New doctoral research highlights the lasting importance of connection, trust, validation, and survivor-centred healing for adults who have experienced childhood sexual abuse.
At The Gatehouse Child Abuse Investigation & Support Site, we believe that healing from childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is not defined by a single moment, a particular milestone, or a fixed timeline. Healing is a deeply personal journey that can unfold over many years, shaped by opportunities to be heard, believed, supported, and connected with others who understand.
We are pleased to share important academic research from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom that explores the long-term experiences of survivors who participated in The Gatehouse’s peer support program.
Published in 2026, the doctoral thesis by Stefan Horodeckyj, titled Child Sexual Abuse Victims’ Perspectives of the Long-Term Impacts of Their Participation in ‘The Gatehouse’ Partial Restorative Justice Programme, offers valuable insight into how survivors experienced healing more than five years after completing the program.
The findings reinforce the importance of survivor-centred, relationship-based approaches to healing and provide an opportunity to reflect on the long-term impact of peer support.
Understanding the Research
The study examined the experiences of 16 adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse who had completed The Gatehouse program. All 16 participated in interviews, and 14 also completed a research survey. Using qualitative and quantitative research methods, the study explored survivors’ emotional well-being, interpersonal relationships, coping strategies, and perceptions of healing more than five years after their participation.
Importantly, the research focused on survivors’ own perspectives, recognizing that people with lived experience have essential knowledge about what supports their healing. The study also considered The Gatehouse’ approach through the lens of partial restorative justice, exploring how principles of healing, validation, connection, and empowerment can contribute to recovery without requiring direct engagement with the person who caused harm.
Five Important Findings About Long-Term Healing
1. Emotional distress can lessen over time
Childhood sexual abuse can have profound and lasting emotional consequences. Survivors may experience depression, anxiety, grief, anger, shame, and difficulties with trust and self-worth. The research found that participants reported varying degrees of relief from these difficult emotions more than five years after completing The Gatehouse program.
These findings are meaningful because healing does not necessarily mean that painful memories or emotions disappear. Rather, survivors may develop new ways of understanding their experiences, responding to difficult feelings, and reclaiming a sense of agency in their lives. At The Gatehouse, we recognize that every survivor’s healing journey is different. Progress may be gradual, nonlinear, and deeply individual.
2. Trust, compassion, validation, and hope matter
One of the most encouraging findings concerned the positive emotional experiences participants associated with their time at The Gatehouse. Survivors described experiencing trust, validation, empathy, compassion, and hope during their participation. For most participants, these positive experiences had strengthened more than five years after completing the program.
For individuals whose childhood experiences involved betrayal, secrecy, manipulation, or a lack of protection, opportunities to develop trust and experience genuine compassion can be especially meaningful. Peer support creates space for survivors to connect with others who understand the complexities of childhood sexual abuse without requiring them to justify, minimize, or explain away their experiences.
Being heard and believed can become an important part of rebuilding trust in oneself and others.
3. Healthy relationships are central to healing
Childhood sexual abuse can affect how survivors experience relationships, boundaries, intimacy, and emotional safety. The study found that all participants identified healthy interpersonal relationships as important to their healing. Participants also reported improvements in their relationships to varying degrees more than five years after completing the program. This finding highlights an essential principle of trauma-informed support: healing does not always happen in isolation.
Supportive relationships can provide opportunities to experience mutual respect, establish boundaries, communicate needs, and develop a stronger sense of belonging. At The Gatehouse, our peer support programs are grounded in the understanding that meaningful connection can help reduce isolation and support survivors as they rebuild relationships with themselves and others.
4. Survivors reported changes in how they managed emotional pain
The research also explored the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and substance use. Some participants described using alcohol or other substances to numb or manage the emotional pain associated with their experiences. More than five years after completing The Gatehouse program, most of those participants reported having successfully addressed these substance-use difficulties.
This finding is significant because coping responses often develop in the context of overwhelming experiences and limited access to safety or support. A trauma-informed approach recognizes these responses without judgment and seeks to understand the underlying experiences and needs of the individual. The study suggests that participants experienced meaningful changes in how they managed emotional distress over time, although it does not establish that program participation alone caused these changes.
5. Survivors developed and maintained healthier coping strategies
All participants reported using healthier coping strategies more consistently more than five years after completing the program.
These strategies included:
- Self-affirmation and self-compassion
- Gratitude and reflective practices
- Journaling and emotional expression
- Deep breathing and self-regulation
- Self-care and personal well-being practices
- Seeking and maintaining social support
These findings remind us that healing is not only about addressing the effects of trauma. It is also about developing practical skills, strengthening personal resources, and creating opportunities for greater stability, connection, and well-being.The ability to draw on supportive coping strategies years after participating in a program is an encouraging indication of how survivors can continue to build upon their healing experiences.
