ABSTRACT
Children experiencing domestic abuse and coercive control are at risk of experiencing complex trauma as domestic abuse and coercive control are rarely one-off events, they are a pattern and continuum of behaviour whose impact is accumulative and devastating. Domestic abuse and coercive control are fear conditioned. The fear may be especially acute when a perpetrator behaves unpredictably by “changing the rules”: reacting negatively to situations about which they were previously calm. Many children feel they need to always be on guard in anticipation of something fear-full happening. They may perceive the simplest of interactions as threatening, using fight-flight-freeze responses as a coping mechanism. Trusting relationships with supportive adults are of prime importance to children experiencing trauma. It may take a long time for a child to feel secure enough to trust an adult with information that has been a longstanding secret or source of embarrassment or shame.
