This has been exactly my experience! Abusers also seem to like to target people who grew up with childhood trauma, and exploiting those vulnerabilities, as well. My abuser tried to convince the world I had bipolar disorder, and then had me forcibly taken to a psychiatric ER one night. He started building his case against me even before I escaped. I left over 11 years ago and have never been diagnosed with anything other than PTSD.
I am saving this article and will use it in court to explain to my child what she is being used to do by my ex. Once again Dr Katz distills complicated social transactions into language that a five year old can understand - perfectly executed explanation xx
I'm excited that you are going to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Sydney conference: Ending Coercive Control and Family Violence Against All Women end of July.
Jess has led the debate in this country to get CC on the public discourse (I first heard her speak at the 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival, with the launch of her book See What You Made Me Do) Your examination of mother-child relationships is a natural follow-on to Jess' work (and EQUALLY significant!). It feeds into and across so many issues around DFV, including all the justice processes such as policing and family court. Legislative changes are happening to support process. Political awareness, mainstream societal awareness, and provision of support to victims. This is of course the tip of the iceberg of desperately overdue change that needs to happen, but you have been an absolute blessing in leading this aspect!
Like Jess, you speak with a voice that has that magic quality of being able to get the message across in an authoritative, but relatable manner, supremely well evidenced, and breakthrough because you are without an axe to grind. Keep that momentum going - there are many on the sidelines quietly cheering you on :)
Reading your articles, I often feell as though you were right here, watching what was going on, what happened to me and yo my children. I also feel enormous relief in my growing belief that you would not have been seduced by his portrayal of himself and his behaviour. I wish I had known of you and your work 24 years ago. The validation I experience from your work is truly awesome. It was vry difficultult to find understanding or support from others in my life, who often asked me what I might have done to cause my ex to behave as he did. That he was an ordained minister was a great advantage for him. He was a Godly man! He thought that he could not possibly have been as bad as I described, because his congregation would not have wanted to keep him as their minister if what I said was true. (Hah!) But he caused irreparable harm to my children and to me.
Well done Emma, please know that your work is groundbreaking, partly because you present it in such a clear-minded, well-evidenced and intuitively reasonable manner. It is also globally significant as it speaks to an aspect of domestic abuse that is crucial for individuals, communities, and whole societies to understand as this scourge is finally coming to light in many countries across the globe. It seems for all the variation in cultural norms and circumstances that there are key underlying principles that are common to all. This gives immense opportunity for collaboration and collective progress globally.
The same can be said for Jess Hills' seminal work "See What You Made Me Do", which has now been published in many countries. Work of such high calibre, by individuals who are intelligent as well as objectively positioned (i.e. who do not have a personal axe to grind), has the most extraordinarily transformative potential to shine light on this problem that has destroyed so many innocent lives.
I'm sure that you know this (as comments have shown), but for the avoidance of doubt , the effort you make to write this blog for perhaps a relatively small audience, will grow and flow outwards for the very reasons I mentioned above. So keep this wonderful resource steadily growing as it will be key to keeping the momentum and progress going! The work you are doing can inform practice, influence non-victims in their understanding, as well as save the sanity, and perhaps most poignantly give hope in the often dark reality of their lives to the many already victim-survivor children and mothers.
Well done Emma, please know that your work is groundbreaking, partly because you present it in such a clear-minded, well-evidenced and intuitively reasonable manner. It is also globally significant as it speaks to an aspect of domestic abuse that is crucial for individuals, communities, and whole societies to understand as this scourge is finally coming to light in many countries across the globe. It seems for all the variation in cultural norms and circumstances that there are key underlying principles that are common to all. This gives immense opportunity for collaboration and collective progress globally.
The same can be said for Jess Hills' seminal work "See What You Made Me Do", which has now been published in many countries. Work of such high calibre, by individuals who are intelligent as well as objectively positioned (i.e. who do not have a personal axe to grind), has the most extraordinarily transformative potential to shine light on this problem that has destroyed so many innocent lives.
I'm sure that you know this (as comments have shown), but for the avoidance of doubt , the effort you make to write this blog for perhaps a relatively small audience, will grow and flow outwards for the very reasons I mentioned above. So keep this wonderful resource steadily growing as it will be key to keeping the momentum and progress going! The work you are doing can inform practice, influence non-victims in their understanding, as well as save the sanity, and perhaps most poignantly give hope in the often dark reality of their lives to the many already victim-survivor children and mothers.
