In Silence…
This morning, I spoke with a woman named “Sally” over our crisis line who was seeking counseling with Safe Harbor after experiencing over 7 years of abuse in a relationship. She spoke to me in the same hesitant tone that many victims seem to have when they first share their stories with us. As Sally shared stories of the frightening cycle of emotional and physical abuse that she was experiencing in her relationship, she was simultaneously expressing her own personal shame. Sally shared with me that she had never talked with anyone about the abuse she had experienced until this point. Despite the fact that Sally had loving relationships with her family and trusted friends, she had told no one about the time that her partner had stabbed her in her leg with a knife; about the time when he threw her down a flight of stairs; about the time that he assaulted her in the parking lot of her workplace and threatened to kill her. Sally shared with me that she was too ashamed, too embarrassed, too afraid to share her story with others, especially her friends and family. She told me that she felt so alone, feeling that she was the only person that she knew who had experienced domestic violence and thinking that no one else would ever understand her.