Be Yourself - Counselling.
Proudly Serving the Southport Area and Online for the rest of the UK.
There are many types of abusive relationship.
Physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual and verbal abuse all have a devastating impact on the victim and can leave it's mark for years, even when the relationship has long since ended.
Whatever the nature of an abusive relationship, it could leave scars. Both physical and emotional.
Coercive control and manipulation in the form of verbal, emotional or psychological abuse is highly damaging and can be so subtle that many victims don't even realise it's happening, such is the effectiveness of the control that is being exerted on them.
Because of this, it can be extremely difficult to break free from a highly controlled environment.
What could be the lasting effects of an abusive or coercive relationship?
Some of the effects of being the victim in an abusive relationship can be fairly obvious.
Things such as finding it hard to trust in future relationships or being hypervigilant when it comes to spotting warning signs can be very common.
However, some of the effects can be much deeper rooted and less obvious.
When a person has been exposed to psychological abuse or manipulation, such as gaslighting, for example, this can chip away at a person's self esteem and have a significant impact on their whole identity and sense of who they are.
Perceptions of everyday situations can become very distorted and can lead to great difficulties in simply navigating life. Self care, effective boundary setting and self expression can be seriously affected.
Counselling with someone that understands the profound effects of partner abuse, psychological manipulation or coercive control can be effective in exploring the effect it has had on identity and self esteem.
In fact, for many people, just realising that it wasn't their fault can be life changing.