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Sara Aird | Survivor Wise Resources
academic publications
RECLAIMING VOICE: WRITING THROUGH SEXUAL TRAUMA WORKSHOP
Launched May 2020
This is a free online self-guided writing workshop on the power of story and reclaiming voice after sexual trauma. The workshop uses the elements of storytelling: timeline, sensory details, character development, and point of view as healing tools for rewriting trauma stories.
#METOO AND #NOWWHAT? A CONVERSATION WITH KAREN BROWN
SLCC Folio Magazine Fall 2019
This is a professional profile of Karen Brown, the Community Outreach Manager at the Younique Foundation and Defend Innocence, both non-profits dedicated to providing healing and prevention resources for those impacted by childhood sexual abuse. I submitted the piece to SLCC Folio Magazine to bring awareness to students of the resources available to survivors, and their friends and families. SLCC Folio is an award-winning magazine.
STORYTELLING AND IDENTITY: WRITING YOURSELF INTO EXISTENCE
Open English @ SLCC December 2019
This is a braided essay describing how the elements of storytelling and writing help build identity in those who have experienced trauma. Using my own experience and writing, I show how timeline, scene-setting, voice and point of view, and character development create meaning and integrate the self. Open English is an evolving digital publication created by SLCC's English Department to provide open educational resources used in a variety of teaching settings.
FROM TRAUMA TO THE TRUE SELF: HOW THE ACA RED BOOK CREATES A NEW IDENTITY FOR TRAUMA SURVIVORS
Open English @ SLCC December 2019
This case study rhetorically analyzes the literature of Adult Children of Alcoholics and Dysfunctional Families (ACA), a twelve-step organization for individuals dealing with the effects of childhood trauma. The case study revealed that writing within the ACA community helps create new, healthy identities in its participants. ACA literature supports the concept that writing is a resource that people use to do things, be things, and make things in the world.