guest post by Lindsey Knapp, Executive Director, Combat Sexual Assault
Sexual assault in the military has gotten out of hand. With more than 26,000 Service Members raped every year, and more than 64% of them stating that they were retaliated against for reporting, the problem actually seems to be getting worse by the day.
But there’s one organization that isn’t about to sit by and let our women languish. Meet Lindsey Knapp, an Attorney, Army Veteran, and Yogi who started a social-profit to take a stand, hold the military accountable, and empower women to heal and make a difference in their community.
Lindsey began her career at Northern Illinois University, where she was responsible for training more than 20,000 incoming freshmen every year on the risks of sexual assault, and the resources available to them. From there, she joined the military where she advocated for active duty service members after they experienced sexual violence. Her progress in the military laid the groundwork for what was later formally established as the Army’s Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) Program.
After leaving, she continued her work in the civilian sector as a victim advocate on Fort Liberty. However, once she discovered the military was systematically covering up rape, she formed Combat Sexual Assault so that she could provide legal counsel to those who were being retaliated against for reporting.
At Combat Sexual Assault, Lindsey has two focus areas:
- address the legal needs of the client
- help them heal.
Lindsey is no stranger to the struggle. As a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, she turned her pain into progress by deciding to take her life back and learn how to aggressively heal from the trauma she sustained. This wasn’t easy, and it was messy as hell. But now with more than 20 years of professional experience in this field, she’s taking her battle tested road map and giving it to us.
When someone experiences a sexual assault, the effects of the experience ripple and can compound over time. And if you don’t know which direction is up, it’s hard to know where you are going. That’s where Combat Sexual Assault’s Empowerment Protocols come in.
As we process trauma through the mind, we also have to process it through the body. Our nervous system is wired like branches of a tree. And when we experience stress or a traumatic event, those branches can get pruned. But those branches can regrow, and that is what Lindsey focuses on with the Empowerment Protocol. Using the breath as our guide, her team systematically works through each area of the body so that every client can calm the mind, increase their mobility, and decrease pain.
Using evidence-based modalities, they teach self-regulation techniques to recalibrate your nervous system. If you’re anxious, depressed, or your mind wanders out of control, they put you back in the driver’s seat empowering you to regain control over your body and mind.
Once you’re back on track, it’s easier to see where you’re going, make clearer decisions, and get control of your life back. It’s not your fault that you couldn’t find your way. Your nervous system was simply too keyed up and focused on keeping you alive. But after they’ve given it the opportunity to settle, there is no upper limit to what you are able to achieve.
And Lindsey calls this a “self-licking ice cream cone.” What that means is that once you’re on track, you’re on track. That’s it. You’re able to self-regulate your emotions, and now you’re able to help others do the same.
In Lindsey’s view, this is the reason why sexual assault persists. She believes that there are not enough healed women out there to stand up and take a stand. And she aims to fix that by helping as many people as possible discover their true power. From there, she says she’s “building the bench,” and growing her little army of super humans who are now healed and ready to get back in the fight.
She likes to use the analogy of getting shot on the battlefield. No one wants to get shot. And if you do get shot, you’re probably not too happy about it. You probably also want to get right back in the fight to help your brother/sisters in arms and get everyone out safely. But you can’t—because you’ve been shot. Lindsey likes to say that she drags folks off the battlefield and reminds them that they need to heal before they get back in the fight. You’re no good to anyone if you’re still recovering from a gunshot wound, and the same applies to sexual assault. You have to give yourself the time and grace to heal from the traumatic event. Once you’ve done that, she’ll show you how to get back in the fight and take down the systems that created this suppression to begin with.
So, like she said, it’s a “self-licking ice cream cone.” Once you show someone how to do this, they can show another, and another, and the ripple effects just keep going. And that’s how we are going to beat this problem. We are going to eradicate sexual assault in the military (and outside the military) by being brave enough to do the messy work of healing. We’re going to talk about it, share our experiences, and show others how to do it too. When we’ve done all that, we will be completely unstoppable.
There’s an old philosophical quote that says, “You can only change the world by changing yourself.” Lindsey lives and breathes this philosophy. She works every day to change herself and make herself better than the day before, and whoever she is able to help along way is welcome to join her.
You’ll never know what you’re capable of if you don’t try. So why not start now?
To learn more about Combat Sexual Assault or to support the organization, please go to: CombatSexualAssault.org.