“I lost my mom when I was three, and I grew up in a house of people who deal with tragedy in their own way,” the “Law & Order: SVU” star said at the 18th Annual Hope For Depression Research Foundation. seminar

Despite the intense nature of her role on Law and Order: SVU, Mariska Hargitay it is nothing but funny and joyful.

And so, the actress opened up about her remarks at the 18th annual Hope For Depression Research Foundation seminar making a joke.

“Thank God I got an honorary doctorate from John Jay University, because otherwise I would be very insecure now with all the doctors (in this room),” she joked as she was honored with the organization’s Hope Award for Depression Advocacy .

The luncheon, held at The Plaza Hotel in New York City on November 12, brought together leading scientists and psychiatrists to discuss the latest research in trauma and depression as they examined “how the brain heals “.

Related: Mariska Hargitay Reveals Advice She Would Give Her 20-Year-Old Self: ‘I Wish I Had More Self-Compassion’ (Exclusive)

Hargitay, who advocates for survivors of sexual violence with her The Happy Heart Foundationis all too familiar with discussions about complex trauma — and the necessary healing that follows.

“Joyful Heart was my response to reading the letters I received from survivors when I first started SVU 852 years ago,” she said, nodding to the show’s record-breaking run on television (is currently in its 26th season).

“Joyful Heart is my response to learning the statistics on sexual violence and being rocked on my heels and just being deflated that everyone wasn’t talking about these statistics and talking about these issues because they’re so prevalent and it’s a epidemic in our country in our world,” she added. “And now I know that the Joyful Heart was also a response to my own internal need for healing.”

When Hargitay was just three years old, she and her two older siblings were in a car accident that killed their mother. Hollywood icon Jayne Mansfield.

“On a personal note, I’ve also been through my own journey of learning how to respond to the various traumas I’ve experienced in my life. I lost my mother when I was three years old and I grew up in a house. of people dealing with tragedy in their own way, and because there was so much pain, there was no room to prioritize anyone,” Hargitay said in her speech.

“We didn’t have the tools that we have now to metabolize and understand trauma, to understand all the levels, to understand that it goes in at the cellular level,” she explained. “So it wasn’t until much later in my life that I was able to do that for myself.”

In January, Hargitay wrote a first-person essay for PEOPLE in which she shared that she is also a survivor of sexual trauma, which she experienced in her thirties.

“It wasn’t until much later that I found the language to recognize it for what it is,” Hargitay said. “And as I said at the beginning, Joyful Heart was part of my response to my own experience, where I built an entire foundation that responded to trauma and survivors in the way I wanted to be responded to.”

Hargitay was also moved by how the Hope For Depression Research Foundation fits in with her own foundation, now in its 20th year.

Related: Mariska Hargitay Talks Embracing ‘Vulnerability’ At 60: ‘Fear Is An Illusion’ (Exclusive)

“I was lucky enough to find amazing therapists who introduced me to many different ways of healing, to somatic reprocessing, somatic experience, which is a way of dealing with how trauma lives in the body,” she said. “EMDR, Structured Therapy for Trauma Reprocessing. And the internal family systems, people call it IFS or working parts. These modalities restored my life and reorganized my nervous system and gave me a lot of space, which I learned is a kind of synonym for healing.

Never miss a story – sign up PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to keep up with the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

“I don’t know if I will ever find the words to express my gratitude to those who accompanied me on my journey, to those who reflected the trauma back to me, who helped me integrate different parts of myself and I metabolize mine. traumas, complex traumas that many of us all carry,” she said.

Law and Order: Special Victims Unit airs Thursdays at 9pm ET on NBC.

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, please contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673) or go to rainn.org.