ABSTRACT
Any person of ethnicity, gender, and age can be trafficked. The trafficked individual is injured and traumatized in ruthless methods derived by insidious manipulation and calculation. Sex trafficking involves unrelenting cycles of vicious emotional and psychological abuse, along with physical violence, as individual are subdued and controlled through progressively cruel and coercive behaviors. Through severe mistreatment and the resulting trauma bond, the trafficked individual innocently commits to a malevolent relationship with the trafficker. The complex, complicated trauma from trafficking exploitation leads to a myriad of diagnoses and resulting issues, including comorbidity of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression; compounded medical issues follow from the severe effects of rape and physical violence; the emotional toll from severe mistreatment, torment, and torture ensues in decreased self-worth and disconnect to self, others, and community; and a broken spirit stems from prolonged spiritual suffering acquired from the loss of meaning in life. Trafficking trauma affects all aspects of the self, and art therapy as a treatment recommendation and viable form of recovery is introduced.
