Distance Counselling With Survivors of Sexual Violence: A Brief Report of Practitioner Insights From a Knowledge Translation Partnership

Résumé

Distance counselling has long held the possibility for improving access to supports for survivors of sexual violence, yet for a myriad of reasons, it has remained peripheral to core service provision within the gender-based violence sector. The COVID-19 pandemic forced much sexual violence counselling to shift to distance, resulting in ample frontline experience. This brief report offers a synthesis of wisdom deriving from a knowledge translation partnership to strengthen meaning-making among a wider community of practitioners engaged in distance counselling with survivors. Findings are situated within a constructivist paradigm in which the authors amplify feminist forms of knowledge (“knowing through doing”). In bringing together several sources of information—academic and grey literature, a nationally administered survey with sexual violence counsellors, and a culminating online learning event—the authors share exceptional and technical considerations for survivors and point to enduring issues of equity and sustainability concerning distance counselling.