Adult survivors of sexual abuse often feel the effects years and decades after the trauma.

The effects can be chronic depression, isolation or drug and alcohol abuse, according to Carl Baughman, a licensed family counselor who, with licensed professional counselor Denise Wilson, will run a seminar for adult survivors of sex abuse Saturday at Trinity Lutheran Church, 120 Sunset Drive.

The Tamar Speaks Retreat is designed to aid the healing process of people who have been sexually abused.

Tamar was a daughter of King David in the Old Testament, who was raped by her brother.

Baughman said sexual abuse can be defined as any uninitiated sexual experience.

“It could be rape, incest or exposing someone to pornographic material on one extreme,” said Baughman. “On the other extreme, it could be being exposed to those kinds of activities. It's a pretty broad spectrum.”

And sexual abuse affects a pretty broad spectrum of the population.

Baughman said, “I would say it is rampant. One in four girls and one in six boys will be victims of sexual abuse before their eighteenth birthday.”

“If you think about those numbers, that is 17 percent of the population. It is almost staggering,” he said.

And that means, he said, a significant proportion of the population is dealing with a number of emotional and psychological factors that continue to play out for the rest of their lives.

It can take the form of triggers that can touch off memory flashbacks to the abuse.

A victim who has memories of being held down, smothered or covered can be “triggered” by the experience of riding in a crowded elevator, said Baughman.

In addition to triggers, sexual abuse can affect the victim's self-esteem, body image, how they see other people or how they see themselves as sexual beings.

“Being abused can cause them to feel like they are not worth having a healthy normal relationship,” said Baughman.

The perpetrator can tell the victim that the abuse was their fault, that they were dressed provocatively or had “come on” to the abuser.

“The perpetrator can plant a lot of bad information,” he said, which is even more damaging because most sexual abusers are people known to the victim, a friend, relative or family friend.

What the seminar hopes to accomplish, Baughman said, is to give people a chance to start recovery.

Many have never told anyone about their sexual abuse, so for some this may be a first step.

Baughman said that in the seminar he and Wilson will make some presentations and then ask for feedback.

“If people just want to sit there and listen to the information, that's fine as well,” he said.

Baughman is a member of Trinity Lutheran Church and worked with its pastor, the Rev. Joel Benson, to set up the seminar.

Benson said, “Obviously he's a member, that's part of it. But we talked about if we thought we could pull this off. We decided we weren't going to know unless we tried.”

“It's an important subject that the church needs to speak to and speak about,” said Benson.

For a lot of people, Baughman said, this will be a start, but he expects people attending the seminar to be in all stages of the healing process.

“We want them to know it was not their fault. We want them to know there is hope out there for them,” said Baughman, adding he and Wilson can provide referrals to individual counselors if attendees want follow-up treatment.

WHAT: A seminar for adult survivors of sexual abuseWHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. SaturdayWHERE: Trinity Lutheran Church, 120 Sunset Drive, in conjunction with North Main Street Church of GodINFO: The Tamar Speaks Retreat is designed to aid the healing process of people who have been sexually abused. Preregistration is required. For more information, contact Trinity Lutheran Church at 724-287-1977 or Carl Baughman, one of the co-presenters, at 412-719-8814.