In this episode, I sit down with Tessa Torrence Neumann, stepdaughter of Kurt Neumann, lead singer for the band BoDeans to discuss her suffering sexual abuse starting at the age of 9 and lasting for 6 years. Her perpetrator was her parents best friend, business partner, and bandmate who at the time was 40 years old. The negativity surrounding this abuse for Tessa carried over to other areas of her life where she became addicted to heroin at the age of 12.

In this talk we not only learn about her experience with the grooming process, but discuss how other people connected to the victim are groomed as well.

In addition, Tessa explains to us the misconception that abuse only happens in places with addiction, poverty, and low income families present. For her, she grew up living a normal life where her mother protected her and they lived in a neighborhood where you would never suspect anything like this was going on.

To wrap up the interview, we gain perspective into Tessa’s strength in speaking up about these issues and the threats and intimidation that came from that decision. But, we then are able to see how her strength paid off to bring her to where she is now. And that is having a happy family with a great husband and two kids, where she is devoted to them, her music, and the Strong Podcast which allows others to speak up about the injustices surrounding these issues.