Forgiving Yourself
Abuse victims struggle with forgiveness . . . for good reason. The person they love most, and who was supposed to love them, has treated them worse than most people would treat their worst enemy. This is a betrayal of the worst order. How does one forgive that? Why...
Potential Police Response to Domestic Violence Calls
In my last blog, I talked about the fine line between emotional abuse and physical abuse. I recommended emotional abuse victims call their local domestic violence crisis center and police department to become educated. I suggested they ask questions to determine what...
When Emotional Abuse Turns Physical. How Can a Victim Prepare?
October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Many will speak out this month against what UNICEF calls, "one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world today." Let me add my voice. The more who speak up, the better. Many people do not understand the...
How Can We as a Society Prevent Domestic Violence?
I am passionate about preventing domestic violence. I believe we as a society can and should attack this problem on several fronts. I’ve written blogs about many of these. Click on the blue to read more about each one: Raise our sons not to be entitled – but to...
Domesticshelters.org is Here!
I am thrilled to announce a wonderful resource for victims of domestic violence. The first national online searchable domestic violence provider database in the United States went live this week. You can find it at www.domesticshelters.org. Why is this so exciting?...
Pregnancy and Domestic Violence
Pregnancy should be a wonderful time of planning, dreaming, and bonding between a pregnant woman and her partner. This is not the experience of a woman who is being abused by that partner. Studies show that 25% of women will be abused for the first time when they are...
My Writing Journey – I C Summer Blog Tour
As a blogger, I have the privilege of meeting other women who blog about domestic violence. Some of them become good friends. My newest friend is Katelin Maloney. Katelin is passionate about raising awareness to domestic violence issues. Her working novel, Drowning,...
Handling Grief
Recently something very painful happened in our family. One of our family members made some life choices that went against everything we believe in as a family. The implications of this are going to affect everyone in the family for years to come. I have had a very...
Not Wallowing, Moving Forward
I ran into an old friend the other day. She told me she was proud of me for writing my book, A Journey through Emotional Abuse: from Bondage to Freedom. Then she said something that really startled me. She said, "Maybe now you can put it all behind you and move on...
Hope for the Family Court System
In my last blog I talked about the crisis occurring in our family court system. Abusers are given unsupervised and often full custody with their children, while their protective parents are often required to have supervised visitation with the children they are...