RRT as a Strategy with Prostituted/Trafficked Women and Their Children

By Diane Vines, R.N., Ph.D.
Certified Practitioner, Rapid Resolution Therapy
Principal Investigator on the RRT Research Studies

At the fall international conference of the American Public Health Association, Dr. Diane Vines presented on her work with prostituted and trafficked women and their young adult children in Portland, Oregon. As part of her presentation, she included the success of Rapid Resolution Therapy with this population.

The project in Portland is part of Global Health Promise (GHP), an organization dedicated to protecting mothers and their children from the impact of trafficking, prostitution, and sexual exploitation. As part of GHP, Dr. Vines was one of the founders of Our Mother's House (OMH), dedicated to connecting women from prostitution and their children to various services for abused and victimized women and their children in order to provide support and healing strategies. Portland was featured by Frontline as the "porn capital of the country" and is infamous for the level of trafficking and prostituting of women and girls.
Dr. Vines is also the Principal Investigator on research into the childrearing strategies of prostituted women. The study is collecting information on the health of their children and on where the children stay while their mothers are working.

In an attempt to prevent violence and the exploitation of prostituted/trafficked women and their children, OMH recognizes the following: 1) the relationship between prostitution/sex trafficking and family violence; 2) the need for a community approach in working with them; and 3) the importance of supporting and encouraging the growth in the prostituted/trafficked mothers, their youth and their young adult children; 4) the intergenerational nature of violence and the exploitation of women; and finally 5) the relationship between being a child of a prostituted woman and later becoming a victim or victimizer as an adult. The project further believes in the destructive role of the pimp or trafficker in child rearing.

OMH includes a drop-in center for homeless and transitionally housed women who have prostituted or trafficked. It also includes a spiritual retreat customized for them and a support group run by Dr. Vines for the young adult children of prostitutes.

Dr. Vines uses Rapid Resolution Therapy as an excellent intervention for these women, girls and their children. These are some of the most traumatized groups in the United States and RRT is a wonderful addition to the support services provided by OMH.

Diane Welch Vines, Ph.D., R.N. is an Associate Professor of Nursing at the University of Portland and lead faculty in the population/public health nursing program. She is co-author of the book Angel Walk: Nurses at War in Iraq and Afghanistan and an author of a women's health book. She was the first civilian nurse White House Fellow and served with the U.S. Secretary of Education. She taught psychiatric, pediatric, and medical surgical nursing in California, New York, and Massachusetts, and was a counselor and psychotherapist in private practice in Boston and West Los Angeles. Diane is a nationally certified Rapid Resolution Therapy practitioner in private practice in Oregon.