Sambra Zaoui, LCSW, CCTP, Certified EMDR

For the past twenty-five years Professor Sambra Zaoui has practiced and studied the relationship childhood sexual abuse (CSA) has on adult intimate interpersonal functioning; and most recently, its direct relationship to domestic minor sex trafficking (DMST) and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE), i.e. human trafficking. She is further interested in the neurobiology of experiences(mind and body connection), from the womb to adulthood and its overall impact on adult emotional functioning, i.e. relational attachment, relational intelligence, re-enactment and self-regulation.

Sambra Zaoui, LCSW, CCTP, Certified EMDR therapist, Professor of Social Work, actively engages individuals and couples with complex sexual trauma histories, depression, anxiety, addictions, marital conflict, perinatal and postpartum depression in her private practice. In fall 2016, The Lighthouse Effect: A therapeutic conversation about childhood sexual abuse and its relationship to commercial sexual exploitation/sex trafficking was published in Crime and Punishment in America: An Encyclopedia of Trends and Controversies in the Justice System. And, in summer 2018, Mrs. Zaoui completed a chapter on the importance of: Humanizing sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation through a trauma informed person-in-environment lens for social work practitioners in the Gender, Sexuality and Peace Education: Issues and Perspectives in Higher Education. She further served as an advisory board member to The Life of Freedom Center (an anti-trafficking organization that serves adult women), as well as an educational consultant, community trainer, and crisis phone and community outreach specialist to women affected by commercial sexual exploitation and domestic sex trafficking. Mrs. Zaoui is often invited to present locally and nationally on working with women with a sexual trauma history, and most recently presented at one of the most reputable anti-trafficking conferences, the JUST conference in San Diego, California on the relationship between CSA and sex trafficking from a neurobiological perspective. In her most recent accomplishment, Mrs. Zaoui successfully piloted the Advanced Trauma Informed Human Trafficking Certification Program designed to equip practitioners working with survivors of sex trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation. In addition, she is currently engaging in a phenomenological research study which focuses on the resilience of both female and male survivors who use their lived experiences to counsel and guide other survivors in their restorative healing journey.