Anna Sonoda

Anna Sonoda, LCSW, is a grooming prevention expert, author, and speaker who reveals the behavioral patterns that precede exploitation and abuse.

With over two decades of clinical experience, Anna has worked across the mental health field, counseling convicted sexual offenders and supporting those impacted by trauma, violence, and complex behavioral challenges. Her work provides a rare perspective on both sides of harm: how offenders operate and how communities can recognize risk.

Anna challenges the traditional idea that safety comes from simply trusting our instincts, showing why recognizing patterns, behaviors, and influence tactics is a more effective approach to prevention.

Anna is the author of Duck Duck Groom: Understanding How a Child Becomes a Target and Duck Duck Groom: A Guided Journal, and the creator of the award-winning children’s book Wait…That’s Weird! A Parent-Child Guide to Spotting Strange Behavior Together. Her work has equipped parents, professionals, and communities with practical tools to identify grooming dynamics and strengthen protective awareness.

She is also the host of Known and Trusted with Anna Sonoda, LCSW, a podcast exploring the psychology of criminal behavior, trust, and betrayal through conversations with experts, investigators, and survivors.

Anna’s message is clear: predators rarely begin with obvious danger. They begin by becoming known, trusted, and invited. Understanding how that process unfolds is one of the most powerful tools available for prevention.