Mariska Hargitay is lively and funny, even though her Law & Order: SVU character is serious.
So, to start her speech at the 18th annual Hope for Depression Research Foundation meeting, the actress told a joke.
As she took the group’s Hope Award for Depression Advocacy, she said, “Thank God I got an honorary doctorate from John Jay University. If I didn’t, I’d be really uncomfortable with all the doctors here right now.”
Top scientists and therapists got together at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on November 12 to talk about the latest research on trauma and depression, with a focus on “how the brain heals.”
Hargitay is well aware of the controversial nature of serious trauma and the need for recovery that follows because she works with survivors of sexual abuse through her Joyful Heart Foundation.
She went on to say, “Joyful Heart was my response to reading the letters I received from survivors when I started on SVU 852 years ago,” referring to the show’s long history (it is now in its 26th season).
“Joyful Heart” is how I feel when I hear about the shocking number of sexual assaults. These problems affect a lot of people in the United States and around the world, so I was surprised that no one was talking about them. “I’ve also realized that Joyful Heart was a response to my own need to heal on the inside.”
Jayne Mansfield, Hargitay’s mother, was killed in a car accident when she and her two older brothers were three years old.
Besides that, I’ve been learning how to deal with the many bad things that have happened in my life. When I was three years old, my mother died. The people in my family dealt with grief in their own special way. She said in her speech, “There was so much sadness that there was no time to put anyone first.”
She told me, “We didn’t have the tools we have now to metabolize and understand trauma, to understand all the levels, and to understand that it goes in at the cellular level.” “That wasn’t something I did for myself until a very long time ago.”
In a first-person piece for People in January, Hargitay said that she, too, has survived sexual trauma, having gone through it in her thirties.
Hargitay remembers, “It wasn’t until much later that I found the words to call it what it was.” As I already said, Joyful Heart came about because of my own experience, which let me build a base that spoke to trauma survivors in the way I wanted.
Hargitay liked how the Hope For Depression Research charity fits in with her own, which has been around for 20 years.
To deal with how trauma shows up in the body, she says, “I was lucky enough to find amazing therapists who introduced me to many healing modalities, such as somatic reprocessing and somatic experiencing.” EMDR is a methodical way to deal with stress again. Component work, or IFS, is another name for internal family systems. Because of these procedures, my life was restored, my neurological system was rebuilt, and I got a lot of space, which I now think of as a sign of healing. It’s making room again.
“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to tell everyone how thankful I am for all the people who have helped me along the way, who have mirrored my pain, and who have helped me integrate different parts of who I am and process the complex trauma that so many of us carry.” She said, “Everyone has a story.”