This has been exactly my experience! Abusers also seem to like to target people who grew up with childhood trauma, and exploiting those vulnerabilities, as well. My abuser tried to convince the world I had bipolar disorder, and then had me forcibly taken to a psychiatric ER one night. He started building his case against me even before I escaped. I left over 11 years ago and have never been diagnosed with anything other than PTSD.
I am saving this article and will use it in court to explain to my child what she is being used to do by my ex. Once again Dr Katz distills complicated social transactions into language that a five year old can understand - perfectly executed explanation xx
Another very useful piece thanks Emma - you are making such a huge difference globally with your work in this area!
I'm excited that you are going to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming Sydney conference: Ending Coercive Control and Family Violence Against All Women end of July.
Jess has led the debate in this country to get CC on the public discourse (I first heard her speak at the 2019 Brisbane Writers Festival, with the launch of her book See What You Made Me Do) Your examination of mother-child relationships is a natural follow-on to Jess' work (and EQUALLY significant!). It feeds into and across so many issues around DFV, including all the justice processes such as policing and family court. Legislative changes are happening to support process. Political awareness, mainstream societal awareness, and provision of support to victims. This is of course the tip of the iceberg of desperately overdue change that needs to happen, but you have been an absolute blessing in leading this aspect!
Like Jess, you speak with a voice that has that magic quality of being able to get the message across in an authoritative, but relatable manner, supremely well evidenced, and breakthrough because you are without an axe to grind. Keep that momentum going - there are many on the sidelines quietly cheering you on :)
Thanks so much :)
Reading your articles, I often feell as though you were right here, watching what was going on, what happened to me and yo my children. I also feel enormous relief in my growing belief that you would not have been seduced by his portrayal of himself and his behaviour. I wish I had known of you and your work 24 years ago. The validation I experience from your work is truly awesome. It was vry difficultult to find understanding or support from others in my life, who often asked me what I might have done to cause my ex to behave as he did. That he was an ordained minister was a great advantage for him. He was a Godly man! He thought that he could not possibly have been as bad as I described, because his congregation would not have wanted to keep him as their minister if what I said was true. (Hah!) But he caused irreparable harm to my children and to me.
Well done Emma, please know that your work is groundbreaking, partly because you present it in such a clear-minded, well-evidenced and intuitively reasonable manner. It is also globally significant as it speaks to an aspect of domestic abuse that is crucial for individuals, communities, and whole societies to understand as this scourge is finally coming to light in many countries across the globe. It seems for all the variation in cultural norms and circumstances that there are key underlying principles that are common to all. This gives immense opportunity for collaboration and collective progress globally.
The same can be said for Jess Hills' seminal work "See What You Made Me Do", which has now been published in many countries. Work of such high calibre, by individuals who are intelligent as well as objectively positioned (i.e. who do not have a personal axe to grind), has the most extraordinarily transformative potential to shine light on this problem that has destroyed so many innocent lives.
I'm sure that you know this (as comments have shown), but for the avoidance of doubt , the effort you make to write this blog for perhaps a relatively small audience, will grow and flow outwards for the very reasons I mentioned above. So keep this wonderful resource steadily growing as it will be key to keeping the momentum and progress going! The work you are doing can inform practice, influence non-victims in their understanding, as well as save the sanity, and perhaps most poignantly give hope in the often dark reality of their lives to the many already victim-survivor children and mothers.
With humble thanks, Fiona
Well done Emma, please know that your work is groundbreaking, partly because you present it in such a clear-minded, well-evidenced and intuitively reasonable manner. It is also globally significant as it speaks to an aspect of domestic abuse that is crucial for individuals, communities, and whole societies to understand as this scourge is finally coming to light in many countries across the globe. It seems for all the variation in cultural norms and circumstances that there are key underlying principles that are common to all. This gives immense opportunity for collaboration and collective progress globally.
The same can be said for Jess Hills' seminal work "See What You Made Me Do", which has now been published in many countries. Work of such high calibre, by individuals who are intelligent as well as objectively positioned (i.e. who do not have a personal axe to grind), has the most extraordinarily transformative potential to shine light on this problem that has destroyed so many innocent lives.
I'm sure that you know this (as comments have shown), but for the avoidance of doubt , the effort you make to write this blog for perhaps a relatively small audience, will grow and flow outwards for the very reasons I mentioned above. So keep this wonderful resource steadily growing as it will be key to keeping the momentum and progress going! The work you are doing can inform practice, influence non-victims in their understanding, as well as save the sanity, and perhaps most poignantly give hope in the often dark reality of their lives to the many already victim-survivor children and mothers.
With humble thanks, Fiona