Domestic Violence Counselling Sydney
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Did your family conflicts get out of control?
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Are you experiencing signs of abusive behaviour?
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Feeling like in need to prevent possible domestic abuse?
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Do you recognize domestic violence in your relationships?
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Are you feeling stuck or trapped in a cycle of violent behaviour?
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Thinking whether you should leave the abusive relationships?
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Are you in need of a domestic violence counselling?
Domestic violence is a pervasive issue that affects millions of individuals. Abusive behaviour can be of physical, emotional, psychological, sexual or financial type. It is a main cause of fear and intimidation in the relationships.
Contact us, if you need confidential help dealing with abusive behaviour. For your convenience, we are open daytime and after hours, Monday to Saturday. Please, call us anytime on (02) 9683 1444.
Types of domestic violence counselling
Domestic violence is a pattern of controlling and intimidating, abusive behaviours of various types. Our experienced domestic violence counsellors are focused on dealing with:
Verbal abuse
A verbal intimidating includes continual ‘put-downs’ and humiliation, either privately or publicly, with attacks following clear themes that focus on intelligence, sexuality, body image and capacity as a parent and spouse.
Spiritual abuse
The ‘spiritual abuse’, often called the ‘religious abuse’, involves using spiritual or religious beliefs to hurt, scare, control, or force the victim to participate or stop participating in religious practices, use of religious teachings to excuse or justify abusive behaviour, e.g. stopping the victim from getting medical treatment, pressuring into marriage or in staying in relationship.
Emotional abuse
The mental abuse includes blaming the victim for all problems in the relationship, constantly comparing the victim with others to undermine self-esteem and self-worth, sporadic sulking, withdrawing all interest and engagement, e.g. weeks of silence.
Social abuse
The social abuse includes systematic isolation from family and friends through techniques such as ongoing rudeness to family and friends, moving to locations where the victim knows nobody, forbidding or physically preventing the victim from going out and meeting people — in effect, imprisonment.
Sexual assault
The sexual abuse includes any form of forced sex or sexual degradation, e.g. sexual activity without consent, causing pain during sex, assaulting the genitals, coercive sex without protection against pregnancy or sexually transmitted disease, making the victim perform sexual acts unwillingly, criticising, or using sexually degrading insults.
Please, reach out for help if you suffer from the described abusive behaviour.
Frequently asked questions about domestic violence counselling:
In our experience, women who have been abused are often traumatised, living on edge and ‘walking on eggshells’. These women may have no one they can turn to. They feel disempowered and scared to take any action. They may feel it is partly their fault, such as the extent of the psychological abuse.
The first step is to get support, information and advice about your options. There are many support services that are only a phone call away, such as 1800-RESPECT. Even with the best of information and advice, it is vital to have the patient, wise and personal support of a relationship counsellor trained in domestic violence who can help you make clear-headed decisions.
Please, call us at (02) 9683 1444 to get help of a caring domestic violence psychologist.
Fortunately, we live at a time and in a society where there is growing public awareness and discussion of domestic violence. There are extensive government and private services to support families working through the impact of domestic abuse.
There is hope for safety, stability and the protection of the vulnerable such as victims and children if family members are able to reach out for help. Many men and couples who have eradicated abusive tactics can then benefit from traditional couples counselling.
Change is possible. Especially when men (or women, or both) are honest about the emotional damage they are causing.
When such partners are willing to do whatever it takes, they can learn to take responsibility for their choices and behaviour. This can be the start of a process of deepening empathy. In turn, this can lead to a mutually respectful power-sharing relationship.
Sadly, there are far too many relationships where the abused partner ‘hangs in there’ in hope that somehow the violence will stop. More often than not, after a cooling off or honeymoon period, the cycle of abuse and violence resumes.
In our experience, we see many men ‘get it’ and have a ‘wake up call’ to how damaging their behaviour was. This generally occurs after a partner leaves, after an assault, or after the police have issued an apprehended violence order (AVO).
At this stage, many men reach to us and enter a men’s program or counselling. In this, they generally stop their physically violent behaviour and start to understand how they emotionally abused their partner. This brings the best hope for the restoration of a relationship.