I founded End Coercive Control USA in the fall of 2019 after reading Evan Stark's book "Coercive Control: How Men Entrap Women in Personal Life". Having been a victim and survivor of domestic abuse as a child and then as an adult, Stark's book on coercive control resonated with me in a way that no other book had before. Before learning of the term coercive control, I read Lundy Bancroft's book "Why does he do that", and had been powerfully validated by his strong stance against victim-blaming and holding perpetrators of abuse accountable. Lundy had used the term coercive control in his book as well, but at the time, domestic violence was the predominating term for what I, and so many other victim/survivors had experienced, and I having not seen the term before, I missed its significance to my experience.
After reading Evan Stark's book on coercive control, I began to see the insidious and covert nature of the variety of tactics of coercion and control that had been used against myself and people I knew throughout my lifetime. And I became painfully aware of the horrific consequences of allowing perpetrators of this type violence to continue their pattern of behavior.
This is why I founded ECCUSA (End Coercive Control USA)... to find ways to detect, prevent and intervene in coercive control. Ultimately, my mission is to educate the public and professionals on how to recognize coercive control, so that we can prevent the pattern before it starts.
This past year I received my PgCert in the Psychology of Coercive Control from the University of Salford. And I am in my final year of completing my Masters in the Psychology of Coercive Control.
It has been a busy year. I have spoken for three major conferences; the Conference on Crimes Against Women, the International Coercive Control Conference and the 2021 Domestic Violence Symposium. I have also begun consulting and offering expert witness testimony on coercive control. The past few months have been so busy with Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October, the speaking engagements, grad school and consulting on cases that I haven't even had time to blog. (Sorry about that... I plan to get better at juggling all these priorities in 2022).
The last three months have also been especially busy and stressful as I have been moving my home, business and family from Texas to Connecticut. I am excited to announce that we have a house under contract that we will move into in January. Yay!
In 2022 End Coercive Control USA will continue offering speaking, training, consulting, and expert witness testimony on coercive control, domestic abuse and domestic violence. In January, I will be speaking for the Safe & Together Institute's Conference on my PsychoSocial Quicksand Model™, and much of 2022 will be used to conduct research on coercive control and the PsychoSocial Quicksand Model™. By next fall I plan to complete my Masters in the Psychology of Coercive Control.
If you are a survivor and/or professional working in the area of coercive control, domestic abuse and domestic violence, please feel free to register for our newsletter and/or contact me to network and brainstorm on how we can best work together to detect, intervene in and prevent coercive control, not only in the US, but all over the world.
Soon I will be looking for participants for my coercive control research. If you are either a survivor or a court or health care professional working to end domestic abuse and coercive control, please feel free to email me and I will contact you when studies open up (kate@endccusa.com).
