women as experts

First do no harm

ByKaren McAndless-Davis November 20, 2014February 16, 2018

As helping professional we all have good intentions when it comes to supporting women who have experienced abuse. But if we don’t have specific training in this area, we can unintentionally end up harming a woman. Let me share one example of what I mean by this. One counsellor advised a woman that she needed…

Don’t “should” on a woman

ByKaren McAndless-Davis October 21, 2014February 16, 2018

When a woman has experienced abuse from an intimate partner, friends, family and helping professionals tend to be very free with their advice. Women get told they should try harder to make the relationship work. They should have better better boundaries. They should love their partners more or they should be patient and wait for…