We often hear that people are not sure what to call something that happened or was done to them. Some people do not know if SHARE is the right place for them or may have been taught to minimize their experiences. We encourage you to reach out and we can help you figure out what support you are looking for.

We also hear some common misconceptions about SHARE such as:

• I don’t deserve help because what happened to me wasn’t that bad.
  • You do deserve support and help.
• If I get help at SHARE, it means that someone else who needs help more will not get help.
  • Our resources are not finite. Everyone deserves support.
• I do not know if I can go to SHARE because I can't remember what happened.
  • We can support you even if you can’t remember the harm or it happened a long time ago.
• I can’t go to SHARE because I don’t want to leave my partner.
  • We support many people who are trying to navigate dynamics of interpersonal harm in relationships.
• I don't want to go to SHARE because I will have to talk about what happened.
  • Many people we support do not tell us the details of their experiences of harm.
• I worry that the SHARE Team will judge me.
  • The SHARE Team moves from a standard of being nonjudgmental and curious. We know that people may use many strategies to cope and we can support you as you navigate them.

Know that you are not alone and deserve support. If you need support that we cannot or do not offer, we will make refers to programs that would be able to support you.  

The SHARE Team works with all members of the Harvard community, including students, staff, faculty, and postdoctoral fellows. We can offer support whether the harm happened recently, in the past, or is on-going.

The SHARE Team cannot confirm or deny that we know you and does not share information outside of our team with anyone at the University, unless you give explicit written permission. This includes Title IX, HUHS, Harvard staff or faculty, and anyone connected with judicial, legal, or conduct processes.

No, meetings with the SHARE Team are free. We do not bill insurance and there is no monetary cost to meet with us. 

A SHARE counselor is seeking to get to know an individual and understand what they may need or want. A SHARE counselor may also clarify options and resources that are available. The SHARE Team generally schedules meetings for 45-50 minutes.

While meeting with a SHARE counselor, we will ask you questions about your preferences and discuss a plan that is based on what you would like. We will follow your lead. Some examples of options that we might offer include:

• Setting up another meeting for ongoing support
• If you do not want to set up another meeting
  • Offering to reach out to you in a few days to see how things are going and let you know we are here, or
  • Waiting to hear from you 
• If you have a meeting scheduled with another office or resource, offering to go with you as your support person
• Emailing you information 
• Assistance in finding resources off campus

The confidential SHARE Team cannot confirm or deny that we know you and does not share your information with other offices or resources, including other teams within CSNDR. 

The SHARE Team collaborates with the Prevention and NDAB & Title IX Compliance teams in the office for designing and facilitating community engagement, education, and outreach. This can include things such as:

• Facilitating workshop sessions and tabling at orientation
• Ensuring that the SHARE Team is featured in educational tools, such as eLearning modules
• Consulting on prevention programming, such as active bystander intervention workshops

Because we are privileged and confidential, we cannot confirm or deny that we know you and cannot share any of your information with other offices or resources without your explicit written consent.

If you decide that you would like to engage with an office or resource such as Compliance or the police, we can help set up the meetings and/or go with you to the meeting as your advocate and support person with your written consent.

We know that for many people, it may feel overwhelming to navigate different systems and processes alone. As a result, the SHARE Team has a strong understanding of different policies, processes, and options both on and off campus so that we can support you in understanding them and in making decisions that feel best for you. 

Due to confidentiality, the SHARE Team does not confirm whether or not we have met with someone. As a result, you will not be informed as to whether the individual chooses to access SHARE’s resources. We appreciate your support in providing information about the SHARE Team and honoring individual agency.

SHARE is available to support you whether with your own experiences or to discuss what it’s like to support someone else.

Yes! We offer a range of proactive community building workshops and programs that are rooted in restorative and transformative justice approaches, as well as principles of violence prevention. We would be excited to collaborate with you. We invite you to email or call.

Advocacy: When we say advocacy, we mean are referring both to individualized and systemic advocacy.

Individualized advocacy can include: starting conversations, asking hypothetical or challenging questions, raising concerns someone might have, or figuring out who or what system to access. 

System advocacy can include changes to policies and processes at institutional levels, and work to increase safety, choice, and agency for those impacted by harm.

Accompaniment: When we say accompaniment, we mean that we will physically or virtually go with you to meetings or appointments on or off campus so that you do not have to go alone.

This can include, but is not limited to: meeting with Compliance, residential life staff, ombuds, administrators, or chaplains, as well as going with you to the emergency room, doctors' appointments at HUHS or off campus, speaking with the police, or seeking a restraining order in court.

Counseling: When we say counseling, we mean a place where you can speak with a counselor about your experiences, the impacts or symptoms that are bothering you, navigating things that are activating or triggering, talk through questions about policy and procedures, themes of accountability, and where to get help. In counseling we might meet with someone weekly, occasionally, or just once depending on what someone wants.

Power-based Interpersonal Violence (PBIV): We use PBIV as a term that intentionally connects interpersonal violence (sexual harassment, sexual assault, stalking, abusive relationships, child abuse, and discrimination) as a pattern of behavior exerted by one person or group to have power and control over another person or group that causes harm, maintains control, and/or limits the freedom of someone else. PBIV actively draws the connection between systemic harm and direct interpersonal, whether in friendship, family, romantic, professional or social relationships.

Trauma-informed: When we say trauma-informed, we mean that when you engage with the SHARE Team, we will prioritize your choice and agency. We will not tell you what to do or how to feel. We know that individuals and systems that cause trauma, threaten someone’s access to safety, dignity, and belonging. We will work to do the opposite as we support you by being transparent, predictable, offering options, inviting grounding, being clear around capacity and boundaries, and not prescribing how someone should respond or heal.