Catholic Health World Articles

February 23, 2026

CommonSpirit offers resource to help human trafficking survivors heal and protect themselves from burnout

JULIE MINDA

CommonSpirit Health’s new resource for trafficking survivors is available at trauma-recovery-booklet.pdf. The health system created it in partnership with the Rebecca Bender Initiative, an organization that in part supports survivors of trafficking.

It is estimated that more than 20,000 people are trafficked in the U.S. each year. Their trauma does not end when they escape. Survivors — especially those who go on to work in helping professions — are at high risk of long-term impacts, including “retraumatization” and burnout.

To ensure survivors are attuned to the long-term risks to their mental health and well-being and to provide them with guidance on reducing that risk, CommonSpirit Health has created the “Trauma and Recovery” digital booklet. The booklet is available for free online.

Gibbs

Bender
Holly Gibbs and Rebecca Bender co-authored the resource. “We know at CommonSpirit Health and within the survivor community that when a person escapes human trafficking, it’s not the end. It’s the beginning of a path to healing,” says Gibbs, system director of the Human Trafficking Response Program at CommonSpirit Health.

“This book addresses the critical, deep, hidden struggles of survivors,” she explains.

Bender, who is founder and head of the Rebecca Bender Initiative and its Elevate Academy virtual learning center, says, “There’s not a lot of trauma support out there to address the long-term needs of survivors. What happens three years after escape, five years after?” She says this book helps address that gap.

Developed by survivors, for survivors

In creating the booklet, Gibbs and Bender drew upon their own experiences as human trafficking survivors. They also leaned on the expertise of other survivors as well as psychologists and other experts, including from CommonSpirit.

Funded by the CommonSpirit Health Foundation, the booklet explains what trauma is, how widespread it is and some of the potential causes. It describes different ways people experience and react to trauma. It explains how socioeconomic stressors can have an impact. It explains some of the ramifications of not addressing the problem.

The booklet also runs through ways people can care for themselves to prevent trauma responses from festering or worsening. For instance, survivors can build a supportive network of friends. They can remain aware of triggers of retraumatization and advocate for themselves to avoid further harm.

The guide provides practical advice on how to move forward and avoid common pitfalls to recovery.

From survivors to advocates
In 1992, at age 14, Gibbs was lured from a stable, middle-class home life in rural New Jersey by a man who promised to rescue her from struggles she was facing so she could lead a new life. He instead forced her into prostitution. After two nights, she was arrested, which saved her from her trafficker. Her recovery was long and difficult. She faced retraumatization, including when law enforcement and health care workers treated her poorly.

Gibbs pursued a microbiology career and married. When she was 31, she saw a documentary about human trafficking that changed her life. It put a name to what she’d experienced as a teenager. She began connecting with others in the survivor community, consulting for anti-trafficking organizations and writing books about her experience. She joined Dignity Health, a predecessor of CommonSpirit, in 2015 to oversee its anti-trafficking programming. She’s since been instrumental in creating educational resources for health care workers and others, so that they better understand how to provide trauma-informed care. She helped develop a clinic system that specializes in providing survivors with that type of care.


She received CHA’s Sister Concilia Moran Award in 2019 in honor of her contributions.

Bender, too, was lured from small-town life, in her case in Oregon, by a predator pretending to be a boyfriend. He forced her into prostitution. She endured six years of brutality at the hands of multiple traffickers in Las Vegas. She escaped during a federal trafficking raid. Putting her faith in Christ saved her, she said in books she wrote after her escape.

She founded the Rebecca Bender Initiative to help people who have been trafficked. The organization trains law enforcement, community leaders, and community members to fight trafficking. She consults and presents on the topic. She founded a virtual school to equip trafficking survivors with skills to rebuild their lives after escape. According to her website, her programming has reached 865 cities, serving 1,818 survivors and training 148,000 professionals.

Seeing a need
Gibbs’ inspiration for “Trauma and Recovery” came when she was developing an educational module for health care providers on trauma-informed care. She realized that she would benefit from applying the information to her own life. She reflected that there were not many resources available for long-term healing for survivors, and particularly those in helping professions.

Gibbs asked Bender, who she’d gotten to know through their activism in the survivor community, to co-author the booklet.

The two embraced the work, discovering a passion for sharing with others what they’d learned about healing after trauma.

Gibbs says she used to rely on alcohol to wind down but quit five years ago and replaced it with other activities that help her de-stress.

Bender recalls a time when, long after her escape, she was a mom of four building up her nonprofit, earning a master’s degree and not tending to her own need for downtime. “I was experiencing pretty bad burnout,” she says. “I was making lunch one day, staring at the fridge, mentally going blank, experiencing fatigue.”

Her therapist said something needed to change. Bender decided to slow down and cut back on what she was trying to do.

Thriving
Bender says people in helping fields like the one she and Gibbs work in can focus so much on tending to others’ needs that they ignore their own. She says she’s watched people who were doing great work for human trafficking victims burn out and leave the field. “We don’t want to lose good people — they matter, they make a difference,” she says.

She wants to help people in the field to be on the lookout for compassion fatigue and burnout. She wants others to realize the same thing she did when she was fraying — that people need to build a rhythm of rest and renewal. “They need things that bring them joy,” she says.

Gibbs, too, wants to ensure survivors stay healthy — mind, body and spirit. “Human trafficking is a public health issue,” she says. “It’s about us recognizing the long-term health impacts on survivors. I hope we see more progress in supporting people in long-term recovery.”

She says that with the right support, “We can all thrive.”

jminda@chausa.org

 

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