SHADE - Winnipeg

Join SHADE in celebrating International Women’s Day on March 6th!

Podcast 6: The harms of help
Shockingly, through their research and work, the authors name the negative experiences women have with the very people and services meant to support them. Harmful responses to disclosures of abuse ignore the abuse, embolden the abusive partner, compound the harms of abuse, and increase women’s isolation. Misguided counsellors also entrap women. Dominant discourses in our culture exposes how this happens. One misguided belief people too often hold is that women don’t have boundaries. This couldn’t be farther from the truth! Someone who is abusive is trying to get rid of your boundaries and tries through many different means. Yet, people who are safe have no interest in violating your boundaries. Service providers, family and friends need to be sensitive to their position and the power of their voice lest they further harm vulnerable women victim-survivors of abuse. Women know when things don’t feel okay. The anchor of truth can be within us. Women need to trust themselves. If a service feels wrong, unsafe, judgmental, or disbelieving, you are entitled to walk away. https://www.whenlovehurts.ca/2025/12/6-harms-of-help/

Podcast 2: Cycle of Abuse
The cycle of abuse is a 3-phase repetitive pattern of behaviour that men who are abusive demonstrate in their intimate relationships. It starts with the “Honeymoon” phase, cycles to the “Tension-building” phase, and escalates to the “Explosion” phase – only to repeat the cycle. The cycle continues post-separation, only in different ways of expression. This podcast gives insight into how men who are abusers operate and why they operate as they do. Not only do abusers ‘honeymoon’ their victims, they honeymoon professionals, which makes it incredibly difficult for victim-survivors to be believed and receive the help they so desperately need. https://www.whenlovehurts.ca/2025/11/episode-2-understanding-the-cycle-of-abuse/

Informative 8-series podcast help any woman affected by woman abuse, also known as domestic violence and gender-based violence. Podcast 1 aims to help understanding to what has been happening to abused women to help feel less crazy, less shame, and less alone. The language we use around this topic is extremely important. Language should be framed around ‘Who is hurting?’ and ‘Who is doing the abuse?’ The goal is for victim-survivors of abuse to feel that they can disclose what is happening to them and reach out to receive helpful support and resources, without being made to feel responsible and shamed. Those messages simply shut us down. Women are juggling much and do not need to be “damned if they do and damned if they don’t.”