So I found a girl. she's just 13 and is physically abused by her father. And he's some sherif or detective. She lives in Texas and I dont know how to

@iamknoxgirl

I can see you haven't been active for a while but reading through this thread and your posts this next bit caught by eye and I wanted to respond as I know that the old threads still get read sometimes, and this may help someone somewhere.

"she's ready to do anything to get out of that place. The only problem is that she doesn't know what to exactly do."

I will add that as a listener we are here to listen, not to give advice.

We can do nothing but listen to what the members that come to us say is happening to them and what they want to do, and it can be very, very painful reading the words they type. It can upset our emotions as listeners. We can get equally emotionally involved. We may invest a lot of our time and energy into these messages. If we are not careful this can cause us almost as much an emotional problem as the person going through the horrendous difficulties.

For us we have the Peer Supporter team of listeners for support for us after a difficult chat, or for during a chat we can reach out to a Mentor to help us cope. Usually these can be found in the Listener Support Chat Room.

7Cups is not a company that has a notification policy - they do not refer matters to the authorities. It is a confidential and anonymous emotional support service. So, we, as listeners can currently do nothing but actively and compassionately listen and support, but we can suggest. Suggestion can be very powerful.

As listeners we are volunteers and we have to be very careful of our handling of these types of matters. Any action has to come from the member them self. That is important so that there is no implication of coercion or force or dictating from the listener.

- We can suggest they go to the authorities have you thought about going to the police? What about calling one of the helplines, might that be something you would be safe to do?

- We can suggest they contact an adult they trust what do you think about trying to talk to the school nurse or your teacher about this? What about talking to your aunt/grandma/mum what might they say?

We can listen to them and offer resources that might help them.

We can listen to them and help them work through scenarios to keep them safe.

We can listen.

We can listen.

Also this part of the original message hit me in the stomach -

And where I live things like this don't really happen so I had more or less no idea about this! "

I thought the same. I hoped the same. Then I found out that actually things like this DO really happen where I live. And my guess is they do really happen were we all live!

So lets talk more

And

do more

And

help more,

and please if any listner gets one of these really difficult heart-breaking scary, gut-wrenching chats then give them the benefit of the doubt, dont call them disgusting, or dirty or just block them, search out another listener that has been prepared and is willing to support them kindly.

@AnyaS @Kate @RideaRainbow