Felipe Blue, LCAS, CSI interviews...
Dr. Kelli Palfy, began her professional career working in adult and youth corrections. Here she noticed a disproportionate number of males in the prison system. As an RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) officer, she took an interest in investigating sex crimes and went on to specialize in sex crimes committed against children internationally. Here, she began to see that males were victims of sexual abuse too, and that there were very few resources available to them. She wondered if this was why so many males ended up in prison. As she combed through video evidence, she witnessed first-hand the grooming tactics commonly used by sophisticated pedophiles. After leaving the RCMP, Dr. Palfy obtained her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the University of Alberta. She wanted to support male victims, and sought to better understand the reasons why males don’t commonly disclose sexual abuse. She is now a trained trauma therapist and public speaker on the topic of male abuse. Dr. Palfy currently runs a small private practice where she works with male survivors of sexual abuse, first responders and couples using Emotion-Focused and Cognitive Behavioral Approach, plus Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). Male sexual abuse occurs more commonly among infants, youth and adults than was previously suspected. Despite knowing this, disproportionately few males seek support. Many remain silent, protect their families, and cope through isolating or numbing, themselves, misusing substances and engaging in sexual promiscuity or hypermasculinity.
ME^N TOO: UNSPOKEN TRUTHS ABOUT MALE SEXUAL ABUSE is for male survivors, their supporters and helping professionals. It is a psycho-educational book intended to support and educate the public and male survivors. In this book I discuss the different types of offenders, how they chose and groom their targets and common responses to sexual abuse. I also provide facts about parental and sibling abuse, and through the stories of 13 male sexual abuse victims I discuss what research shows about why boys and men so seldom seek support. It is written from their perspective, with the wisdom of retired police officer and psychologist, Dr. Kelli Palfy. Through their narrative accounts, Dr. Palfy offers: • Male victims - Healing through recognition of both their positions as victims and the impact of their abuse. • Parents and teachers - Strategies to identify common yet sophisticated predatory grooming tactics, plus ideas on how to better protect children from abusers. • First responders and helping professionals - information to better recognize the signs of traumatized people, examples of male abuse explaining when it began, how it was maintained and why the victims remained silent for so long. For the sake of our boys and men, discussions about male sexual abuse need to increase. Male victims need to feel safe asking for support. ME^N TOO highlights the many unique barriers boys and men face as they contemplate their road to recovery.
Recorded at More Than Therapy
