{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":"163. Anne Marie Hauben: The Truth About Non-consent, Trauma, and Speaking Up","description":" Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast with Dave Markel\u2028  Guest: Anne Marie Hauben I\u2019m honored to share this week\u2019s episode of The SASS Podcast with someone whose courage doesn\u2019t just echo across a microphone\u2014it reverberates across decades of silence, retaliation, and survival: Anne Marie Hauben. Anne Marie isn\u2019t just a guest. She is a truth-teller, an advocate, and a woman who refused to let a lifetime of dismissal define her story. After more than 30 years of carrying the weight of an assault she endured at 18 years old, she decided she would not stay silent any longer. And in doing so, she carved out a path of empowerment for survivors everywhere who feel trapped between trauma and the societal forces that try to suffocate their truth. This conversation is raw, urgent, and profoundly human. Who Is Anne Marie Hauben?  \u2022 She is a survivor of a 1990 sexual assault, perpetrated during a senior trip to Bermuda when she was 18 and extremely intoxicated. The reported perpetrator was Ward, a former city councilor in Melrose, Massachusetts. \u2022 Anne Marie endured decades of silence shaped by shame, traumatic memory, lack of parental safety, and the fear that telling the truth would bring more harm than healing. (Written testimony) \u2022 In 2016 and again in 2018, she privately confronted her perpetrator through personal messages seeking accountability, remorse, or even acknowledgment. Both attempts were ignored; the second resulted in her being blocked. (Testimony) \u2022 In 2023, when her perpetrator ran for city council, her trauma was violently retraumatized and shoved back into the light. The anxiety, fear, flashbacks, and PTSD symptoms became overwhelming, forcing her to grapple with her past in a public way to protect herself, her community, and other survivors. (Testimony) \u2022 She ultimately sought legal guidance and published a public statement so voters would know who they were electing. Instead of support, she faced a wave of defamation threats, intimidation, and a coordinated effort by community members to discredit her. (Testimony) \u2022 Today, she is a vocal survivor-advocate pushing for reform in defamation law, accountability in local government, protections for survivors, and cultural change around how we respond to sexual violence.  \u2022 She uses her platform, Amplified Voice Healing, to speak openly about her story, help other survivors reclaim their voice, and educate the public about the patterns of retaliation, shame, and silence that protect perpetrators. (www.amplifiedvoicehealing.com)  Why I Asked Anne Marie to Be on the Show \u2022 Because I\u2019m committed to giving survivors a place where they\u2019re believed, respected, and heard\u2014and Anne Marie has spent the last two years being silenced and attacked for speaking the truth. \u2022 Because her experience is a masterclass in how systems, communities, and defamation laws are weaponized against survivors who dare to speak out. \u2022 Because she embodies the intersection of trauma neuroscience, public accountability, and the lived experience of surviving both assault and decades of retaliation. \u2022 Because her voice is needed. For college students. For mothers. For anyone grappling with whether they\u2019re \u201callowed\u201d to speak. For every survivor who worries they\u2019ll be called a liar, crazy, or unstable simply for telling the truth. \u2022 Because her story is not just her own. It is woven from the same cloth as Chanel Miller, E. Jean Carroll, Christine Blasey Ford, and every survivor whose truth confronted a powerful man shielded by convenience and denial. What We\u2019ll Explore in This Episode \u2022 The assault itself: what Anne remembers from that night in Bermuda, what trauma did to her memory, and what the aftermath looked like for an 18-year-old trying to survive without support. \u2022 The neuroscience of delayed disclosure: why trauma keeps victims silent for years or decades\u2014and how shame, fear, and protective forgetting shape a survivor\u2019s timeline. \u2022 Retaliation, defamation threats, and silencing: how community members, friends of the perpetrator, and public officials weaponized intimidation against her to shut down her voice. \u2022 Rape culture in action: what happens when a small-town political ecosystem decides that a man\u2019s reputation is worth more than a woman\u2019s truth. \u2022 Healing, advocacy, and finding purpose: how Anne turned her pain into public testimony, activism, and a platform for educating others