Why This Research Matters for The Gatehouse
Since 1998, The Gatehouse has worked to provide a compassionate, survivor-centred environment where adults who experienced childhood sexual abuse can access peer support, counselling, education, and opportunities for connection. Our foundational peer support program, Out of the Darkness into the Light, reflects our commitment to creating spaces where survivors can share their experiences at their own pace, recognize their strengths, and connect with others.
This doctoral research offers an important contribution to understanding the potential long-term value of that approach. It also provides an opportunity to examine how peer support may contribute to broader discussions about restorative justice and healing.
Traditional understandings of restorative justice often focus on processes involving people who have experienced harm and those responsible for causing it. However, the partial restorative justice approach examined in this research recognizes that healing-oriented practices may be meaningful without direct contact between survivors and those who harmed them. For many survivors of childhood sexual abuse, such contact may be unwanted, unsafe, or inappropriate. The Gatehouse’ approach places survivors’ needs, choices, and experiences at the centre of the process.
The research suggests that this flexible, integrative model may offer valuable lessons for other peer support programs serving adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse.
The Importance of Survivor Voices in Research
Perhaps one of the most meaningful aspects of this study is its emphasis on listening to survivors. Too often, conversations about childhood sexual abuse focus primarily on prevalence, criminal justice responses, or the immediate consequences of trauma.While these issues are essential, we must also ask what happens years later.
What does healing look like five, ten, or twenty years after someone reaches out for support?
How do survivors understand changes in their relationships, emotional well-being, and sense of self?
What elements of a support program remain meaningful long after participation ends?
By centring survivors’ perspectives, this research contributes to a deeper understanding of these questions. It also highlights the need for continued research into peer support, including the experiences of male survivors, Indigenous survivors, racialized communities, and other populations whose perspectives have historically been underrepresented.
The thesis further identifies opportunities to examine facilitator training and explore how peer support models can be adapted to meet diverse needs. These are important considerations as The Gatehouse continues to strengthen its services and support survivors across all gender identities and backgrounds.
What the Findings Tell Us — and What We Still Need to Learn
While the findings are encouraging, it is important to recognize the scope of the research. This was a small study involving 16 interviewed participants, with a particular focus on the experiences of adult female survivors. The findings reflect participants’ reported experiences and cannot establish that The Gatehouse program alone produced the changes described. Nevertheless, the study provides valuable survivor-informed evidence about the long-term experiences associated with participation in a peer support program. It also reinforces why continued evaluation, research partnerships, and survivor engagement are essential to improving services. For The Gatehouse, this research represents both an opportunity to recognize the experiences of those who participated and a responsibility to keep learning from survivors.
Looking Ahead: Strengthening Survivor-Centred Healing
The Gatehouse remains committed to strengthening evidence-informed, trauma-informed, and survivor-centred services. Research such as this can help inform program development, facilitator education, evaluation practices, and future partnerships with researchers and community organizations. It also reminds us that the impact of survivor support should not be measured solely by attendance, program completion, or immediate outcomes.
We must also consider the longer-term experiences of survivors: their relationships, emotional well-being, coping strategies, sense of connection, and ability to make meaningful choices in their lives. As we continue this work, we remain guided by a simple but powerful understanding:
Survivors deserve more than the opportunity to tell their stories. They deserve opportunities to be heard, believed, supported, and empowered to define healing on their own terms.
We extend our appreciation to Stefan Horodeckyj for undertaking this research and to the survivors who shared their experiences. Their contributions help expand our collective understanding of healing from childhood sexual abuse and the importance of sustained, compassionate support. Their voices matter. Their experiences matter. And the knowledge they share can help create more responsive and inclusive services for future generations of survivors.
Read the Research
Researcher: Stefan Horodeckyj
Institution: Lancaster University, United Kingdom
Publication: 2026 Doctoral Thesis
Title: Child Sexual Abuse Victims’ Perspectives of the Long-Term Impacts of Their Participation in ‘The Gatehouse’ Partial Restorative Justice Programme
Full research: https://doi.org/10.17635/lancaster/thesis/3468
About The Gatehouse
Founded in 1998, The Gatehouse Child Abuse Investigation & Support Site is a Toronto-based charitable organization dedicated to supporting individuals impacted by childhood sexual abuse. Through survivor-centred peer support, counselling, education, advocacy, and community engagement, The Gatehouse works to reduce isolation, promote healing, and create opportunities for survivors to reclaim their voices.
To learn more about our programs, research, advocacy, or opportunities to support our work, visit www.thegatehouse.org.
Healing is personal. Connection matters. Every survivor deserves to be heard.
