Abuse Counselling

Abuse can take many forms including; emotional/psychological, sexual, physical and financial. The term abuse can broadly be defined as any act when a person or institution takes unfair advantage of another for their own purpose and gratification.

​

Abuse may be obvious for example hitting someone or less obvious for example pretending to look after someone's money when in fact stealing it.

​

Abuse can happen to anyone at any age.

 

Examples of Abuse include;

​

Emotional/Psychological: Verbal aggression, shouting, belittling somebody, making fun of them, insults, threats, intimidation, name calling, saying someone is no good and undermining their confidence, ignoring, excluding, humiliating, denial of the abuse and blaming the person themselves, excessive critiscm.

​

Sexual Abuse: Carrying out a sexual act against another person or forcing them to carry out and/or engage in a sexual act against their will, without consent or understanding.

​

Examples; attempted or actual rape, sexual assault, unwanted; kissing, touching, intercourse, oral sex, refusing to use condoms or restricting someone's access to birth control, keeping someone from protecting themselves against sexually transmitted infection's, repeatedly using sexual insults towards someone.

​

Physical: hitting, spitting, slapping, biting, punching, kicking, strangling, someone throwing something at you, pushing or pulling you, grabbing you to prevent you from leaving or forcing you to go somewhere.

​

Financial: denying or restricting someone's access to their own monies, insisting on access to somebody else's accounts, telling somebody what they can or cannot buy, keeping somebody from seeing shared bank accounts or records, forbidding someone to work or limiting the hours they do, using somebody else's details to obtain credit without their permission, placing somebody else's wages or benefits in their account under the guise 'they are taking care of it for you' and then stealing it.

​

*Please note the above lists are not exhaustive

​

How therapy can help

​

Abuse is always wrong and can undermine how we think about ourselves and diminish our sense of identity, dignity and self worth.

Experiencing abuse can leave us with a myriad of emotions to deal with as well as the incidents themselves. Common feelings may include; shame, guilt, self blame, confusion, anger and fear. Talking to a trained professional in a safe and confidential environment can provide the opportunity to share and discuss the abuse, process the impact this has had, explore feelings and provide support in moving on. Disclosing and talking about abuse, especially for the first time can be difficult and may take a lot of courage.

​

If you feel it may be helpful to speak to a therapist, please contact me

​

​

Testimonials

​

" Talking about the abuse was hard and I felt like the only one this had ever happened to. I felt ashamed and like I would be judged. Counselling helped me to understand that it wasn't my fault and how I was feeling was normal. Gradually I was able to come to terms with what had happened and start to find ways to get my life back" .

Parveet 27 yrs

​

​

" I had been with my ex partner for so long that I hadn't even noticed the abuse anymore, it had become normal. I had therapy for quite a long while and at times it was difficult but it helped me see that how I was being treated wasn't right and I could say no and change things. Thank you for helping me find my voice!"

Terry 51 yrs