about accountability and survivor protection. My Personal Reflection I want to acknowledge Anne Marie\u2019s courage. What she carried for three decades would have broken many people. Yet she continues to speak out with clarity, strength, and conviction, not just for herself but for every survivor who has been told to stay quiet. Listening to Anne Marie share her story so openly, and hearing the resilience and emotional labor it took to put her truth into the public square, is proof that SASS is a platform is for victims and survivors to be able to further their pursuit of justice and the commitment to normalize the conversation. Anne Marie\u2019s experience is not just recounting a traumatic event\u2014she\u2019s exposing the machinery that keeps perpetrators safe and survivors silent. I\u2019m grateful Anne chose to trust me with her story. I\u2019m grateful my listeners get to learn from her, feel with her, and rethink what accountability truly looks like. And I\u2019m truly proud to have had her on this show. Audience Takeaway \u2022 No survivor owes anyone immediate disclosure. Trauma rewrites the rules of time. \u2022 Anne\u2019s experience is both a warning and a call to action. Rape culture is not theoretical\u2014it\u2019s lived every day in the systems that dismissed and attacked her. \u2022 If you are a survivor: you\u2019re not alone. Your timeline is valid. Your truth is yours to tell when you are ready. \u2022 If you are part of a community, a school, a department, or a justice system: please pay attention. These patterns repeat everywhere. Silence is the abuser\u2019s best friend. \u2022 And if you\u2019ve ever wondered why survivors take years to speak: this episode will change the way you think about trauma forever. Anne Marie, thank you for standing up, speaking out, and refusing to keep your pain quiet. And to our SASS listeners: brace yourselves. This episode is powerful, necessary, and is one of those important conversations I regularly bring to the podcast to help normalize the conversation about rape and sexual assault. An important side note: if you\u2019re finding value in this show and these amazing episodes, please take a moment to leave a 5-star rating on your podcast platform. AND, follow SexualAssaultSurvivorStories on Instagram, then, please send me a note of support. I can\u2019t tell you how much your emails mean to me\u2014they fuel my passion to keep this podcast going. And if you\u2019re a victim or survivor and are ready to tell your story in order to help yourself or someone else heal, let me know, and we can start a conversation about the possibility of you being on the show.  Here\u2019s my email address: dave@sasstories.com  Thank you to all of you who have reached out to me already. Just provide me with a phone number where I can reach back out to you\u2026because I like to talk to people who are interested in guesting. And please keep those emails and texts coming\u2026I truly look forward to hearing from you! Here are some critically important links that I hope you\u2019ll take the time to explore, and where a contribution is requested, please consider doing so! \u2014 Thank you!! https:\/\/www.amplifiedvoicehealing.com\/my-advocacy-work https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/amplifiedvoicehealing?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw== https:\/\/1in6.org\/ https:\/\/www.kirtland.af.mil\/News\/Article-Display\/Article\/817825\/psychologist-addresses-sexual-violence\/ https:\/\/static.csbsju.edu\/Documents\/Counseling%20and%20Health%20Promotions\/CERTS\/David%20Lisak%20article.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com https:\/\/time.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/repeat_rape.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com https:\/\/docs.house.gov\/meetings\/AS\/AS00\/20130123\/100231\/HHRG-113-AS00-Bio-LisakD-20130123.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com https:\/\/soulwisesolutions.com https:\/\/safeinharmsway.org https:\/\/sironahealing.com\/ https:\/\/www.whattheydontsay.com https:\/\/www.survivor-school.com\/?ref=DAVEMARKEL www.arcigrey.com  https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/invisible-no-more-lady-veterans-stories-of-military\/id1754061590 https:\/\/startbybelieving.org https:\/\/evawintl.org\/ As mentioned, and emphasized, it\u2019s time to Normalize the Conversation.\u2122 And please remember to Start by Believing\u2026because we all know someone whose life has been impacted by rape or sexual assault. Thank you for tuning in. ","author_name":"Sexual Assault Survivor Stories Podcast - SASS","author_url":"http:\/\/sexualassaultsurvivorstories.libsyn.com\/website","html":"