My name is Rhiannon-Faye McDonald. I’m a survivor of online grooming and child sexual abuse, including image-based abuse. I didn’t get the help and support I needed for a long time after it happened, but eventually I was able to access therapy and start my recovery journey. I now work for the Marie Collins Foundation as their Victim and Survivor Advocate, and my job is to make sure that the voices of victims and survivors are heard, listened to, and inform all of the work we do at MCF and further afield.

My involvement with the i-Minds project started about 18 months ago when I was asked if I’d like to join the Lived Experience Advisory Group (LEAG). My goal has always been to help others – whether that’s by preventing other children from experiencing what I did, or by ensuring they have the right help and support available if it does happen so that they have the chance to recover and move forward. So I was really keen to be involved in this project from the start, because it offers an extra form of support for young people who have experienced unwanted online sexual experiences.

It’s always been really important to me that victims and survivors are consulted on things like this, so I was pleased that the LEAG was part of the project from the very start. I could tell that the researchers really cared about hearing our views and opinions in a supported way, and it wasn’t just an afterthought to include us.

My point of contact was Alice and she explained the project to me, how it would work, how often we would meet and what we would be discussing or looking at. She also let me know the how I could engage with the group as a person with lived experience – things like being able to keep my camera turned off during meetings to maintain anonymity and that I didn’t have to talk about the details of what happened to me. It was really helpful to have all that information up front so I knew what I was getting into, and it made me feel really comfortable agreeing to be part of the group.

Our group met every other month for two hours and each time we would discuss a different aspect of the project as it moved forward. We started by learning about what mentalisation is and how this can help people with similar experiences to us. Then we looked at things like how we could deliver this information to the right people, what platform to use, how the information would be presented and structured. They wanted us to guide them on what it should look like, feel like and how it should work.

We spoke about what characters and illustrations should be used and the impacts of each option. We were asked about what exercises would be helpful to include, like mindfulness and grounding, and we were able to give our views about each of them and how they would have been helpful for us. We gave our ideas about what images, podcasts, blogs, coping strategies and useful links for extra support should be included or in some cases not included at all! Sometimes we would see something written and we identified that it could be rephrased to make sure it wouldn’t upset or trigger somebody with lived experience. Other times there was extra information that we were able to add in because we knew from our own experiences that there were additional things to think about.

At every stage we would be shown what the app was looking like. Towards the end of the development process we were shown a test version of the app so we could see how everything was coming together and give feedback on everything. Finally, when everything was ready, we were able to access the app and have a play around. It was so incredible to see it come to life, and all I could think about was how helpful this would have been to me when I was younger and in need of some support. It feels really important. I’m so proud to have been involved in this and I’m really excited to see how it will develop in the future.

I’d also like to say thank you to the whole i-Minds team. I have felt empowered, supported, and listened to at every stage, so thank you for making this such a positive process.

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