What is the Survivor Telephone Booth?

The Survivor Telephone Booth is a classic telephone booth installation with curtains for privacy for survivors to sit down and experience a 2-hour "phone call" simulation of counseling therapy, focused on validating a survivor's experience, debunking rape myths, and sending compassion to the survivor healing from self-blame. These 2-hour time slots serve as a phone call simulation with a loved one to validate the experiences of survivors who have experienced victim-blaming in the past or who hold self-blaming beliefs. 

Purpose

This telephone booth simulation serves the purpose of helping survivors of sexual abuse or intimate partner violence to have a safe space to talk about their experiences and absorb messages of compassion to help relieve thoughts of self-blame. 

An unfortunately common experience for sexual assault survivors from conservative cultural backgrounds and communities, is feeling ashamed for their abuse and feeling as if they had caused their abuse to happen to them. This can be due to victim-blaming culture within different cultural groups that are perpetuated through gender roles, gossiping culture, or rape culture. By creating a private space for survivors to share their stories and receive validating messages, we hope this space can promote the healing of unlearning shame and self-blame after sexual abuse. 

How This Works

The Survivor Telephone Booth will have curtains for privacy, a bench for sitting, a tissue box, a timer, a paper with directions, and a classic home phone. Each button on the home phone will represent a different stage of the counseling simulation that will be personable for what the survivor needs to hear or wants to share. The home phone will be equipped with buttons that will take you through different phases of the intervention which can involve questions for the survivor to respond to through the phone or it can involve a message to be listened to through the receiver. The paper instructions will explain what each button or phase is through descriptions starting with "Press 3 for..." or "Press 5 for...". Button "1" will be a welcome message that will go through the instructions of the phone call session. Button "9" will be the last phase that will include a closing-out message and the opportunity for survivors to leave a message for the next person that stops by the telephone booth. Button "0" will be a guided meditation exercise that survivors can press at any given point in the simulation if they begin to feel triggered through the session, to ensure that clients are able to feel safe and emotionally grounded during the session. Each button can be pressed once to repeat the message. 

Stages

Press 0 - "Cool Down/Meditation Exercise" 

 Press at any time to be brought to a guided meditation and breathing exercise to cool down if you've been triggered. 

Press 1 - "Welcome" Message. 

"Welcome to the Survivor Telephone Booth. This project aims to serve survivors of sexual abuse dealing with self-blame. In front of you, you should see a timer, a tissue box, a paper with the description of each phase/number, and the buttons of the phone. Through this 2-hour session, feel free to press through the buttons that speak to you, go through the phases in whichever order feels best for you, and take your time to care for yourself. Press "0" to be brought to a guided meditation and breathing exercise if you're feeling overwhelmed or triggered. To re-listen to messages from each phase, press the numbered button again and it will replay. Take a deep breath and you may begin. 

Press 2 -  To share your story. No judgment. 

Press 3 - If you've been blamed for what happened to you. 

Script Message: "It was not your fault. Your abuse was not your fault. You didn't deserve to be blamed or shamed for what happened to you. You didn't deserve to be blamed or shamed for not being strong enough to defend yourself in a situation that should've never happened either. Abusers will choose to abuse people, regardless of what the victim does to protect themselves, and you didn't deserve to have that happened to you." 

Press 4 - If you feel like you "should've known better" and felt like you could've prevented your abuse. 

Script Message: "It's okay if you didn't 'know any better'. No one should anticipate abuse and be expected to know how to respond to it because abuse is not normal. You did everything you could to survive with the knowledge and resources you had at the time, and that is enough."

Press 5 - If you didn't get an apology for what happened to you. 

Script Message: "I'm so sorry that happened to you. You didn't deserve to be abused. You didn't deserve to be violated. What happened to you was unfair and unexcusable."

Press 6 - If you have a message to send to your abuser or people and/or systems who have made it harder for you to heal. Feel free to be angry, scream, shout. You deserve to let your emotions out. 

Press 7 - If you weren't believed. 

Script Message: "I believe you. I'm so sorry if someone has tried to silence your courage in speaking up, or has tried to deny the violation that you had experienced first-hand. You didn't deserve that. I believe you and I am so sorry that happened to you. I trust that what you say happened, happened. You are not crazy, I believe you and it was not your fault. 

Press 8 - If there is something you hope to hear or wish you could have heard from the people you've shared your story with. Give the words of compassion that you want to hear to yourself. You deserve it. 

Press 9 - "End" Message. 

"Thank you for participating in our survivor telephone booth, we hope this survivor telephone booth simulation was able to give you messages of compassion or an ear to vent through. Please make sure to take care of yourself and know that you are not alone in this journey.  Before you walk out of this telephone booth, if you would like to leave a message for the next person who stops by our survivor telephone booth, leave a message after the tone. Have a gentle day. *Beep*

Article Connection: 

This project is backed by research from Changing the Rape-Supportive Attitudes of Traditional and Nontraditional Male and Female College Students (1997) by Heesacker et.al, that shows how a 1-hour presentation introduced to college students that discussed anti-interpersonal violence discussion, rape myths, and different conflicts surrounding sexual topics, changed the perceptions and attitudes towards rape and rape myths within college students. The results were measured by a phone call post-hoc regarding a project promoting women's safety that was seemingly "unrelated" to the study, and results concluded that “compared with control group participants, participants who received the intervention exhibited significantly less rape-supportive posttest attitudes on the RMAS and a nearly significant difference on the AIV.” (Heesacker et.al., 1997). This finding supports the development of my resource for counselors because it shows that interventions such as 1-hr presentations and discussions, can change the attitudes and mindsets of college students responding to sexual abuse vignettes and how they view projects that support survivors. With this in mind, this model can be transformed in a way that survivors of sexual abuse can have their perceptions of their experiences with self-blame to be changed as well. A common struggle for survivors is being absorbed in distorted narratives alike rape myths that they’ve heard or that have been perpetuated against their experiences, being presented with the facts that their sense of self-blame is a myth can help them unlearn self-blame and heal.  

Why Should this Resource be Used? 

This telephone booth installation can be used as an outreach event tool to encourage potential clients to begin counseling therapy, and it can be used as a reference tool for counselors to encourage their clients to participate in as takeaway "homework" after a session. 

This resource is culturally sensitive as it respects the cross-cultural belief of sexual abuse feeling shameful to experience or talk about, by creating a private space for clients to share their feelings without the pressure of culturally influenced responses or opinions. The concept of a telephone booth installation can also ease the fear of approaching mental health service locations like a counselor’s office which can stem from cultural beliefs, for example, the fear of utilizing mental health services in Asian American communities because it can be associated with “failure” in Asian cultures. The telephone booth's outer appearance disguises the services we provide, making this installation more approachable for clients who are considering counseling but are intimidated by the thought going into a clinic or office building. Additionally, the telephone booth creates a safety net for survivors who are seeking support confidentially from family members or community members because our installation is disguised as a telephone booth. We provide the option for participants to say "I'm gonna stop and make a phone call" to make it easier to approach the installation if others are around them. This resource prioritizes clients, survivors, and participants in feeling safe enough to reach the support they deserve. 

References

Heesacker, M., Neimeyer, G.J., Rosenthal, E.H. (1997)  

Changing the Rape-Supportive Attitudes of Traditional and Nontraditional Male and Female College Students. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 42(2), 171-177.