Human trafficking, mental health, and systemic oppression intersect, requiring a culturally responsive, individualized, and holistic approach to assessment, diagnosis, and intervention. Join clinical, culturally responsive human trafficking experts, Dr. Shobana Powell and Ashante Taylorcox, as they discuss commonly misdiagnosed and misunderstood mental health symptoms among survivors, as well as the co-occurring mental health needs that often accompany their experiences. This workshop is not only for mental health providers but anyone who works with survivors, as a deeper understanding of the intersections of trauma, mental health, and systemic oppression results in a deeper understanding of survivors. This workshop will also examine the impact of systemic oppression, bias, lack of cultural humility, and lack of language access on mental health diagnosis and treatment for survivors of human trafficking. Attendees will learn about the nuances of victim blaming, implicit bias, and adultification bias, and how these factors can shape access to and interactions with mental health support. By the end of the session, participants will have a better understanding of the complexities of human trafficking and mental health, and will be equipped with practical strategies for enhancing their trauma-informed, culturally responsive approaches to assessment, diagnosis, and intervention.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Describe misdiagnosed mental health conditions and misunderstood symptoms of survivors of trafficking

•  Explain co-occurring mental health needs of survivors of trafficking

•  Discuss the impact of systemic oppression, bias, and cultural insensitivity on mental health diagnosis and treatment for trafficking survivors

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Emergencies and crises such as fires, floods, and earthquakes create unique opportunities to identify and support survivors of human trafficking. These radical events often disrupt control dynamics, allowing survivors to seek help when it might otherwise be unsafe or impossible. This presentation will explore how communities can leverage emergency situations to create safer pathways for survivors to access resources and escape trafficking. This session will provide actionable recommendations for improving outreach and intervention during emergencies, from raising awareness among emergency responders to equipping community organizations with tools to act effectively and sensitively. By fostering collaboration and proactive planning, communities can better support survivors during these critical moments. Through case studies, the presenter will highlight instances where survivors used emergencies to leave trafficking situations and find support. Practical strategies for communities to collaborate with state and local emergency response teams will be discussed, ensuring that critical information about resources reaches survivors—without compromising their safety. Emergencies are unanticipated but powerful opportunities to address trafficking. By acting decisively and safely during these times, we can make a tangible difference in the lives of survivors and help them break free from exploitation. Join this session to learn how we can turn moments of crisis into pathways for hope and healing.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Define and discuss what an emergency situation is and what may happen during a local emergency

•  Discuss how this can disrupt the normal pattern associated with trafficking and create a unique opportunity to support the survivor

•  Provide tangible real-life examples

•  Provide tools and discussion about how this can be applied in communities throughout the U.S. and abroad

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The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into anti-trafficking efforts presents both promising opportunities and significant ethical challenges. This presentation examines the dual potential of AI in qualitative research on human trafficking, particularly how these technologies affect marginalized communities. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives including Indigenous data sovereignty, critical data studies, and survivor-centered methodologies, the presenters analyze how AI systems can both amplify and silence vulnerable voices. This research reveals a troubling paradox: while AI tools are developed to protect vulnerable populations, they often reproduce what they term “algorithmic epistemicide”—the systematic erasure of non-Western knowledge systems through biased data practices. The presenters will introduce their framework for equity-centered AI-assisted qualitative research built on the Mi’kmaw concept of “Two-Eyed Seeing” (Etuaptmumk), which integrates Western technological approaches with Indigenous knowledge frameworks through four critical components: 1) integration of epistemological frameworks rather than prioritizing one over another; 2) centering survivor voices throughout the research process; 3) balancing efficiency with relationality; and 4) establishing collaborative research governance that distributes decision-making authority. The presentation emphasizes practical implementation considerations including technological infrastructure, approaches to preserving participant agency, and documentation for transparency and accountability. They conclude with a robust call to action for implementing the CARE principles (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) in AI-assisted trafficking research, providing attendees with key questions to ask when evaluating AI systems and concrete examples of how these principles can be operationalized in research practice.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Analyze the ethical implications of AI technologies in qualitative trafficking research through the lens of what Smith calls "decolonizing methodologies"

•  Present a framework for evaluating and designing AI systems based on the "Two-Eyed Seeing" approach that centers survivor agency and Indigenous knowledge systems

•  Examine case studies demonstrating both the protective applications of AI in anti-trafficking work and the exploitative adaptations by trafficking networks

•  Provide practical guidelines for implementing participatory data governance models that engage marginalized communities as co-designers rather than subjects of technological interventions

