2021 Recipient
Joanna Vergoth
Joanna Vergoth LCSW, NCPsyA, a psychotherapist specializing in trauma, has been a committed activist helping those affected by FGM for over 20 years. She is the founder of forma—a non-profit organization dedicated to providing culturally-sensitive clinical services to women affected by FGM/C—and one of Apolitical's Most Influential People in Gender Policy 2021.
Joanna has worked with women who have survived an excruciatingly harmful practice—a culturally sanctioned trauma. And for some survivors, FGM/C was not the worst experience they had—rather, they also endured rape, forced marriage, wars, and separation from family. Some survivors have spoken out against FGM/C and have risked outrage, ostracism, or worse, from their communities. Some have received death threats and have had to relocate.
Many FGM-affected women may suffer not only from complicated medical and physical consequences, but also from serious psychological distress and psycho-sexual difficulties. By offering psychoeducational outreach, advocacy, and awareness training, Joanna sees herself as a liaison between the affected communities and the thresholds they have to navigate: schools, hospitals, clinics, social service agencies, and government organizations.
More recently, Joanna has provided psychotherapeutic services to survivors who, as children, experienced FGM but also suffered brutalizing child rape and torture from families and organizations practicing organized Ritual Abuse and Mind Control, where the intentional inducement and manipulation of dissociation in children are for the purposes of sexual sadism and exploitation.
"Silence perpetuates the practice of both FGM and Ritual Abuse. We must break the taboo of silence and find ways to broach disquieting and difficult conversations in order to raise awareness with the hopes of ending wounding traditions and ritual violence. Each voice counts. Please let yours be heard as well!" – Joanna Vergoth
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