women as experts

  • First do no harm

    By Karen McAndless-Davis

    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

    By Karen McAndless-Davis

    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…