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Whether and how students provide sexual services, acts, or materials for pay or compensation (SSAMP) while in university is not well understood. The purpose of this research is to identify and describe the typology of university students who report providing SSAMP. A cross-sectional survey was administered at a Midwestern public university using the SSAMP index that included items assessing perceived positive and negative SSAMP consequences. Participants were 900 students (Mage = 22.27 years [SD = 4.91). Descriptive statistics were conducted. Students who reported providing SSAMP were included for Latent Class Analysis using 21 indicator variables reflecting 5 financial, 10 health, and 6 social consequences. Class comparisons were conducted based on social and economic minoritization and frequency of and reasons for SSAMP. Almost 16% (n=143) reported ever providing SSAMP; 14.2% (n= 128) during university; 13% (n=118) prior. Students providing SSAMP before university generally reported more adverse experiences, income instability, and negative mental health consequences stemming from SSAMP than those providing SSAMP during university only. The retained two-class model revealed that the “more consequences” group (class 1) was distinguished from the “less consequences” group (class 2) on nearly all reported consequences, except increased self-esteem. Those with “more consequences” were more likely to be LGBTQ+, disabled, and to report (1) more SSAMP, (2) financial motivations, (3) being pressured to provide SSAMP, and (4) providing SSAMP to please others. Students’ consequences are shaped by coercion, economic needs/wants, and social minoritization. Practices and policies that reduce harm before and during university are crucial to reduce negative consequences.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Provide an overview of research study and other research focusing on university students who provide sexual acts and materials for compensation across diverse circumstances

•  Describe practice and policy implications along with future research directions related to the current study.

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Stories matter. Voices matter. Experiences matter. Autonomy matters. In a time where our stories and our voices can be so quickly shared, widely accessed, and just as easily distorted, the See Me Project, is a platform for individuals who have been oppressed, marginalized, or exploited and gives them the reins on how they want to be seen, heard, understood, and supported. The See Me Project is a creative, collaborative piece with the intention of shining a light on the stories and experiences that are often ignored, forgotten, or altered and amplifies the voices of those who have been silenced by society or among their community. This presentation highlights the results collected and lessons learned from implementing the See Me Project with various populations. By exploring the intersection of theatre and therapy, this presentation shares tools on how to create spaces to amplify the voices of others, instead of telling the stories of others. Audience members will learn the personal and societal barriers that prevent us from truly seeing one another, while also exploring the concept of storytelling through a digital era, and will obtain a deeper level of understanding and connection across communities and populations. Participants will walk away with a greater ability to support clients, friends, peers, and strangers, through the process of claiming and sharing their stories. At a time when disenfranchisement is rife, the important elements of this program, such as informed consent, participants rights over their story, and egoless mentorship will be addressed.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Provide education on the concepts of Narrative Therapy, therapeutic storytelling, and the intersection of theatre and healing

•  Describe how to support clients in finding autonomy, authenticity, and purpose through the act of telling their story

•  Explore the ways in which increased digital connection has impacted storytelling in the global community

•  Explain the concepts, principles, and outcomes of the See Me Project(s)

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The Toledo Legal Aid Society launched The Opportunity Project in 2018 as a public defender-led initiative to address mental health and recovery needs within the criminal justice system. This initiative enables attorneys to take a holistic approach to their practice, leading to better representation and improved outcomes. By promoting long-term stability for individuals facing charges, it strengthens connections, reduces the duration of involvement in the justice system, and fosters more effective legal advocacy. Many individuals repeatedly cycle through the justice system due to unmet needs, often facing minor charges like trespassing or disorderly conduct. Without access to services, they are effectively lost to the community as they risk further destabilization and re-arrest, perpetuating a costly and destructive cycle. This issue of access (and lack thereof) affects the entire community—driving up financial and social costs, fostering desensitization, and weakening social connections. A thriving community depends on the well-being of all its members. The Opportunity Project bridges service gaps by implementing data-driven, best-practice strategies. By improving access to care and resources, it helps individuals regain stability, build on their strengths, and contribute to community growth. In this session, the presenters will share recent data and findings that highlight innovative ways to create lasting change in the criminal justice system while expanding access to essential services for our community. They hope this will enlighten attendees and engage further discourse whilst promoting access to needed services.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Review current local Public Defender-led strategies for addressing needs at the intersection of criminal justice and behavioral health

•  Explain the need for addressing mental health and recovery needs within and around the criminal justice system to those lost to the community by lack of access

•  Review examples and impact surrounding lack of access to services and how to engage individuals and the community

•  Explain application and value of data-driven approaches geared at finding gaps and offering solutions to meet the needs of the community

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Sex-trafficked individuals endure extreme traumatization, which disrupts brain development and engenders mental health struggles. One response can be reflexive and repetitive thinking about the trauma, through patterns of rumination. The purpose of this research project was to explore psychological rigidity in thought patterns of formerly sex-trafficked youth. Thematic coding of responses on the Rotter’s Incomplete Sentence Blank (RISB) provided a quantitative and qualitative understanding of rumination. Dysregulated activity of the prefrontal cortex and activation of negative emotion centers in the brain can induce negative thoughts and repetitive thinking. For women, interpersonal stressors and social anxiety can lead to rumination, which can be found in a context of anxiety, depression, and posttraumatic stress symptoms. Participants included 22 female adolescents (aged 14 to 18) who were formerly sex trafficked. Rumination was measured by coding the RISB for negativity, repetition, and reference to trauma. Anxiety and depression were measured by the Anxiety and Depression Beck Youth Inventories. Rumination scores correlated with anxiety, r(18) = .50, p = .025, and depression, r(18) = .68, p = .001, which lends credibility to the thematic coding of rumination used in this study. Negativity was especially prominent in the RISB responses, with themes of anger/frustration as well as deep longings for things to be different. Projective measures, such as the RISB, can allow service providers to assess rumination, thus elucidating clients’ core beliefs. Attendees will learn potential ways to intervene when they detect themes of rumination in formerly sex trafficked adolescents, including patterns of negative thinking, repeated thoughts, and references to trauma.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Explore themes in the thinking patterns of formerly sex trafficked youth that reveal important facets of their functioning

