Northern Ireland

‘Transformative’ domestic abuse recovery programme to be piloted in Northern Ireland

‘We want to encourage a creative and more sisterly approach to women experiencing domestic abuse, rather than portraying the othered and shrunken down woman’

Natalie Collins, chief executive of Women’s Liberation Collective Charity, which developed Own My Life.
Natalie Collins, chief executive of Women’s Liberation Collective Charity, which developed Own My Life.
By Catherine McGinty

A “transformative” domestic abuse recovery programme is to be piloted in the north.

Natalie Collins, chief executive of the Women’s Liberation Collective charity said the course - Own My Life - would give women the skills to understand abuse.

“It will enable them to make sense of their lives and move forward with hope and positivity,” added Ms Collins, who herself experienced “years of terrifying coercive control”.

She described Own My Life as a “transformative programme which uses innovative and multi-media content”.

She added: “We train practitioners in different areas. They then deliver the course locally. It is run by social workers, women’s aid services, and addiction services. We have more than 1,000 practitioners, who have trained 11,000 women since 2020.

“We are here in Northern Ireland because we are really keen to enable women here to access the course because it is the one part of the UK and Ireland where, so far, we have had nobody engaging with Own My Life.

“We come here to learn from those who work with women about how we can best serve Northern Ireland women, to find out the specific needs for communities. We have also just launched a new book for practitioners and people reporting on domestic abuse,” said Ms Collins.

She said she was passionate about enabling women to build self-efficacy – the ability to do what is necessary to make good decisions.

She added: “Essentially, we want to resource services and resource women to feel in control of their lives and to take back control of their lives. One of the huge challenges we face is the messaging, sometimes even coming from people working on the issue of domestic abuse.

“Often it portrays women as shrivelled up and broken and therefore women actually being subjected to abuse don’t see themselves when they look at that picture of the women with the black eye or hear the story of a women who has been murdered. They think, ‘That’s not similar to my situation’.

“We want to encourage a creative and more sisterly approach to women experiencing domestic abuse, rather than portraying the othered and shrunken down woman.”