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Identifying Abuse

Resisting Control When It's Disguised as Love

Seeing through an abuser's performances of "love" gives victims renewed power | Abusive and controlling partners often use "loving" acts to manipulate th... read more
What Is Toxic Triangulation?

Abusers can turn a survivor’s friends, family and children against them through harmful fabrications | Some abusers use a tactic called toxic triangulation as one more... read more
How to Help a Child Who's Being Abused

Intimate partner violence and child abuse often go hand in hand. Here’s how you can intervene | Where there’s intimate partner violence, there’s often also child abuse... read more
When Domestic Abuse Happens in a Polygamous Relationship

Finding nonjudgemental support is a challenge for those in plural relationships | People in polygamous or polyamorous relationships—aka, having more than one partner o... read more
Putting Trauma Down in Words

The ways journaling can help survivors | For myself, journaling started with one of those palm-sized hardcover diaries adorned with a photograph of fluffy white kitten... read more
What Is Sexual Coercion?

Just because it’s not rape, doesn’t mean it’s not abuse | Maybe your partner guilted you into it, or just kept asking until you relented. Or maybe he or she purposely ... read more
It's Not Love, It's Love Bombing

Abusers rely on long-term tactics to build up a sense of dependency in their victim | You might not have heard of the term love bombing before, but you may have been t... read more
10 Must-Hear Podcasts on Domestic Violence

Plus, thinking about getting behind the mic? Tips for starting your own | If you haven’t been pulled into a podcast yet, what are you waiting for? Since its launch on ... read more
How Limiting Abortion Rights Keeps Survivors in Danger

As the fate of a woman’s right to choose is under attack, survivors know even a rape exception may not help them | COVID-19 Update: Anti-abortion groups are exploiting... read more
A Narcissistic Abuser Will Never Change

Why no amount of love, counseling or batterer intervention will keep you safe | If you are in a relationship with a narcissistic abuser, hoping for things to change, d... read more
When Masculinity Is Toxic

Traits men learn as boys can be dangerous—to them, and to the women in their lives | We hear a lot about “toxic masculinity” these days—a term often loaded with assump... read more
Are Abusers Narcissists, Psychopaths or Sociopaths?

The differences between these three personality disorders | When describing an abusive partner, the terms narcissist, psychopath and sociopath often get thrown around.... read more
Postpartum Depression Linked to Domestic Violence

New moms experiencing abuse need to find support and a way out | Postpartum depression, or PPD, is a mental health issue that at least 1 in 7 moms struggle with after ... read more
The Silent Treatment: An Abuser's Controlling Tactic

Ignoring another person is a strong communication of power and control | Refusing to listen, talk or respond to a partner is sometimes called “the silent treatment” or... read more
Netflix's You is a Roadmap to Dating Violence

Come for the thrills, stay for the education | If you haven’t yet binge-watched the first season of the Netflix series You, strap in. It’s a riveting psychological thr... read more