Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 1805

Tonight's special guest is Patty Lovelace, from Liverpool, Pennsylvania, a child abuse survivor sharing her story publicly for the first time. She is a therapist with specializations in alternative healing therapy, addictions, and trauma. Patty survived a type of abuse called 'incest-by-proxy' by her father. When she told her mother about the sexually inappropriate touching and comments, her mother failed to protect Patty and stated, "It should be accepted," because, "he was my father and that he wasn't doing anything wrong." This pattern continued with her family treating her as the "black sheep" any time she has spoken up. Patty attempted suicide at age 15, and at age 20 she was the victim of a date rape. She has been in and out of treatment since age 18. Later in life Patty's boyfriend molested a young child. Patty reported this and worked to get the perpetrator charged while ensuring the youngster received appropriate treatment. The perpetrator was incarcerated, but for a charge unrelated to child abuse. Due to the failure of the legal system to address the abuse, and through helping the young girl recover, Patty realized her own childhood abuse was unresolved. After working on her own recovery, Patty initially intended to help sex trafficked victims, and later changed career paths to Addiction Recovery Therapist. Her experiences led her to identify the problem of a lack of treatment focus on childhood trauma. Patty's message for adult survivors and therapists is when, "working with people in recovery from addictions that often there are trauma issues that created their other issues."