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S3 E3: Using Trauma for Good with Nathan Spiteri
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Male survivors of sexual abuse is a topic that is surrounded by stigma, shame, and misunderstanding, making it extremely difficult for survivors to speak out and receive the support they need. We're proud to feature Nathan Spiteri on this month's episode, as he shares his powerful story and advocates for change.
Nathan Spiteri, is a filmmaker, actor, writer, sexual abuse survivor, activist, and advocate. Nathan shares his personal journey of being sexually abused as a child and how he turned to drugs, violence, and sex to cope with the trauma. He ultimately sought therapy and joined Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous, and Sex Anonymous to turn his life around. Nathan now uses his painful past to raise awareness and educate people about sexual abuse. Nathan has aligned himself with organizations both in Australia and the US to raise awareness, educate people, and act as an advocate for sexual abuse. He shares the importance of creating change, having difficult conversations, and speaking up about male and child sexual abuse to change the narrative.
Hear from Neil Parekh and Candace Sanchez as they delve deep with Nathan into the experiences of male survivors of sexual abuse, exploring the challenges they face in coming forward and seeking help, the impact of abuse on their mental health and relationships, and the importance of creating safe and supportive spaces for them to heal.
Episode Highlights:
06:21- I'm excited to share my story about what I went through and just about my memoir and what I have going on. And it's about having the conversations, about creating change, because if we don't do it, no one else is going to do it. It has been a struggle, it has been tough and a lot of rejections when I want to try and talk about this stuff and get it to come out and speak to the media about this, it's been a lot of rejections because I am a male. We need to change the narrative on male and child sexual abuse.
24:58 - Yeah, we all have a story. We all have trauma. We all, sexual abuse, domestic violence, emotional abuse. It's all the same. It's all about how we deal with our trauma, how we move forward with it. So it has been a journey, but what I say is, yes, I've been through what I've been through, and it was tough and it was hard. It broke me. But from that, so many amazing things are now coming.
31:15 - Obviously, there's a lot more work in understanding, in learning about shame, learning about toxic masculinity, learning about Stockholm syndrome, so there's a lot more to it. But the three main ones were forgiveness, were writing this letter and understanding that it wasn't my fault. Because once you do that, you let go of anger and hatred, you let go of self-sabotage and impostor syndrome.
37:10 - We are no longer victims where we're survivors. We're thriving. We're powerful. We are strong. We've got a voice where I think we're stronger than most people in the world. After what we've been through and what we've lived through, we can handle pretty much anything. So I say whether you are at the same level as Candace and I, but you are because you're out there, you're talking about it, you're thriving. You're a survivor.
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