Keeping secrets separates you from the rest of your life. So I learned to pretend. Pretend that things were okay in my house. This fragmentation -- the reality of what I was living through alongside my daily life in school and with friends -- for years meant that I lived parallel lives.

on not/belonging

First, what do I mean by the feeling I have had most of my life: that I don't belong? It's not difficult for me to identify elements of my young life which embedded these feelings: my mother's unstable mental health meant that I was passed between relatives at times, and that I was witness to her withdrawal from me. She would disappear in more ways than one, and, not only was I then virtually on my own physically, I was on my own emotionally too of course.

patriciadebney.com

Thank you. This gives me strength - and hope.

Feats of Strength 💙 Trauma Healing@featsofstrength.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This is exceptional. The concept, the expressiveness, the weaving of poetry and prose in an academic venue, all of it. I am so thankful you brought Twenty-Five Sounding to life to act as a model of memoir & truly meaningful, survivor-validating scholarship.

Thank you @featsofstrength.bsky.social We have to keep going 💪💙

Feats of Strength 💙 Trauma Healing@featsofstrength.bsky.social · 5mo ago

This post below contextualizes a truly exceptional essay published in the BMJ Medical Humanities. (link therein) The "lyrical essay" combines prose, poetry, memoir & statistics into a powerful vehicle centering two CSA survivors' voices. Its powerful & distressing - its the voices we need to hear.

A new blog post, with news of a lyric essay published in BMJ Medical Humanities. Proud of this. clarebest.co.uk/2026/04/21/s...

Soundings

I am proud to share news of the publication of a lyric essay that I have co-authored with my colleague and friend Patricia Debney (also a survivor of child sexual abuse (CSA), also abused by her fa…

clarebest.co.uk

The starting point: how is child sexual abuse represented in the arts, if indeed it is represented at all? Looking for ourselves in books, films, plays, visual arts, and music is a human thing. We look outward as ways of looking inward.We look outward to reflect upon our own lives and experiences.

on representation

In the Land of Peaks and Troughs (see my last post), here's how I (we) climbed to Peak 1. The starting point: how is child sexual abuse represented in the arts, if indeed it is represented at all? Looking for ourselves in books, films, plays, visual arts, and music is a human thing. We look outward as ways of looking inward.

patriciadebney.com

Like so many here on this earth, there is a lot going on for me right now, from every angle: in real life, in the wider world, psychologically and medically. The last few weeks have brought brilliant peaks -- and some very tough troughs.

on finding my way (again)

Like so many here on this earth, there is a lot going on for me right now, from every angle: in real life, in the wider world, psychologically and medically. The last few weeks have brought brilliant peaks -- and some very tough troughs. Troughs: I'm having more nightmares. This is of course a CPTSD reaction -- I reckon in response to the relentless disclosures of sexual abuse and assault, alongside the disgusting failure of those who are able to hold others accountable -- utterly failing to do so.

patriciadebney.com

Why I cried: I must look. My eyes are stuck open. Every day, and especially right now. Millions of us have to look. We have no choice but to know about all of this, from the inside -- and none of us, not a single one, wants to. We are flayed raw. We are so tired. We are so heartsore.

‘my incurable anger’

The liminal space of airports can take me one of two ways: either I feel elated by the possibilities that travel may hold, or I feel lost, rudderless, unmoored. It's not surprising I guess that what with everything happening in the world right now -- the latter pulled me in deep last night, as I traveled back from Germany after seeing our (beautiful, precious, smiling and laughing, curious) grandson.

patriciadebney.com

Survivors, like me, are well aware that few perps ever face justice. While this case is blowing wide open, the rich & powerful are pulling no punches to obstruct & cover up. This ends much like the abuse scandal in the church, w/ some progress, but falling short of lasting justice. Keep fighting.

Patricia Debney@patriciadebney.com · 7mo ago

So many are asking this question right now: survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, allies of survivors, and the general public. Who will be charged? Who will be prosecuted? And importantly: will this global explosion around sexual abuse and sex trafficking change anything?

So many are asking this question right now: survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, allies of survivors, and the general public. Who will be charged? Who will be prosecuted? And importantly: will this global explosion around sexual abuse and sex trafficking change anything?

will we get there?

So many are asking this question right now: survivors of Child Sexual Abuse, allies of survivors, and the general public. Who will be charged? Who will be prosecuted? And importantly: will this global explosion around sexual abuse and sex trafficking change anything? *** I was up at the University of York this week, diving into a set of materials gathered by relatives of a long-term survivor activist in the UK.

patriciadebney.com

where so many of us are right now

where so many of us are right now

But we can do this. More soon. Hold tight.

patriciadebney.com

Sunday January 25th, the day after Alex Pretti's death, I felt, like a lot of people, incandescent with rage. And I couldn't see how I was going to get out of it. Would I just have to get used to this hopelessness -- would we all?

anger

Safe to say it's been a grim few days, on top of already grim days, on top of a hard year. I was raised never to be angry. Never to disrupt. Never to raise a fuss. For abuse victim survivors of any sort, anger can bring with it a variety of outcomes, all bad: more abuse perhaps, to 'put you in your place'; more attention, which may draw eyes to the abuse, which in turn will definitely destabilise your life -- and make everything worse.

patriciadebney.com

McBride: Look, people are clutching their pearls at this guy yelling something at the president. They are more offended by a worker standing up to the president and calling him out for his hypocrisy than they are by the president trying to cover up for a human trafficking ring

Something is happening now. Does anyone else feel it? NOT just around Epstein and his cronies. But around the whole space of Child Sexual Abuse. In the last six weeks or so, my Threads and Bluesky and even Instagram feeds have been flooded with disclosures. Is it finally time for #metooCSA?

are we finally at #metooCSA?

