ABSTRACT
In May, 2013, the Bristlecone Project website went live with the first handful of volunteers. The individual stories that emerge from the Bristlecone interviews reveal two truths, simultaneously. One, there are clearly discernible common themes in the testimonies of male survivors, and they are recognizable to anyone who is familiar with the relevant psychological literature. Repeated theme was the importance of spirituality to the process of healing. The second truth to emerge from the interviews seems, on the surface, to contradict the first: each man's story is so beautifully unique, so one-of-a-kind. Lee Jones, Tony Rodgers, and Jason Lee are three of the 71 men who grace the Bristlecone website ass of this writing. One of the common threads is a profound courage – the courage to openly stand up to and defy the negating stigma that has for so long attached itself to male survivors of sexual victimization.
