Alongside this lived experience, my academic and professional training in neuroscience, public health, and psychology has provided a framework for understanding the impact of child maltreatment and developmental trauma. Through this lens, it became clear that many approaches to trauma do not fully reflect the reality of how trauma disrupted development, identity, and functioning.

Second Assault was developed at the intersection of these perspectives, lived experience, clinical insight, and research with a goal of improving how trauma is understood and address across a variety of systems.

My work focuses on advancing trauma-informed approaches that move beyond narrow definitions of trauma, center survivor voices, and promote ethical, informed, and effective responses to care

Second Assault began as a way to make sense of my own experiences.

For years, it existed only in journal entries, written in treatment centers, hospital rooms, and moment of trying to understand my own mind and early life. Dozens of journals filled with questions, observations, and attempts to put language to experiences that were too difficult to name.

It was never my intention to make these experiences public.

But violence thrive in silences.

Speaking out became a way to disrupt that silence, not only for myself, but for others. For the children who are still experiencing abuse, for survivors trying to find a way out, for those we have lost to child maltreatment, and for the providers working within systems that often make this work more difficult.

This work is rooted in the belief that survival itself is an act of resistance.

Because I was able to survive as a child, I am lucky to be able to speak out today, to honor that fight, and the experience of too many individuals whose voices are too often unheard.

Abigail