We don't grow in the dark, growth happens in the light.

I'm challenging you to come out of hiding, to shed secrets, to step beyond shame.

I'm challenging you to stand in the light of truth.

Why go to therapy? Because it's defined work.

When you are emotionally healthy, you are more powerful spiritually.

You are now listening to the In the Light podcast, hosted by Dr. Anita Phillips.

Hello, hello, hello. This is Dr. Anita, of course, and welcome back to In the Light.

Our theme for March is courage, and because it's women's history month, I'm calling extra attention to the special forms of valor that I see women display every day.

In our last episode, the she wrote known to us mere mortals as Mrs. Nona Jones took us on a courage toward the force as we talked about being brave everywhere.

At home, at work, in our faith community, literally everywhere.

It is always important to me to share stories that speak to you, but as women, there really is always something we can identify with in each other's lives and experiences.

If we open our hearts to connect and expect that the light of another woman's truth will illuminate something in our own hearts, no matter how distant of a reality, her story may seem to be.

Our guest this week has a powerful story to share. She has survived a reality that so many of us have heard of, but still could barely imagine.

Her name is Elsa Christie, and she escaped the bondage of sex trafficking.

She's going to share that journey in this episode. So listen, moms and dads out there. If this episode is playing within earshot of your kids, I'm going to ask you to pause now, listen to this later, and then decide if this specific discussion about sex trafficking is developmentally appropriate for your child's age.

If you are listening to this episode and you are a sexual assault survivor and incest survivor, a trafficking survivor, and you're feeling concerned that this discussion may aggravate triggers that you are still working through, I want you to know that I respect your choice to listen when or if you choose to.

One of the elements of trauma and PTSD is avoiding reminders of the trauma. Hear me. That avoidance is normal and even expected when it comes to having been traumatized.

I pray that you are on a healing journey that will continually reduce the power of those reminders in your life.

Healing is absolutely possible and so worth the sometimes intimidating work that it requires. But listen, you don't have to do that work alone.

They're a therapist just like me out there waiting, hoping to get a call and email a message of any kind from you so that we can partner with you on your healing journey.

If you're looking for one, I want to take this opportunity to share information about an online service that I'm really proud to partner with as a podcast sponsor.

BetterHelp.com. BetterHelp.com is a professional counseling service where you can receive counseling securely online. It's not a crisis line, it's not self-help, it's professional counseling done securely online.

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