Monthly Drop-in Meetings

For me the eight-week group was about dealing with the past. The monthly meeting is about dealing with now and living a better life. The eight-week group showed me how to reach up for help. The monthly meeting helps me to reach out and learn from others. The eight-week group put my feet on the road to a better life. The monthly group keeps them there.

I was part of the first eight-week group we had in Adelaide back in 2015. It helped me tremendously on my road to coping with my recovery from childhood sexual abuse. But after the eight-week course ended, I knew I couldn’t stay on the road to recovery without something more. The monthly meetings have been absolutely essential to remain focused and stable. It provides a safe environment to share my feelings and my day-to-day life experiences with like-minded survivors of sexual abuse. It’s my once a month sanctuary – a safe place for me to be and that’s something that I treasure!

The monthly fellowship meeting provides an anchor point which builds on the eight-week course. In sharing the reading and hearing how others have been coping with the previous four weeks I find myself uncovering fresh insights something like peeling off the layers of an onion. Being heard without judgement or eliciting unwanted advice is great but as this process of disclosure occurs in ever deeper trust it is safe, secure and often quite profound. I find more fundamental support amongst peers than even with the expertise in professional counselling and mental health physicians.

The monthly meetings have been my salvation. I know about the other guy’s pets, their travels, their achievements, their setbacks. We even joke about each other in the way that only true mates can. From the talkative ones to the quiet ones, all equal and all in a safe place. These are my true family. My thanks to SAMSN for replacing what I lost.

I have found the monthly meetings to be really useful as an ongoing way of connecting with others with similar experiences so that I don’t need to feel alone and ashamed anymore and for reminding myself that recovery is possible so that I don’t fall back into old and harmful ways of thinking.

The meetings with other survivors are great as I feel I can share private thoughts of pain, feelings of isolation, and feelings of hope, as I know members will not judge me and always offer encouragement for the future. Fellow members are men I know I can trust and not just tell me to get over it. I always leave the meetings feeling a greater sense of well-being and hope for a more positive future.

I had not told anyone for 50 years. I opened up to a friend and she found SAMSN for me and got into their Eight-week Support Group. I was so surprised to know I was not alone. The group supported me in many ways and I still attend the Monthly Meetings. I am so grateful for SAMSN as I was in a very dark place.

SAMSN made me not give up on life. I was stuck in my shed smoking not giving a f___. I don't flip out all the time now.

SAMSN helped me to trust men.

I was in a room full of miracles.

There is a different connection, hearing their stories makes it easier to tell mine.

Having a space where my voice will be believed, respected and understood.

SAMSN has been the most healing space for me and my family. It’s the only space where I’ve learned the most about what happened to me.

It was a really big thing that I didn’t have to hide I was trans.

I like SAMSN because it’s more intimate, personal and focused. I don’t get treated like I do from other services.

The different dudes said the same words that was gonna come out of my mouth.