There's No Place Like Home by Future Women

Geraldine’s mum Anne didn’t like Ted* from the beginning. But Anne found it hard to put her finger on exactly what bothered her about him. That’s because Ted’s behaviour was a complex web of expectation, pressure and manipulation, more commonly referred to as coercive control.

Coercive control is a pattern of conduct employed by abusers. This is violence that happens slowly. It doesn’t come out of noth...

May* felt safer sleeping in her car, with a brand new baby girl, than she did in her home. With no money, no access to credit and no support service that would take her - the car was also her only option after escaping a violent relationship.

Domestic and family violence is the main reason that women seek the support of homeless shelters and the primary cause of homelessness amongst kids. In Victoria, where May lives, there are nea...

Nina* never knew if Joe* was telling the truth. Joe said he used to be a police officer, that he still had good mates who served on the force. Joe said he knew everything there was to know about the courts.

Nina* still doesn’t know for sure if her former partner had the skills and expertise he boasted about. What she does know is that Joe used these pieces of information to scare her into submission and silence. To make Nina*...

Eleanor* once owned an apartment in the United States, had a significant share portfolio and a very healthy savings account. She is now living paycheck to paycheck. The costs of a legal battle with her abusive former partner total more than a quarter of a million dollars.

Eleanor* says her former partner has deliberately drawn out the court case in every way possible. It’s been three years since proceedings began. Beyond the ...

Thanks to the advocacy and work of countless individuals, Australia is finally facing up to the scourge of domestic and family violence. However, the community and media attention has not been equally distributed.

Many survivors still feel like their experiences are invisible. Members of the queer community may also be victims of domestic and family violence and some say that indifference to their stories can compound trauma.

In th...

In this episode of There’s No Place Like Home we introduce you to Carly. A proud Wiradjuri woman, Carly is the CEO and co-founder of Deadly Connections, a not-for-profit organisation that breaks the cycle of disadvantage and trauma for First Nations people through transformative justice.

In her work, Carly taps into wisdom borne of her own lived experience as a domestic and family violence survivor. And she does that work alo...

Amani was pregnant with her first baby, in 2015, when a cousin called her. Her cousin was panicking and through a jumble of mixed up sentences, told Amani to go to the hospital.

It was there that Amani learned her father had murdered her mother, Salwa. He had killed his wife of 28 years in a violent attack.

Both Amani and her sister Nour, have joined us for this episode of There’s No Place Like Home. Today we ask ‘what&...

There is an emotional journey that happens after abuse. It isn’t quick but rather long and winding. For a survivor of domestic and family violence, what does that thorny path to long-term recovery look like? How do you retrieve, revive and redefine your sense of self?

In the final episode of There’s No Place Like Home, you’re going to meet Deborah. Deborah is an incredible advocate, an author and a mum. Nin...

There’s No Place Like Home is returning. In season two, we will explore the invisible warning signs that - too often - go unnoticed and the patterns of power and control that define abusive relationships.

From love bombing and gaslighting to isolation and financial control, this season will be a practical resource for you to lean on when something doesn’t feel quite right in your relationship - or the relationship of someone you lo...

Love bombing is a word you’ve probably heard before. It feels like someone coming on too fast - with extravagant gestures or over-the-top compliments before you've really gotten to know one another.

But how does it actually play out? What are the red - or green - flags early in a relationship? What are the signs to tell if a friend’s new partner is just really keen, or if there’s something sinister happening? 

Isolation occurs when an abusive partner inserts themselves between a victim-survivor and the outside world - whether that’s psychologically, physically, spiritually, culturally, or financially. It can also look a lot like the "honeymoon phase" of a new romance, when a couple become so caught up in the thrill of one another that they shut themselves away from the outside world.

So how do you identify it? 

• Su...

Gaslighting is the process of denying someone’s experience and what they believe to be true. In the last few years, it’s become part of our vernacular. In fact, in 2022, it was one of the most Googled words in the world. 

But what is it? How do you spot it, how do we understand its true impact? And what do you do if it's happening to you, or someone you care about? 

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We’ve all been jealous at some point in our lives. But there is a unique kind of jealousy specific to abusive partners. It’s the kind of jealousy that manifests in forms of abuse we’ve already discussed this season, like gaslighting and isolation. Experts dub it “sexual jealousy”, and they say it’s about entitlement, not love. 

So how do you tell the difference? 

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Tech-facilitated abuse can be overt. Think threatening phone calls or incessant messages. Or it can be covert, where an abuser monitors their partner’s online activity, hacks their emails or tracks their location through apps and ‘find my phone’ services, or even sends threatening messages via internet banking.

In a rapidly evolving world, what does technologically-facilitated abuse look like? And where can you go for help?

It’s estimated that financial abuse happens in 90 percent of abusive relationships.* But despite its prevalence, many people don’t realise how serious it is, or what it actually looks like. Let’s find out. 

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Have you ever had a partner who made you feel like, no matter what, you couldn’t do anything right? In this episode we examine how criticising and blame shifting are weaponised to break down someone’s personhood and strip them of their dignity. 

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The discourse around intimate partner violence can feel dispiriting and, sometimes, it can be hard to stay hopeful. But we need to hold on to hope. Hope for a better way forward. Hope for a future where this country is safe for everyone.

In the final episode of There’s No Place Like Home season two, we turn our focus squarely to what we can do. To the hope and possibility that comes from putting into action what we’ve learned from ...

Amanda Rishworth is the federal Social Services Minister. Two years ago her department released an ambitious strategy to end domestic violence against women and their children in a generation. Recently, the Albanese government commissioned a rapid review with practical advice on further action to prevent gender-based violence.

Is all of this enough to curb the distressing increase in domestic violence homicides we’ve seen in 2024? ...

When we speak about domestic abuse and family violence, there is one question victim-survivors are asked again and again. “Why didn’t you just leave?”

Join our new host Tara Rae Moss as she shares the real stories of victim-survivors who’ll reveal how, too often, that’s just as dangerous - and how to keep the next person safe. 

There’s No Place Like Home: After she leaves drops weekl...