A new graphic novel seeks to help patients who are not yet comfortable having a conversation about sexual abuse.
It must have been a difficult pitch: a free graphic novel about sexual assault survivors. However The Courage to Be Me by Dr Nina Burrowes is an uplifting, hopeful book about the human strength to overcome. The book depicts the journey of five survivors of sexual abuse over the process of group therapy, who are an amalgamation of the hundreds of real life accounts Borrowes, a forensic psychologist specialising in rape and violence, has been told.
On meeting Burrowes, I wondered how on earth someone specialises in rape and sexual violence - how do they cope? "When I tell people what I do for a living they jump to the toxic and the broken, and that is part of my work, but I would say in equal measure, is the stuff that doesn’t even occur to them. I get to meet the most amazing people, I get to sit with raw humanity."
One way of coping was taking up sketching lessons. And soon she decided drawing was the perfect way to distill psychology into a more human form. Before she knew it, Burrowes was penning graphic novels.
Comments (0)