Fiction

Oct 31: 1] Shira Block’s Limerence 2] Sex Trafficking in King County

In your most vulnerable, fragile emotional moments, no elixir can cure what ails you like your partner. A great relationship, built on trust and love, can get you through the hardest times. But what happens when that security is shattered when you find out the relationship… and perhaps even your partner… doesn’t even exist? Therapist Shira Block examines catfishing, non-sexual cheating, and other faux relationships and how to identfy and cope with the fallout in her new book Limerence.

It is estimated that 76% of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet. In King County, WA, a study conducted over a 24-hour period revealed that 8,800 people were online soliciting themselves for sex, and 27,000 were soliciting to buy. At any given time, 300-500 under aged girls are trafficked in King County. The average age of entry is 12-14 years old, with some as young as 8 or 9. Vicki talks with Carol Loya, founder of Escape to Peace, to discuss how we can raise awareness about the horrors of sex trafficking right in our own backyard.

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Limerence by Shira Block is a psychological journey through a world of deception, phantom relationships, family secrets, self-destruction and recreation that draws on Shira’s years as a therapist and tackles modern day issues affecting millions of people and relationships. She covers such topics as emotional, non-sexual cheating that still impacts relationships; catfishing, the act of luring someone into a relationship using a fake online persona; and limerence, an obsessive infatuation with another person or a need for a relationship that interferes with the ability to see life clearly. Shira is a therapist, accomplished lecturer, writer, and personal coach.

Human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, generating $32 billion a year in profit, tied with arms as the second largest, behind drug dealing. A modern form of slavery, it is estimated that 76% of transactions for sex with underage girls start on the Internet. And it’s happening right here in King County at an alarming rate. Carol Loya, a local resident and owner of Truce Spa, founded Escape to Peace after she witnessed the horrors of the sex trade during a 2012 mission to Pattaya, Thailand. As a former Ambassador for the non-profits Shared Hope and Not Abandoned, Carol’s mission was to rescue girls being sold as sex slaves. She often did this by taking them to dinner to talk, then bringing them to a designated safe house.

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