Free for students at UCSB, SDSU & SFSU
You don't have to talk about it to start healing.
Thriving, Not Just Surviving is a free seven-week series for college students who've been through sexual assault, dating or domestic violence, or stalking. You never have to share what happened. You just have to show up — and even that, at your own pace.
- No cost, ever
- No disclosure required
- Confidential
- Undergrad & grad groups
“I was having horrible recurring flashbacks daily before this program. In finding community with other survivors, that has been reduced to none in the past month.”
— A TNJS participant
- Sense of belonging
- +47.5%
- Sense of safety
- +42.5%
Measured by surveys participants complete at the start and end of each series. See all the numbers
Before you decide
The things people worry about, answered honestly.
“I don't want to tell the story.”
Then don't. No disclosure of any kind is required to join — not on the form, not in the room, not ever. Nobody will ask you what happened.
“I'm not sure what happened counts.”
If something happened to you that you're still carrying, you belong here. We don't ask you to categorise it or prove it. There is no bar to clear.
“I can't afford one more thing.”
It's free — the sessions, the journals, the mats, the materials, all of it. Sessions are on weeknight evenings within walking distance of campus.
“What if I see someone I know?”
Everyone agrees to group confidentiality before the first session. Times and locations are shared privately with registered participants only — never posted publicly.
“I don't want therapy.”
This isn't therapy. It's yoga, art, sound, journaling and boundary work led by clinicians and community instructors — healing outside a therapist's office.
“What if I sign up and change my mind?”
The interest form is not a commitment. Someone will reach out, answer your questions, and you decide from there. You can stop at any point, no explanation needed.
Seven weeks, one evening a week
Here's exactly what you're walking into.
No surprises. Seven clinicians and community instructors guide the series, alongside trauma-informed student co-facilitators who are there the whole way through. Undergrad and grad students meet in separate groups.
01
Boundaries
Language and practice for saying what you need — with friends, family, partners, roommates, professors.
02
Yoga & embodied movement
Gentle, all-levels movement led by an instructor who knows how to hold a room of survivors. Modify anything. Sit any of it out.
03
Art as a way through
Making something with your hands when words aren't available yet. No skill required, and nobody grades it.
04
Sound healing
A session you can lie down for. Most people say it's the first hour of real quiet they've had in months.
05
Journaling
Prompts you keep. Nothing you write is read aloud or collected unless you want to share it.
06
Weekly check-ins
Five minutes at the start of each session. Say a word, say a sentence, or pass. Passing is always an option.
07
Reiki & rest
Community practitioners offer restorative modalities across the series so you can find what actually works for your body.
Pick your campus
One short form. No commitment. Rolling deadline.
It asks for your school, your name and pronouns, and an email. That's it. A real person on your campus reads it and gets back to you.
UCSB
UC Santa Barbara
Isla Vista & Santa Barbara, CA
Separate undergraduate and graduate groups
SDSU
San Diego State University
San Diego, CA
Separate undergraduate and graduate groups
SFSU
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CA
Separate undergraduate and graduate groups
Not at one of these schools? Ask us about starting a chapter — students have done it before.
What changes
We measure it, because you deserve more than a promise.
Participants complete the same survey before the first session and after the last one. These are the average shifts across our quarterly series.
+47.5%
Sense of belonging
+42.5%
Sense of safety
+27.5%
Able to cope when triggered
-32.5%
Feelings of anxiety
-25%
Hypervigilance
-20.5%
Flashbacks
-35%
Trouble breathing
Want to help build it?
Students run most of this. That could be you.
Co-facilitators, program assistants and marketing officers at UCSB, SDSU, SFSU and SBCC. You get real trauma-informed training, a team that has your back, and the kind of experience that actually means something on a grad school application.
Program Co-Facilitator
Hold the room alongside clinicians each week.
Program Assistant
Keep the series running — logistics, materials, care.
Marketing Officer
Reach the students who need this and don't know it exists.
For everyone past their campus years
$250 carries one survivor through all seven weeks.
Every part of this is free to the students who need it — the journals, the yoga mats, the instructors, the room. That only works because people who remember being 20 decide to pay for it. We're a 501(c)(3); your gift is tax-deductible, and many employers will match it.
- $25An interactive art journal for one participant
- $75Yoga mats for a recovery series
- $250Every material one survivor needs for the full series
Need someone right now?
We're a program, not a crisis line, and this site isn't monitored around the clock. If you need to talk to someone tonight, these people are awake.