So. I spent the first nine months of 2025 feeling pretty freaked out: everything seemed worse, and likely to keep getting worse. Pillars of what most people in the world have taken to be truths and even basic human rights crumbled and continued to crumble. I for one felt that the ground I had stood on my whole life was shifting, inexorably.

patriciadebney.com

What is the point of working away in my small corner? In the last few months, the plight of the Epstein survivors, and the involvement of men and women who occupy the most wealthy and powerful positions in the world in their trafficking -- have crashed my worlds together.

A Year Later: starting 2026

I have been writing and re-writing this post in my head for months. What happened? I considered this for weeks. What I did not want to admit (to myself, or anyone) was how completely shaken I was by the re-election of an abuser to the White House. His re-emergence, followed by lawless action after lawless action, rendered me almost paralysed. What is the point of working away in my small corner of the fight against Violence Against Women and Girls, when the whole world order has turned justice on its head?

patriciadebney.com

Let’s be clear. When the President defies the Supreme Court, it is the role of Congress to remove him from office. Full stop.

MIT following Harvard's lead here

This event might be of interest: on creative works about child sexual abuse and the cultural ramifications of creative works (& we would appreciate a repost) @survivorsrise.bsky.social

Ailise Bulfin@ailise-bulfin.bsky.social · 2y ago

Join us for the CSAReps project online launch event Apr 29th & 30th With esteemed speakers @drcisme.bsky.social @theflyingchild.bsky.social @hazelklarkin.bsky.social @brenrooney.bsky.social Chris Godwin David Hanauer & Emilie Pine Register: www.eventbrite.ie/e/csareps-pr... Contact: CSAReps@ucd.ie

Harvard has set an example for other higher-ed institutions - rejecting an unlawful and ham-handed attempt to stifle academic freedom, while taking steps to make sure students can benefit from an environment of intellectual inquiry, rigorous debate and mutual respect. Let’s hope others follow suit.

Join us for the CSAReps project online launch event Apr 29th & 30th With esteemed speakers @drcisme.bsky.social @theflyingchild.bsky.social @hazelklarkin.bsky.social @brenrooney.bsky.social Chris Godwin David Hanauer & Emilie Pine Register: www.eventbrite.ie/e/csareps-pr... Contact: CSAReps@ucd.ie

If you need help, you create structures to help. If more people need to be part of the process, you find the people. You figure it out. You think outside the default. Not investigate sexual abuse because it was ‘overwhelming’? This smells of fear. #CSA #welby www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...

Justin Welby was too ‘overwhelmed’ by scale of abuse in C of E to take action

In first interview since resigning, former archbishop of Canterbury says more cases were arriving every day and he ‘got it wrong’

theguardian.com

For anyone who hasn’t seen this group yet. 💪

Alt National Park Service@altnps.bsky.social · 2y ago

Thank you to everyone who has joined the resistance! Our ranks grow stronger every day.

First they came for gender identity…. I wonder if the gender critical brigade will EVER admit that their agenda is a profoundly right wing one? But the reality is here: erasure of trans and queer people. Because wow that 1% of the population is such a threat. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

US park service erases references to trans people from Stonewall monument website

National monument commemorates 1969 riot led by trans women of color outside historic New York City bar

theguardian.com

Make your calls. Go to your town halls. Ask your state and local officials what they are doing under state and local law. Rest. Hydrate. Make soup for the hungry. Don’t let people tell you that you’re doing it wrong. Not a sprint. Not a marathon. A relay. Find your team. Thank you.

These children are no longer protected. They are being systematically raped. Shame on you Trump and Musk. And unfortunately - shame on the US for allowing this to happen. I’m an American living abroad. And it’s so heartbreaking to watch all of this.

SHERA Research Group International Collective researchers MVAWC@sheraresearch.bsky.social · 2y ago

and shame on Trump who has paused funding to protect these women and children: “One mother recounted to our staff how her six daughters, the youngest just 12 years old, were systematically raped by armed men while searching for food.” www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/2/...

So. I do get that the US ‘administration’ is committing crimes at the rate of knots. However. I feel like my brain is melting: how is firing thousands from their federal jobs ‘helping’ the economy? This seems such an obvious weakening of it. Thousands unable to support themselves/others. Really?!

And what the hell planet is he on? Are they on? I mean: they treat the world like their playground. We are being bludgeoned over and over.

Excellent. 💪

SHERA Research Group International Collective researchers MVAWC@sheraresearch.bsky.social · 2y ago

Excellent news #CSA #Itsnotok 'A three-year time limit for child sexual abuse victims to sue for damages will be removed in England and Wales under "long overdue" government reforms, the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has said. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Take note. More and more and more protests must happen. We have HAD IT with this crap.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · 2y ago

Rep. LaMonica McIver: "We are at war!"