4. Change Is a Process: Using the Transtheoretical Model with Commercially Sexually Exploited and Trafficked Youth and Adults

Trauma-informed intervention with survivors of human trafficking.

“…It may be especially helpful for clinicians who struggle with feelings of frustration, worry, and helplessness when engaging with clients who are not ready to exit a trafficking situation, who relapse with substance use or other high-risk behaviors, or who return to their exploiter multiple times. This approach is responsive to survivors in all stages in the change process represented in the model, including precontemplation (not considering change), contemplation (considering change), preparation (getting ready for action), action (active movement toward change), and maintenance (sustaining behavioral changes); and it acknowledges relapse as an expected part of the change process for many risk behaviors (Lloyd, 2018). This model is grounded in the notion that working with a person at their current stage of readiness for change will increase engagement and receptiveness to intervention and may also enhance outcomes.…”

“…This is important in countering the loss of power often experienced in conditions of human trafficking. Its utility is recognized on several fronts: ambivalence regarding engagement in services, broadly, engagement in mental health treatment, specifically, ambivalence regarding leaving a relationship with an identified exploiter, and/or cessation of engagement in commercial sex (leaving "the life") or exploitative labor conditions in general, especially in partnership with the "stages of change" conceptualization of trafficking described previously (Lloyd, 2018). MI has been utilized extensively in substance abuse and addiction treatment and, therefore, also has benefit in addressing substance use with trafficking survivors.…”