"Private Practice" star Kadee Strickland worked with rape victims to ensure her character's upcoming sexual assault storyline is as true to life as possible. The star plays Dr. Charlotte King in the hit U.S. drama and threw herself into research for the character's recent rape scene by working with America's Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network to ensure she did not underplay the devastating effects of a sex attack.

And she hopes her respectful portrayal will give victims the courage to come forward and receive counseling to try and overcome an assault. Strickland tells Fox News, "The thing I've learned from my work with survivors is that they want this (episode). The only way people can confront their feelings is to see that there are more outlets for their stories being told."

"It's never too late to get help. Women can go in there (counseling), never having talked about it for 20 years and get treatment, no questions asked. If it's a family member, or your own husband, a lot of people shy away from speaking out." And Strickland admits she was apprehensive about shooting the graphic scene in front of the show's crew - because some of the workers had gone through a similar experience.

She adds, "The difficulty is that you want it to be as realistic as possible without being unwatchable because the reality of the event is so horrific. We did the scene for a very long time and more than anything, my concern going in was if there were any people in the crew that needed to step away, I completely understood because we have some survivors in our crew."