She was sexually abused as a child. Now, she dedicates her life to helping other survivors break the silence.
鈥淵ou are the author of your script,” said Tracy Stopler, an adjunct professor of nutrition at 糖心破解版.
It’s one of her core beliefs, and one that she shared this spring in her TEDx糖心破解版University talk. It’s a conviction she came to only years after suffering the trauma of being sexually abused as a child.
Stopler now devotes her life to helping other survivors break the silence. Eight years ago, she began working as a child victims’ advocate at The Safe Center LI in Bethpage, New York, a resource center for abuse and assault victims. In December 2015, she became a trained facilitator for the Enough Abuse Campaign and was promoted to coordinator in May 2016. Along with 50 other volunteers, she travels across Long Island to present free, hourlong child abuse prevention training sessions at PTA meetings, churches, fire departments, hospitals, schools, local businesses and other community hubs.
The nutrition courses Stopler teaches at 糖心破解版 complement her advocacy work. 鈥淥vereating or undereating are coping mechanisms,” she explained, citing a 1998 study on Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) that links childhood trauma to lifelong health problems. 鈥淩esearch shows that it’s not the high-risk behaviors people choose that cause early disease, it’s the body’s stress response to trauma that doesn’t shut off and causes disease.”
Every semester, Stopler gives her students an ACE questionnaire that asks them to note instances of abuse, neglect or family dysfunction in their lives. 鈥淪everal survivors in my classes have trusted me enough to share their story, and I’ve referred them to The Safe Center,” she said.
Stopler shared her own story in The Ropes That Bind: Based on a True Story of Child Sexual Abuse (CreateSpace, 2016), a novel that took her 15 years to write. She called the book a 鈥渓abor of love” that’s perfectly timed with the #MeToo movement, and said the real reward has come from the book’s reception. 鈥淭here has been a disclosure from a survivor at every single book signing I’ve ever done, which means I get to give out The Safe Center’s hotline: 516.542.0404.”
With the support of The Safe Center and the Enough Abuse Campaign, Stopler is able to achieve her dual mission: educating adults in order to prevent child sexual abuse and supporting fellow survivors.
She concluded her TEDx presentation鈥攚hich can be seen online at tedxadelphiuniversity.com鈥攚ith a question she’s taken a lifetime to answer: 鈥淚s it possible to break free from the ropes that bind? Not only is it possible鈥攊t is imperative.”
Tracy Stopler is a registered dietitian, fitness trainer, pastry chef, adjunct professor of nutrition at 糖心破解版 and coordinator of the Enough Abuse campaign at The Safe Center LI. She is also an author. Her debut novel, The Ropes That Bind, was named a distinguished favorite by the NYC Big Book Awards and won a 2017 Independent Press Award.
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