, child
welfare, et cetera, et cetera. Those sorts of professionals that
don't easily have access to some of this information.
0:07:05 - And while some is certainly being created in
professional associations for those at work on the front line, it's
lacking. I think many people would agree that there's a big gap of
education there for the professionals. Also, I want to share
information between academics. So I've got the honor of knowing
people around the world who work in this field, work in this
conversation, as it were, and they don't always get to chat with
each other. So I'm going to be bringing more of those international
viewpoints to the #SiblingsToo podcast.
0:07:39 - I also want to bring the viewpoints of other people
who are impacted by sibling sexual abuse, not only the child that
was harmed, and it's usually, of course, adult survivors that we
have on the show, because I can't bring child survivors onto the
show, but adult survivors, but also there are other family members.
There is a person who caused harm. I know that my episode with Adam
who openly admits to the behaviors that he had when he was younger
and the impacts on not only his sister, but on his other sibling,
and how it changed the family dynamic for that sibling and his
parents, and how his behavior fundamentally changed many parts of
the family dynamic.
0:08:23 - His viewpoint is important, and the #SiblingsToo
podcast will be giving space to those people who have those
viewpoints as well. Also parents, parents of those children who are
involved in sibling sexual abuse. They have a viewpoint that is
often very difficult to share, but I will be giving more space to
those viewpoints in future as well. Plus, we're also going to be
looking a little bit more at the notion of what are some of the
ways that people who are impacted by SSA, regardless of where they
are in the family, but who are impacted by it. In any event, some
of the ways that they can self support, as it were, self heal. I
don't like that word. But the idea of providing for themselves self
care as it relates to their journey beyond sibling sexual
abuse.
0:09:17 - I'm going to be looking further into a lot of the
research that's going on. As this conversation has been ramping up
over the last few years. And as the genie has been getting fatter,
many academics are seeing new opportunities for research around
things like language. What language is best supportive of,
particularly the survivor of sibling sexual abuse, but others as
well, and how the language that's used hurts or hinders or
sometimes helps the whole conversation. I think that's an important
topic to dive into a little bit more and I'm looking forward to
having those conversations with not only the academics who are
doing the research, but the lived experience folks who are
contributing to it.
0:10:02 - I think that is an important topic to go alongside
with some of the other conversations related to trauma and the
impacts on the body, for example, mind, body, spirit work, things
like that that we touched on in the last know, 20 or 30 episodes,
but really want to dive in more along with the importance of
understanding SSA through the light of things like PTSD,
addictions, suicidal ideations, mental health issues, relationship
issues, self esteem, all of these sorts of things that we know are
impacts.
0:10:38 - But beyond raising awareness and reducing stigma,
one of the other topics that I really want to dive into in coming
episodes is what's next? So what happens now? Now that the genie is
nice and fat, or getting fatter anyway, what do we do next? Well,
that's where we're going to be talking about the opportunities and
obstacles for including sex education, including sibling sexual
abuse and sex education for the need for more funding, for
additional resources, research and tools that not only help to
prevent sibling sexual abuse, but intervene appropriately when it
occurs.
0:11:20 - These topics are close to my heart and I know from
the feedback that I get through the #SiblingsToo website and also
on the social media and other channels as well. These topics are
really important to the audience. I hope you're intrigued by what's
coming down the pipeline in terms of the podcast. The next
interview I've done is with Doctor Risa Shaw, who wrote not child's
play. It's a fascinating discussion that's coming out in a couple
of weeks and I'm very excited about it. And you'll understand why
when you listen to the episode, why it's so important for me to
have interviewed Doctor Shaw. And the conversation that we had was,
I think, quite excellent in terms of the importance of storytelling
and why just speaking of one's experiences is so relevant these
days.
0:12:11 - So that's next in line. So that'll be the next
episode coming out in a couple of weeks. In the meantime, if you
have an idea, a thought, a comment, if you have a constructive
criticism about the podcast, if there's something that you'd like
to hear more about, if you're a professional that and you have a
particular situation, I obviously can't help with the situation,
but maybe there's a piece of information that can be helpful for
you to hear. Because if it's helpful for you, I can guarantee you
it's helpful for many other people as well.
0:12:45 - I also know that a lot of parents listen to
professionals talking about the professional approach to SSA
because it gives parents some insight. And if you're one of those
parents and there's something that you want to know, please do let
me know through the social channels or the website itself. For
those of you who have been harmed by sibling sexual abuse, as
always, you are my number one priority.
0:13:12 - I'm there with you, and I want to ensure that the
#SiblingsToo podcast is supporting you and your needs. So if
there's something you want to feed back to me, that's great. To the
other family members who don't think necessarily that this podcast
is for you, it is, and I welcome speaking with you and talking
about how it is you might want to contribute to the overall
conversation related to siblings sexual abuse.
0:13:38 - The #SiblingsToo podcast is going to continue to
bring real information, data, research, and most importantly, the
stories that matter about sibling sexual abuse. So we not only
raise awareness and we reduce the stigma, but we add positively to
the opportunities that are becoming available to prevent SSA from
occurring and to intervene when it has. That's what's coming down
the pipeline. I hope you're as excited about it as I am.
0:14:09 - I know this isn't necessarily a topic we want to be
talking about, but we need to. And the more we do, the easier the
conversation becomes. So continue to listen in. Please join me on
Facebook at the #SiblingsToo page on Facebook, the #SiblingsToo
project page at Instagram, or the #SiblingsToo channel on YouTube.
And I look forward to hearing from you. Take care.