Stop Child Abuse Now (SCAN) - 2520

Tonight's special guest is Holly Perreault from Northern Ireland, a child abuse survivor and the new NAASCA Ambassador to Northern Ireland. Holly grew up in a small fishing town in Washington State. Her stepfather started to abuse her at three. His abuse continued until Holly was 11. At 14 she disclosed, because her dad had remarried a woman with two small children. She was worried for them. Holly testified in court but her father got only a one year sentence. Breaking parole, he went back to prison for a couple years, but 15 years ago Holly found out he'd been removed from the sexual predator list. "Washington State has a law to protect those falsely accused and invites those with good behaviour off the list after a time," she explains. At 18 Holly married and had two children who became successful adults. Holly thought she'd managed to escape a lot of consequences from her childhood trauma. But at 40 her life came crashing down and her marriage fell apart. Holly began to recognize the obsessions and personality problems that had been there all along. "Within 2 weeks I checked myself into a 30-day intensive trauma program." She says, "It has been 12 years since I was in that recovery program. SLA helped me get through this and lots of counselling. Four years ago, I did another two-week outpatient intensive to work on my “mom” and abandonment issues. Eventually Holly became a certified coach. "I moved to Northern Ireland 2 years ago for love, went back to school and l want to use my experience to make a difference for others and the community." Her dream is to open an intensive program in Northern Ireland and to advocate for survivors and those who still do not have a voice.