Why do we expect women to recover from trauma faster than soldiers? Most people writing about trauma are doing just that… writing about trauma. They are analysing research papers, discussing policy failures, reviewing statistics or examining systems from a position of relative distance. Their work is important, [...]

The Quiet Violence of Organisational Betrayal There is a moment when many victims of trauma eventually come to recognise long after the original event itself. It is the moment you realise the harm was only the beginning. This moment happens in the silence, the distance from friends [...]

Why Is Sexual Violence Still Judged Through Impossible Standards of Evidence? No one leaves the house expecting they will later need evidence that they were violated. Nor do they anticipate that their body may become the crime scene of sexual violence while their mind fragments under fear, [...]

The Legal System's Failure to Understand Sexual Violence The legal system remains fundamentally unequipped to understand sexual violence in the form it manifests within the victims of trauma. This isn’t because the system lacks intelligence or experience, but because it was built inside a framework which was [...]

"Truth will always be truth, regardless of lack of understanding, disbelief or ignorance" W. Clement Stone There is a point at which we have to stop pretending that the events we are seeing unfold around the world are isolated incidents. What is unfolding is not accidental, [...]

When We Laugh at Harm, We Train Ourselves Not to See It When Harm Becomes Background Noise  There is something deeply disturbing about the way sexual violation is sometimes spoken about as if it is “just life”, a texture of growing up, background noise, or [...]

Humans Are More Than Grammar, And We’re Losing Sight of What Really Matters in Women’s Health The Growing Distraction from Women’s Health We are at a tipping point where the culture wars have begun draining our collective focus and our money, from the urgent, tangible [...]

If “No” Means Nothing at Home, It Will Mean Nothing in the World  The First Boundary We Fail to Teach There is a word children need to understand early in life to grow into responsible adults.  That word is “No.”  Not “maybe later.” Not “if [...]

When Survivors Spiral, Communities Look Away Breaking Silence in Parliament The other day in the House of Commons, Charlotte Nichols MP did something extraordinarily difficult. She waived her anonymity and spoke publicly about being raped after an event she attended in her role as an [...]