When Abuse Has No Name I disclosed to my line manager. I spoke to colleagues. Some of them were trained Mental Health First Aiders. But no one, including me, knew what coercive and controlling behaviour was. I had not really thought about domestic abuse at all. And so what I described was treated as stress, as relationship difficulty, as something I needed to manage privately while I got on with my job. That experience shaped the work I do now. Because the problem was not tha

In criminal law, if a child is being harmed, we remove them from danger. In family law, we often mandate they maintain contact with the person harming them. Let that sink in. Practice Direction 12J exists for a reason. Introduced in 2017 (revised 2023), PD12J explicitly requires family courts to: Investigate domestic abuse allegations at every stage Conduct fact-finding hearings when abuse is disputed Assess risk before ordering contact Prioritise child safety over parental "