Psychologist: Victims Of Sexual Violence Need To Tell Their Experience To The Right People

The photo archive - A number of women activists of the HMI-Wati Corps held an act of stopping violence and sexual harassment against women in Lhokseumawe, Aceh, Thursday (9/12/2021). (Doc. ANTARA)

JAKARTA - Mellia Christia, a clinical psychologist from the University of Indonesia, stressed the importance of victims of sexual violence to talk about what happened to the right person.

According to him, telling about this experience can help victims realize that the incident was real and worth reporting, not kept in silence.

Mellia mengungkapkan bahwa respons yang diberikan seseorang terhadap korban kekerasan seksual memiliki dampak besar terhadap kondisi emos korban. Respons yang positif dari seseorang yang dipercaya oleh korban dapat meningkatkan rasa diri korban untuk melaporkan tindakan tersebut.

This clinical psychologist also highlighted the problem of distrust and attitude errors that often discourage victims from reporting sexual violence. Therefore, Mellia stressed the need to ensure that the person reported by the victim has the ability to provide appropriate responses.

"What must be considered is first, don't tend to blame the victim. Second, dare to work together," Mellia said, as reported by ANTARA, Saturday, November 25.

Mellia also emphasized the importance of intervention in responding to sexual violence as a whole in society. He warned the public not to blame the victims and invited all parties to work together to overcome the problem of sexual violence.

In addition, Mellia reminded that sexual violence can happen to anyone, both in private spaces and in public spaces. Therefore, Mellia encouraged everyone to dare to speak up and talk about the issue of sexual violence.

He also hopes that women have the courage to set limits on behavior that can be categorized as sexual violence.

"Dare to speak and reveal unpleasant things or when getting unpleasant treatment," concluded Mellia.