Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2120

Tonight's special guest is Janet Bentley from Scottsdale, Arizona, a survivor of childhood sexual abuse who grew up in a dysfunctional family riddled with abuse, addiction and suicide. She serves as NAASCA's Ambassador to Colorado and is the founder of Courageous Survivors. Janet experienced abuse from the age of 4 .. sexual, emotional, physical and religious abuse. After several years of trying to cope with the effects of her resulting trauma, including addictions to alcohol and prescription medications, Janet tried to take her own life. Finally finding a path to treatment through 'The Meadows', a trauma and addiction treatment center in Arizona, she started to understand how her childhood experiences are still causing her severe issues as an adult and that it is possible to learn to cope with the trauma. Her path to recovery has included working through two twelve step programs, group therapy and significant trauma work with a personal therapist. Janet's driving passion is to prevent childhood sexual abuse and to be a lifeline to survivors. She has found that sharing her story has been key to healing her own pain and exposing this epidemic. Janet is author of a memoir, 'Don't Expect Me To Cry'. She takes the reader through the three stages of her life, 1) her childhood,  2) her early adulthood and 3) her later adulthood, during which she hit 'rock bottom' and started her journey of recovery. We look forward to hearing from Janet and welcome her to the NAASCA family.