Courage Network

Originally posted at Susan Murphy Milano's Journal

There are no more excuses to stay in a relationship where your safety continues to be hanging by a thread. Waking up day after day without a plan of how to leave the relationship can be deadly. The Institute for Relational Harm Reduction (http://www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com/) offers exit planning strategies to prevent you from becoming an abuse statistic or the victim of Intimate Partner Homicide. If the Institute can help you strategize to get ready for disconnection, please let us. Most of all, be safe.


Before you announce your thoughts about how unhappy you are or that the relationship simply is not working for you any longer, have a solid plan in place. Women often fail to plan ahead in leaving, underestimating what the abuser can and actually ends up doing.

Susan Powell Example

Susan Powell, a married stockbroker and is a devoted mother to two young sons. Over time, Susan’s husband Josh became more and more controlling. Their marriage deteriorated. At this point in a relationship, many abusers begin to formulate a plan born of anger and desperation.

This plan remains in the abuser’s mind until they notice subtle signs of movement. Perhaps Josh walked into the room as Susan whispered into the phone. When she realized he was in the room, she quickly changed her tone or ended the phone call. Perhaps he learned Susan set up a bank account, and decided she was hiding money so she and the kids could leave.

The signs of movement spark Josh, or any potential abuser, to think of the next level. They think to themselves, “OK, she is going to leave me. I will not let that happen”. He acts as though nothing is wrong. When she goes to sleep, however, Josh leaps into action. He may:

•rummage through her car looking for evidence of her plan–a bank receipt or an unusual transaction or charge
•check her cell phone for any unusual numbers he does not recognize
•search her computer, checking to see which websites she visited

He finds something. Inwardly his anger skyrockets and his heart races. Outwardly, he remains calm and says nothing to Susan. A smile comes to his face. He “caught her,” and he figures in the future, she will pay one way or another.

Susan begins to email a trusted circle of friends about Josh’s abuse and threats. Maybe she keeps a detailed log containing dates and times of the incidents.

Next, Josh does what I label the “smell change.” Susan acts strangely. Josh, like most abusers, literally senses, or “smells” when his environment has shifted. Perhaps Susan verbalizes her unhappiness more often. Maybe she stands up for herself during a fight, where months before she would have backed down and gone to her room without incident.

Most abused women have difficulty hiding that “spark of empowerment” from a clever abuser. The abuser smells the spark, like a fox scents prey as he enters a coop full of chickens.

On December 7, 2009, Susan Powell of Utah disappeared. Law enforcement personnel consider her husband Josh a person of interest.

Susan Powell’s case appears no different from millions of cases of intimate partner violence we never hear about, until women disappear and someone finds their bodies. Often no “official documentation” of the abuse exists because the terrified women did not contact police or obtain a court order of protection. Why? Better than anyone, the victims know the court order of protection would not help. The court order of protection would only escalate the level of danger.

Part 1of the article Here- http://saferelationshipsmagazine.com/caution-relationship-lane-changes-part-1



[Susan Murphy Milano is with the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction and Public Pathology Education. She is an expert on intimate partner violence and homicide crimes. For more information visit http://www.saferelationshipsmagazine.com/  She is the author of "Time's Up A Guide on How to Leave and Survive Abusive and Stalking Relationships," available for purchase at the Institute, Amazon.com and wherever books are sold.  Susan is the host of The Susan Murphy Milano Show, "Time's Up!" on Here Women Talk http://www.herewomentalk.com/ and is a regular contributor to the nationally syndicated The Roth Show with Dr. Laurie Roth  http://www.therothshow.com/) ]

Originally posted at Susan Murphy Milano's Journal

There was a successful boycott of Amazon this week because they were selling a book written for the benefit of pedophiles. While I am repulsed by anything that promotes pedophelia or harm to children, I'm not weighing in on that issue, which is out of my realm, but the campaign to boycott Amazon was something that went viral through the internet at breakneck speed, and the mission seems to be accomplished.

While I applaud the efforts, let's think about what could be accomplished if the same people whose outrages against a bookseller would unite, as well, for something equally important....saving lives of the abused.

If you would put those same efforts behind getting the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit used as applied practice in every agency, coalition, court house, police department, hospital, or lawyer's office, think how many lives could be saved.

If each of you that have received my books and completed the Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit would pass on the information, just like you did by boycotting Amazon, think of the possibilities!

If you could step away from your computer for an afternoon and take the information to the aforementioned places, YOU can play a huge part in making this go viral, not just online, but in real life. Some of you are alive today because you took the time, did the work prescribed, and completed your Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit.

If you are boycotting Amazon, where my books are sold, you can also purchase them from by website, blog, or the Institute for Relational Harm Reduction.

I look forward to hearing your comments and views.

Susan
murphymilano@gmail.com

Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit by Susan Murphy Milano from the Book "Time's Up" from Courage Network on Vimeo.

Many charities and community based organizations need your support but they're being hurt by non-profit organizations that don't spend their money responsibly, too much money on marketing, sending too many people on speaking engagements and high overhead costs.  If you own your own non-profit and you're putting money into it yourself, make sure the money is going to help people and you can account for all the spending.   Non-profit work is a responsibility to the public.  Plain and simple.  If your non-profit is showing any of the above mentioned warning signs, it's time to regroup.  Every day, victims are pleading for help and we need more non-profits that will do exactly what they say they're going to do and that is help.