Meet Sherrie Allsup

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sherrie Allsup a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sherrie , really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

As a survivor of long-term sexual abuse, trauma, and suicide attempts and much hard work and healing, I became the founder and CEO of Courage Starts With You Nonprofit 501 (c)3. For victims, Courage means telling someone and reaching out for help. For law enforcement, Courage means looking beyond the traditional victim interview technique to recognize how and why victims of assault may act differently than victims of other crimes.

Trauma victims almost live plan to plan or we wouldn’t survive. This is an exact representation of my life. I proudly have a tattoo of a semicolon on my left forearm. The meaning behind this tattoo is typically a representation of an individuals struggle
with mental health, depression, and particularly suicide. Thus, showing the individual chose to live to continue their story and not end it. When thinking about how a semicolon is used grammatically it is a pause before continuing the sentence.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My name is Sherrie Allsup and I am a Sexual Assault and Trauma Expert, international speaker, educator, and subject matter expert with lived experience. I speak on topics such as sexual assault, sexual abuse, trauma, and suicide. I have the honor and privilege of traveling nationwide conducting on-site training for Law Enforcement on the topics of sex crimes, trauma, and suicide from a victims point of view. My favorite part of what I do is the ability and privilege to interact with Law Enforcement. Although I’m a civilian, they welcome me into their circle with open arms and they treat me as if I’m family.

The exciting part is that I have made friends from every department that I’ve taught at. Once I finish teaching each class I always know that there’s one special person that was in the audience. I believe I was there specifically to interact with this individual on a personal level. My latest new and exciting adventure was conducting on-site training at the Maui Police Department in Maui, Hawaii. I had a fabulous time learning about their culture, police department, and meeting all of their officers.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

My most important quality is that my teaching skills as I educate law-enforcement comes from my personal background of sexual assault and abuse, trauma, and a suicide attempt. I have the experience and knowledge because of my lived experience. Having gone through this and speaking from a victims perspective makes me unique and sets me apart. It is something that I would never wish on anyone else. I believe I am an asset to Law Enforcement because they operate on a real level instead of a theoretical approach.

This is where I come in with my story and real life experience helping them to better understand how to approach a victim of sexual assault. My advice for anyone else on this journey would be first and foremost to take care of yourself. You have to heal yourself before you can reach out and help someone else. Once you put the hard work in and do all the hard work that it takes to heal, is when you will be qualified to go out and do whatever it is that fills your heart with joy.

Tell us what your ideal client would be like?

My ideal client are those in Law Enforcement. I enjoy educating Law Enforcement because they are the ones that are in the trenches every single day. They see the worst in people and they see people at their worst. They do that all with very little training and often with very little mental health support. When I share my personal story with Law Enforcement and then continue on into educating them,

I feel like that my years of trauma are not completely wasted. That I can utilize what I gained during that time and during my healing and recovery to pass on to someone else. In order, for them to take my story and apply what I have told them the next time they’re working with a victim of a sex crime.

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