Between You and Me

This is the story of how a group of women take action against domestic abuse in their community. Using auto-ethnography, the author and the women question the roles they have been ascribed by unpicking their memories of how they made sense of living with abuse-how they rationalized irrationality and lost their sense of identity. They begin to see that they didn't identify with being labelled a victim because they never were victims-they were the managers of bad situations. By telling their story to others, they discovered their similarities and differences and decided to share their experiences more widely so as to help others in similar situations to make sense of what happens-or happened-to them. The book shows that it's not only who we talk to that matters but also how we share our stories. Discussion about the epistemological status of domestic violence discourse leads to considering how we can develop a coordinated community response that enables practitioners and survivors to engage in a pedagogical process which improves the lives of women who have been abused.Bowen, Helen is the author of 'Between You and Me', published 2007 under ISBN 9781858564197 and ISBN 1858564190.