MSI Press Blog

  The following excerpt comes from Recovering from Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Stalking by Joanna Romer. INTRODUCTION   This book is for you if you’ve ever been the victim of domestic violence, abuse or stalking. It’s also for you if your sister, mother or friend has been victimized, as one of the stories in this volume describes. Having escaped a dangerous situation or come to grips with it in some way, you must now start the process of rebuilding your life. Where do you turn? How can you find the “self” you were before the abuse began? Is this even possible? Hopefully, this book will provide some answers to those questions. Included are interviews with women just like you who overcame the reality of domestic violence, stalking or abuse. You will also find advice from therapists to help you sort your life out and put the pieces back together. Domestic abuse these days ranges all the way from being called a slut to hospitalization and even murder (included in this book). In the latt

  Excerpt from Recovering from Domestic Violence, Abuse, and Stalking by Joanna Romer -  My Experience: Lauretta Avina              “I’m a huge believer in counseling, and I never used to be.”   When Lauretta Avina heard that her sister had been murdered by her boyfriend, she couldn’t believe it at first. “I felt disbelief,” she said. “I managed to walk next door to my neighbor’s house. I told him, ‘My sister’s dead!’” Lauretta said her sister, Franca Bars, who was 38 at the time of her death in 2006, had been going with her boyfriend David on and off for seven years. “I only met him once,” Lauretta told me. “He had an angry look. That was two months before the murder.” Despite the angry look, Lauretta said she would never have imagined David capable of murder. “My sister’s exact words were ‘He would never hurt me,’” Lauretta said. “A friend said later he was abusing her. I kick myself in the butt—why didn’t I question her? But my husband had been in Iraq and came home injured; I was