Survivors of sexual assault experience challenges in mental health like depression and Complex PTSD. It also effects the survivors ability to develop intimate relationships, pursue education and career opportunities. Every year In Canada, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 8 men are sexually abused before the age of 15. That is 4.7 Million Women & 1.2 Million Men who are victims of sexual abuse in Canada, every year. Survivors have special needs. They need tools, help and support to navigate their lives.
Thrive is designed keeping the survivor’s needs in mind. The vision is to create an app that will offer video based self therapy tools specifically targeting PTSD related solutions. The app will also feature interactive holistic solutions addressing the underlying issues that increases vulnerability of survivors.
Eventually, the over all intent of the app is to help reduce the systemic cycle of abuse and to help educate our users so that are able to identify their vulnerability early on and avoid unwanted sexual encounters all together.
Thrive is your self-therapy companion app, for when you need support.
Thrive is the brain child of Nina Mistry, co-founder of Artistic License Creative. Nina has 20 + years of experience in conceptualizing and designing interactive apps for Corporate giants like Target. Nina is also a Crisis Line Counsellor at Toronto Rape and Crisis Center and currently serves as a Director on the Board of TRCC.
Lockdowns and stay-at-home orders during the COVID-19 pandemic have led to what the UN calls “A shadow pandemic” of rising gender-based violence. COVID-19 has made it difficult for many women to access psychological support, healthcare and safe shelter. They live in a constant state of vulnerability. On the other hand Globally, women are speaking up. The #MeToo movement is a catalyst and an inspiration for women to come forward, openly speak about their abuse, and seek healing. The general response of shame and stigma, is now transforming into, women choosing not be a victims but survivors.
As a crisis line counsellor Nina observed that these global trends which are creating waves of survivors who are seeking help through our existing crisis lines and government based resources. However, current solutions are inadequate and don’t address the need. Currently there is a wait time of 6-8 months to receive government funded counselling. Private therapy is expensive and can cost on an average of $220 per session. A typical crisis line offers only 20 minutes of peer counselling to each caller due to the sheer volumes of calls they receive. This number soared up due to the pandemic. Working the crisis line, at the end of a 20 minute call, Nina found herself frustrated and defeated that there wasn’t anything more she could do, or offer the callers, that could help them through their trauma.
She thought there has gotta be a better way …and that’s where the Thrive journey started.
Thrive! is designed while consulting with survivors at every stage of the development and built in consultation with experienced mental health care practitioners specializing in trauma.
We are currently in the research and prototyping stage of our process. We are working with survivors to understand their needs, build and test features that are truly beneficial for them. We are reaching out to our survivor base to receive insights and validation of the features. We honour the experiences and journey of each survivor and acknowledge that these experiences will help us build an effective app that will truly help others on this journey. Survivors who may feel comfortable to share their journey in the hopes to help others, are invited to participate in the survey. The survey is completely voluntary and for research proposes only.
We are also reaching out to therapists and counsellors to participate and offer guidance and insights on tools are resources that help survivors cope with their challenges.
We invite crisis line counsellors, therapists, clinicians and other counsellors and facilitators of mental health care for trauma based recovery to participate in the interview by clicking the link below and signing up the form.
We are conducting interviews in person via zoom. Sign up using the form below to receive information on how you may participate.
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