John-Michael Lander shares his experience of being a survivor of child sexual abuse and trafficking as a 14-year-old Olympic-bound athlete. He describes how the adults in charge of his training groomed and trafficked him into silence, causing him to feel shame and guilt. Although he went on to win gold medals, he struggled with therapists because some of the traffickers were therapists. He found healing through The Self-Talk Institute, which helped him change his thought process and realize that he had control and choice over his feelings. He is now a certified trainer and life coach with The Self-Talk Institute, passionate about helping other survivors find their authentic selves. John-Michael's case has been dismissed several times due to his not being a university student, but he hopes that the movement for Title IX and other initiatives will help protect anyone who comes onto campus.
Hi I'm John Michael Lander a former Olympic diving Contender and sex abuse Survivor as a 14 year old olympic-bound athlete the adults entrusted in my training groomed and trafficked me into silence causing the most exciting time of my life to be filled with shame and guilt while I still went on to win gold medals at the Norway and danish cups after I took eighth at the Junior Olympics an article ran in the newspaper and a lawyer founded and he contacted my mother and they started to meet over the over three months and he basically informed her that he was able to help me in my diving career and my expenses along with some of his friends so that's how the trafficking started to happen and so my case has been up and down for the past three years it has been dismissed several times due to the fact that I was not a student of the University where I was taken I was still a high school student and so they're trying to figure out where I fit in within this whole case the lawyer basically is saying so it's okay to take teenagers up to a university abuse them and then ignore them because their stories do not hold up so there's a big big movement for going forward with Title IX and all that stuff to help anyone that comes onto campus one of my healing Journeys I had a problem with therapists because several of the traffickers were therapists so I came into a therapy session already defensive and so the only way that I found that helped me was when I went to The self-talk Institute and they started to work with me to help me from where I was at that moment to change the way I thought in my thought process and that I had the control and the choice to change the way I felt inside and that's where I started to heal and that's when I started to realize that there is so much more to this and I was so excited and passionate about it that I myself became a certified trainer and a life coach with a life a self-talk Institute so that I could help other survivors be able to find their true voice and their authentic self
