“I have already done a lot of work in psychotherapy. But I had never played sports. But there, something really amazing happened. A kind of liberation, which combines both release, the expulsion of anger, but also a gain of serenity. I couldn’t stand a stranger approaching me anymore. And here we learn to manage the right distance according to what we feel. Something essential is at stake. I was constantly in physical pain. And today I hardly take any painkillers. On the other hand, these are obviously emotions so intense that I was obliged to put myself on sick leave for a few weeks. We shout, we cry while typing in the punching bag and we exchange with the supervisors. It’s a real path to liberation, ”explains Cindy, 39.
“It makes me crazy! »
She was raped by a member of her family between the ages of 4 and 12. And, over the course of her consultations, she agreed, with a dozen other women, to take part in the fencing and then kick-boxing workshops set up by the town of Hérouville specifically for victims of domestic or intra-family violence. It is not just an initiation to sport but real support sessions for reconstruction, at the rate of a 4-hour session every month. A sexologist, a doctor, two physiotherapists work alongside the fencing master.
“It’s about giving these women the means to reclaim their bodies, and therefore to relearn how to manage the distance that we accept to put in ourselves and others. This is all the more essential at this time as the delays in obtaining treatment in a medico-psychological center are very long. In the meantime, it is essential to maintain the link with these female victims,” explains Sylvie Dumont-Prieux, adviser in charge of access to women’s rights. In the meantime, Cindy, for example, filed a complaint against her attacker. “Little by little, things are getting back in place in my life. It’s long, but I feel like it’s going in the right direction. These workshops do me such a good thing that, independently of this approach, I will even enroll in a kick-boxing club”.
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