Blog

“Victims blame…”

Whoever it was who said: “With one leg in the past and one foot in the future, you can only urinate on the present” was right. With one eye firmly on her past perceived shortcomings and the other on the bleak future that she knows (and how, pray, can she know for sure?) will surely come to pass, S. is blind to all the opportunities and satisfactions that the present might afford her.

Read More >

Secrets of Emotional Abuse Recovery for Women

The psychological burden of an abusive relationship is actually like a massive boulder. You can’t push it away, but a few small changes act like putting a plank under it. The leverage you’ll gain will allow you to roll that boulder away, faster than you might think possible.

Read More >

A Damp Squib From The Past

Once we felt utterly devoid of resources. But no more. We struggled, we learned and we came through. In retrospect, I could wish that we had known then that all we had to do was what we could with what we had from where we were. It would have made those early steps far easier along the journey we still travel joyfully.

Read More >

“Sorry Seems To Be The Cheapest Word”

The problem of domestic violence in the UK is huge and the long term cost to society is, probably, incalculable. It is easy to see how, from every point of view “sorry seems to be the cheapest word”.

Read More >

1. “Thank God he’s gone.”

Harriet*’s face had been etched into a mask of anxiety and
pain by the years spent putting herself last while she tried to make bad
relationships work. She came up to me
on the last day of the course I’d been running on Domestic Violence Recovery to
tell me how far she had come along her journey.

Read More >

How Not To Make The Same Mistakes Again

Most people can’t get behind the wheel of a car for the
first time and drive away like a seasoned driver. But one or two can.
Most people can’t sit down at a piano for the first time
and play a Mozart sonata; although you might find the odd one or two who can
play whatever they hear by hear.Most […]

Read More >

“All by myself. Don’t want to be…”

Like many other women of her age whose marriage finally founders, she had, she said, lost her voice. She had had to defer to her husband for years on end. Her husband had made her feel small, stupid and inadequate. He was, she said, ‘a strong personality’; while she is ‘sensitive’.
That, of course, is one interpretation.

Read More >

The Truth About Verbal Abuse

We live in a society where people habitually say rude, abrasive, sometimes clever, things to each other, which are often quite funny. But rude, abrasive words have the power to chip away at a person until they break them into small pieces.

Read More >

“Because”

One of the key stages in abuse recovery is making the
shift from isolation into a sense of community. Once can look past the blinkers of isolation, you see many
wonderful people along your way – including yourself. 

This was sent to me by ezine reader Karen Hammond. Karen’s sharing brought light to the
domestic violence recovery group at my […]

Read More >

The 5 Simple Steps to Healing from Narcissistic Abuse

Over the next 5 days, I'll send you some lessons and tips that I've found have really helped women to heal from narcissistic abuse.  Starting with the basics.