Sexual assault and sexual violence can change the way a person experiences their body, relationships, sexuality and sense of safety for a long time afterwards. If this is your experience or it sounds familiar to you, the reflections and information in this blog may be useful as you make sense of what has happened and what you might need from support.

In my therapeutic space, the focus is on ongoing safety, stabilisation, and trauma‑informed counselling from a sex therapy and sexology  lens, rather than crisis response. This can include working with people in the days and weeks after a sexual assault, as well as those seeking support months, years, or decades later. This includes people who are currently moving through forensic or other formal pathways, as well as people who are not.

Support is available for sexual assault and sexual violence in many forms, including coercive control, pressured or unwanted sexual contact, sexualised threats, and other experiences that may not have been named as “assault” but have affected your body, safety, or sexuality.

I work primarily with adults aged 21 and over who are living with the impacts of sexual assault and sexual violence, whether the experience is recent or in the distant past. In my practice, services are confidential and private. Your information is not shared unless you want that disclosed, or unless there is a legal or ethical reason that confidentiality cannot be maintained.

When Support Feels Hard to Access

For many people, finding support after sexual assault or sexual violence is not straightforward. Speaking up can take a lot of courage, and people differ in when or whether they want to seek help — some want support quickly, some wait until later, and some are unsure if they want it at all. It can feel confusing and disheartening to move through different options for support. Sometimes there are waiting periods, eligibility criteria, or approaches that do not quite match what a person is needing. When someone is already carrying trauma, these experiences can add to distress and can make it harder to trust that support is available and responsive to their situation.

For some people, the violence has involved coercive control, repeated pressure, sexualised threats, or other subtle but persistent violations that were minimised or dismissed at the time. These experiences are still sexual violence, and they are welcome in this space.

Many people seeking help are not only looking for a service response. They are looking for a space where the impacts on the nervous system, relationships, body, sexuality, shame, dissociation, and sense of self can be understood with care. The therapeutic lens offered here is trauma‑informed and psychotherapeutic, situated in the sex therapy space and attentive to the complexity of living after sexual violence.

In my practice, there is no expectation that you present a neat account or the “right” kind of trauma. You are welcome exactly as you are—whether you feel fragmented, numb, overwhelmed, angry, ashamed, seeking justice or unsure what you want from therapy yet. The work can start from wherever you find yourself now.

Different people use different words for themselves after sexual assault. In my practice, you are free to use whatever language feels right for you — victim, survivor, person who has experienced sexual violence, or no label at all.

A Brief Note on Medical Care and Evidence Options

After a rape or sexual assault, there are specific time frames where certain kinds of medical care and evidence collection can be most useful. For example, forensic medical examinations are often most helpful in the first few days, and in some situations may be available for up to around 10 days after the assault, depending on the circumstances.

Immediate effects of sexual assault also need medical attention. If there are acute injuries, pain, bleeding, strangulation concerns, or other urgent physical symptoms after an assault, prompt medical care is important — for example, seeing your GP or attending your local Emergency Department. If any injuries or symptoms are life‑threatening, call 000 for ambulance support, and involve police if needed. If strangulation or choking is part of your experience, you might also like to read my blog on non‑fatal strangulation, safety and health impacts: Non‑fatal strangulation and safety.

If you are in South Australia and would like to explore evidence collection or a medical examination that includes forensic options, these examinations are often most useful within 72 hours of a rape or sexual assault, and in some situations may be available for up to 10 days afterwards. In that situation, it is important to contact Yarrow Place directly for information about medical care, evidence options and available support. I can also make referrals to Yarrow Place, and — with your consent — speak with the team and introduce you so you are not navigating that contact alone.

If you have not made a decision yet about what you want to do, you are still welcome to talk it through with me during that time. In my practice, the focus is not on pushing you toward any particular option, but on supporting you to understand your choices and access enough information to make an informed decision that feels right for you.

If you are elsewhere in Australia or internationally and would like to explore evidence collection, forensic examination, or crisis support, please contact your nearest sexual assault crisis service.

Working Alongside or Independently

In my practice, support can happen alongside forensic pathways, alongside other services, or completely independently of them. Therapy does not need to wait until another service has finished its work. A person may be navigating reporting, medical appointments, legal uncertainty, or contact with specialist services and still benefit from a private, consistent space focused on their wellbeing.

That work may include building safety in everyday life, strengthening stabilisation, understanding trauma responses, addressing dissociation, making sense of body memories, and exploring how sexual assault has affected intimacy and relationships, desire, touch, pain, or sexual identity. It can also include making sense of experiences with friends or others in your life, including when responses have been confusing, minimising or blaming.  Safety and stabilisation are not only crisis concepts. They are part of ongoing trauma‑informed care, especially for people living with the longer‑term effects of sexual violence.

A Different Therapeutic Lens

The approach in my practice is not primarily about fitting a person into a service pathway. It is about meeting the person where they are. That may mean moving gently, working with fragmentation or uncertainty, making room for complex trauma, or paying attention to how sexual assault has shaped the way you relate to sex, your body, your identities, and your experiences in health care.

There is no requirement to have reported to police, to be considering legal action, to have a clear timeline, or to describe what happened in a perfectly coherent way. People are welcome here whether they are exploring reporting options, moving through legal or forensic processes, are not pursuing them at this point, or never accessed them at all.

If you have been sexually assaulted, this is about your choices and what you want to do. My role is not to tell you what decision to make, but to help you access information, think things through, and make informed choices that feel right for you.

In my practice, support around sexual assault and violence is offered through trauma‑informed counselling in the sex therapy space. This work is informed by specialist training in recognising and responding to sexual assault and sexual violence, including responses to disclosure, understanding the impacts of sexual violence, and the neurobiology of sexual assault and trauma, as well as additional training in forensic sexology

Work in this area is emotionally intense, and part of my practice includes de‑identified clinical supervision and ongoing reflection to help ensure your care remains safe, thoughtful and centred on you.

If sexual assault or sexual violence is continuing to affect your body, relationships or sexual wellbeing, support is available. In my practice, it is possible to seek trauma‑informed counselling in the sex therapy space that is attentive to safety and stabilisation, while also making room for the broader impacts this may be having on your life.

You’re Welcome Here

You’re welcome here whether your experience of sexual assault or sexual violence was recent or many years ago, and whether it happened within a relationship, a casual encounter or any other situation where you should have been safe. If you are in Adelaide, elsewhere in Australia, or overseas, and something in this piece about sexual assault, sexual violence or their impacts on body, relationships, sexuality or safety has resonated, you are welcome to start working with me and book a session. Our work together can become a space to explore what feels most important right now, including any impact on your body, sexuality, intimacy, attachment or sense of self.

You do not need to arrive with the perfect words, a complete memory or a fully formed plan; it is enough that you know something happened and that it matters. Whether you are thinking about medical or legal pathways, have decided against them, are unsure what you want to do, or are feeling the emotional rollercoaster that recognition without full justice can bring, your responses are valid. Your life matters, your body is not to blame, and it is entirely valid to seek support for what happened to you, even many years later, including support alongside or separate from any formal processes.

Book your first session here.