Ep 369: How To Safely Leave a Coercive Controller with Grace Stuart, Part 2

As the violence escalated, Grace finally called 911. She describes the police officer who recognised something Grace could not yet fully see herself. She reveals why and how he identified how dangerous the abuser was. 

Grace describes the successful strategy she used to leave. Laura examines why victims may continue to protect, defend or return to the abuser - and why these behaviours need to be understood within the wider pattern of coercive control by EVERYONE. 

Grace shares how her ex-partner pressured her to become pregnant and how his sense of entitlement extended to her reproductive choices. Laura unpacks reproductive coercion and how perpetrators can use pregnancy and children to increase dependency, entrapment and control. 

Laura and Grace explore how an abuser can use a program and those running them as another means of manipulation and re-grooming. 

Laura and Grace discuss: 

Successful strategies for leaving 

Reproductive coercion and entrapment  

Trauma bonding and re-grooming  

Escalation and high-risk behaviours  

The weaponisation of therapeutic and recovery language  

Why victims may protect or defend the abuser  

The importance of informed police responses