Abuse can come in many forms and not just physical or sexual. All abuse is an attempt to control other people by changing the balance of power in a situation or a relationship. The Power and Control Wheel was originally developed by the Domestic Abuse and Prevention Program in Duluth, Minnesota. It was developed from the experience of battered women who had been abused by male partners. However, the abuser in a situation can just as easily be a female. The wheel does an excellent job of quickly assessing for the layperson whether their relationship dynamics are likely in a power and control imbalance. It shows the typical tactics used by abusers in adult relationships.
If you believe you are in an abusive relationship, there is help for you. There are battered women shelters in most major and many small cities in the world. Seek help so that the pattern does not continue in your life or get perpetuated in the next generation – most children tend to model their adult relationships after what their role models were in childhood.
For more information on all the various forms of The Power and Control Wheel, see the www.theduluthmodel.org website.
Loads of Love & Light to you all!
Tracy & Marion (a.k.a. The Shift Doctors)
**The Shift Doctors (Tracy Latz, M.D. & Marion Ross, Ph.D.) are available for keynote talks, classes, events or for seminars (1/2 day or up to 2 day) on personal transformation, team-building, motivation, anger management, intuitive development, or collaboration for private groups, conferences, corporations or corporate events. Contact them at info@shiftyourlife.com or find out more about them at www.shiftyourlife.com .