I am a woman of Southern European background and a practising Catholic. My experience of family and domestic violence included coercive control, systemic and financial abuse, sexual and religious abuse.
I speak from lived experience, particularly as a mother who navigated complex cultural and relational dynamics while raising a child in an environment of ongoing harm.
Throughout my marriage, I was isolated, gaslit, and manipulated. My former partner concealed financial information, delayed legal processes, and weaponised my faith- mocking the beliefs we had once agreed upon and undermining my connection to the Church. And yet, it was my Catholic faith and community that held me through some of the darkest times, offering stability and strength when everything else felt unsafe.