•  Define rumination, demonstrate its relevance to sex trafficked youth, and offer a method of measuring rumination that could be used by service providers

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Recent statistics reveal that male victims of sex trafficking are more prevalent than previously thought, with their numbers approaching those of female victims. The primary distinction lies in the higher percentage of male victims aged 0 to 11 compared to their female counterparts. This narrative recounts Mike Chapman’s experience of being sexually trafficked by his father in Oregon during the 1970s, his journey of repressed memory recovery and healing, and his subsequent support for other male survivors. Beginning at age 30, Mike began to recall repressed memories of the sexual abuse he suffered by his father. He initiated a healing process to address the trauma but paused it while raising two children. At 54, he resumed his pursuit of healing and unearthed the additional trauma of having been sexually trafficked by his father. This discovery marked a new phase toward healing. Mike intends to share his personal account of uncovering the truths of his abusive past and how it led him to find healing, resilience, and hope for others, highlighting the decades-long issue of sexual exploitation of young boys by their white, middle-class family members in the U.S. He advocates for public and NGO services to include male survivors, especially those of family-controlled trafficking, in their plans and research, emphasizing the need to support both recent and long-ago survivors, including those who suppressed the events years or even decades later, in their healing journeys.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Provide a description of a male survivor who was sex trafficked as a young boy

•  Discuss the process of recovering repressed memories decades after the trauma

•  Discuss how male trafficking is an epidemic within the U.S. and often overlooked in anti-trafficking efforts

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Indian female sex workers (FSWs) face a myriad of barriers (discrimination, illiteracy, stigma) that limit life options for themselves and their children. Using life-course developmental perspectives and ecological systems theory, the researchers sought to understand contextual and relational dynamics among FSWs as mothers (n = 19) and children of FSWs (n = 12) residing in an urban, brothel area (Hanuman Tekdi) in Mumbai. Interviews were conducted in private, translated, transcribed, and analyzed using thematic analysis and constant comparison. Mothers: All from impoverished rural families. Most (53%) were trafficked into sex trade (median age = 13.5). Seven women were estranged from families because of their work in sex trade. They actively took steps to keep their children safe in the brothel district neighborhood. Children: Prior to the lockdown, only four lived in the brothel area full-time; others lived in hostels or part-time in rural villages. Children received emotional support from mothers, uncles, friends, and God. Children provided instrumental and emotional support to mothers. Schools were closed for 82 weeks and remote learning was nearly impossible. All reported having friends or “best friends”, but they were in villages, school, or hostels and so no contact in over a year.  Children viewed the brothel area as “dirty” and unsafe. Implications for policy, practice and continued research will be discussed. Attendees will have a clear understanding of the relational dynamics between vulnerable mothers and their children living in an urban red-light area, and the challenges they face and protective and survival strategies they employ.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Discuss factors which compelled mothers into the commercial sex industry

•  Identify challenges for living in an impoverished, urban brothel district for both mothers and children

•  Discuss implications for policy, practice, and continued research

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Since pushing heavily for the creation of the legal category of “human trafficking” in the early 2000s, the U.S. has self-described as a “hero” within the anti-trafficking movement. The U.S. has used this status to justify grading other countries on their anti-human trafficking efforts and threatening changes to trade and aid agreements if certain policy metrics are not met. What are the political, economic, and institutional factors that explain why the U.S. has chosen the anti-trafficking policy recommendations it pushes on other countries? This project conducts a comparative analysis of the Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report and the Department of Labor’s Worst Forms of Child Labor (TDA) Report. The researcher compiled and coded a dataset of more than 50,000 formal policy recommendations on human trafficking and forced labor made by the United States to more than 125 countries to chart differences between federal departments and presidential administrations, track changes over time, and examine differences between regions and countries. This analysis is rooted in feminist analysis of state coercion and informed by international relations and comparative politics theory of policy creation. The presenter concludes that the policy recommendations the U.S. makes to other countries force boundaries on what policies become acceptable for the U.S. to accept domestically, as the government risks reputational damage to repeal harmful policy models after the fact. This research concludes with an exploration of internationally coordinated, grassroots efforts to combat exploitation as an alternative to coercive state policy models.

 

Presentation Objectives:

•  Provide a descriptive overview of U.S. federal anti-trafficking policy recommendations, specifically comparing policy recommendations and country reports between the TIP and TDA Reports

•  Examine the political, economic, and institutional factors that influence policy recommendation creation

•  Explore how self-reinforcing institutional models, like the U.S. model examined, can be challenged and influenced by grassroots movements that organize internationally

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