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Centering the recovery journey of survivors of sex trafficking, this study critically examines first-person narratives from 40 survivors, complemented by survey responses from 11 survivors, with the aim of developing an in-depth understanding of their experiences with recovery from trafficking. The research seeks to illuminate the underrepresented survivor perspectives on recovery—a gap in the literature identified in a recent scoping review by Haney and colleagues (2020). Amid the staggering global prevalence of sex trafficking, affecting an estimated 27.6 million individuals at any time (US Department of State, 2021), understanding recovery is essential to addressing the profound health and well-being consequences survivors face.
METHODS
Through a constructivist lens, our study prioritized the subjective meaning and shared realities of the survivor experience. We sought to understand how survivors define recovery and healing using interviews with structured conversation prompts and an online survey. In partnership with a survivor-serving community agency, we employed purposive sampling to engage participants in either focus groups, individual interviews, or an online survey, offering them in English or Spanish, virtual or in-person. Following transcription, we used grounded theory analysis methods (Charmaz, 2014) with two independent coders, yielding eight themes that were shared with survivors in member-checking groups. Based on member-checking dialogue, these were refined into seven themes.
RESULTS
The findings crystallized into seven key themes across three integrative healing dimensions, reflecting survivor experiences while recovering from sex trafficking: 1) growth related to self, 2) relationships, and 3) behaviors. The self-focused area involved intrapersonal processing to help the mind make sense of, and reconcile with, the traumatic experience(s), and included four themes: Self and Identity, Emotional Rhythms in Healing, Processing What Happened, and Interpreting the Recovery Journey. The relational area involved two themes: Attending to Relationships and Navigating Trust. The behavioral area had one theme, Stepping Towards Stability. Cutting across themes, survivors emphasized that every person’s recovery pacing and path are unique, and sometimes involve setbacks. Theme descriptions are enhanced with survivors’ own words to deepen understanding of their lived experiences.
CONCLUSION/IMPLICATIONS
This inquiry disrupts normative research trends by placing survivor voices at the forefront. Centering first person accounts about recovery from this hard-to-reach population advances research on effective responses to trafficking, as this is an under-researched area. The nuanced understanding fleshed out through individual themes offers fertile ground for future studies, particularly around the salience of trust for survivors and those who support them. Further, findings could also be used to develop a measure of recovery from sex trafficking that survivor supporting agencies can use to measure the impact and outcomes of their services.
Practice implications underscore the role of basic needs support, and of trust in helping relationships. Practitioners should foster intrapersonal experiences where survivors can rebuild self-trust. The contextual details related to healing processes also elucidate targets for service provision that build trust in the relational area such as interpersonal boundary-setting, and the need to use relationship-centered practice modalities. They also provide a roadmap for survivors and practitioners on what might be expected while recovering.