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Victim No More

Woman hopes to mitigate domestic violence problem

Break free.

If the mission statement of Dr. Karen MacKay can be pared down to two words, they are these.

. . .MacKay lends her expertise as a therapist to help women heal themselves and escape the often psychological means of control that abusers use on their victims.

"My aim is to get women to take charge and get out of the relationship," she said.

Her Victim to Victorious workshop is crafted out of more than simply a well-founded desire to do good. It is carved from the bitter hardship of MacKay's own experience at the hands of a batterer, an experience that took her completely by surprise. Her tailspin through the vicious cycle of domestic abuse occurred despite the fact that she was a professional, educated and independent woman.

Still hesitant after all this time to talk about it, MacKay said she learned firsthand what is was like to be imprisoned and brainwashed. At last, she said, she understood why women couldn't "just leave." It was not merely about fists and kicks, but about belittling and control.

MacKay is basing her work on the "things I started doing to get my soul back." She hopes to use her personal journey from a victim to a survivor to be more vocal about the problem of domestic abuse--a problem that affects 25% percent of American women and 8 percent of American men, according to the Center for Disease Control's statistics.

Other grim statistics include the 2 to 4 million women who are victims of serious abuse each year. MacKay reports that 1 million abused women seek medical attention for injuries and that half of female homicide victims in the United States are killed by an intimate partner.

MacKay has also written and illustrated a softbound book entitle, Dear Sisters, Break Free From Domestic Violence. She was attempting to "make sense of what I was in," she said.

The book is deliberately written in a simple format to allow for a quick, accessible read. MacKay said that she was hungry for information that would help her overcome what she had suffered. What she found instead were books that were too intellectual, overly technical, or simply too long.

Too often, battered women do not have either the time or the freedom to read anything. MacKay designed her book as "waiting room" material," something that a woman could pick up in a doctor's office and browse through.

MacKay said her ultimate goal would be to stop abuse altogether. Part of achieving this is helping victims of abuse become healthy and whole enough to refuse to put up with violence from their partners. It also involves the victims overcoming the belief that the abuse is somehow caused by their behavior.

"Dear Sisters," MacKay wrote, "I am like you. I am one of you, a sister joined by violence. . . .

Dear sisters, break free."

The Cortez Journal by Katharhynn Heidelberg,

Home Plan If You Can About Dr. MacKay Watch Movie: Lifelines Blog Your Self-Help Website Hotflash Queen Website Contact Information: Dr. Karen MacKay 3300 NW 185th, 200 Portland, Oregon 97229 Send an email

A Free eBook For You! >Dear Sisters, Break Free From Domestic Violence< Dr. MacKay is a survivor of domestic abuse and has written this to you and others like you. Access Your Free eBook Now! To gain insights for further help and healing, click here. Subscribe to Dr. MacKay's eZine: >Thrive, No Matter What< -Quips & Quotes -Reminders to stay true to yourself -Tools to keep you on track To Subscribe Click Here