Baltimore, MD – For the past 20 years, Baltimore Native Terri Johnson has spent her life committed to improving the mental and social health of many living within the Baltimore community. However, in 2020 her passion for advocating to end child exploitation and sexual abuse came to life when she authored her first book, “Body Safety Zones BSZ”. The book’s storyline teaches students about body autonomy and how to ask for help if someone touches them inappropriately.
Her inspiration for the book came after experiencing her own childhood trauma. Johnson recalls living in a homeless shelter in Baltimore as a child and not realizing until later how wrong the actions were of a woman who worked there. When Johnson was 13, that woman gained her trust and tried to convince her to date her brother who was in his 20s. And then again over a decade later, while she was working at Baltimore’s Central Booking and Intake Center, conducting mental health evaluations of inmates. During those conversations, she saw time and again how people who hurt others as adults had been hurt as children. She watched grown men cry as they talked about the ways they had been abused and listened as women described falling into patterns of repeated abuse. Johnson recognizes some people might feel uncomfortable with children talking about their bodies. But she believes empowering them with that information is crucial because too many people endure physical and sexual abuse each year. “There is not one child of any culture that is not potentially a victim in waiting,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t care who you are, what language you speak or where you come from.”
Ms. Terri Johnson has over 20 years of experience as a licensed (clinical) social worker, working in education, correctional facilities, Baltimore City Health Department, hospitals, and managed care settings. Ms. T. Johnson, as she’s lovingly called by her students, has been in private practice since 2009 and serves African American women, transitioning adults, and various couples.
Ms. Johnson is a proud graduate of Morgan State University where she received a Bachelor’s in Social Work and received a Master’s in Social Work from the University of MD, School of Social Work, Baltimore.
The author of Body Safety Zones (BSZ) has spent more than twenty years working with young people making sure that they understand how special they are and how important it is for them to know how to protect themselves from people who would physically and/or sexually abuse or exploit them.
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