What can I do to help my friend?
When our friend, family member, loved one is living with abuse by an intimate partner, we have a key role in supporting their journey. You may be the only person that they can trust. Please read on for tips and tools help a friend.
Violence in an intimate relationship is a systematic pattern of domination, where an abusive partner uses abusive tactics designed to maintain power and control over the woman. The Power and Control Wheel was developed by Domestic Violence Intervention Program based in Duluth, Minnesota. The P and C Wheel provides a good illustration of the tactics used by an abusive partner.
Remember: You may be the only person your friend can trust. Be attentive, believe what she says, tell her you care, and show her you are willing to help.
- Reassure your friend that she does not cause the abuse. An abusive partner learned to use violence as a way of maintaining power and control over her likely well before ever meeting your friend.
- Physical safety is the first priority. Women frequently minimize violence because abuse usually gets worse over time. Ignoring the abuse is dangerous. Explain this to your friend and help her to make an emergency safety plan by obtaining transition house phone numbers and discussing safe places or people she knows she can go to and perhaps she wants to consider police and legal remedies.
- Tell your friend she is not alone. Abuse happens to many women, of all income and educational levels, in all social classes, in all races, religious and ethnic groups.
- If she is not ready at this point to make major changes in her life, do not take your friendship away from your friend. Your support may be what will make it possible for her to act at a later date. Isolation is often the earliest tactic abusive partners use so maintaining connection(s) is vital to safety.
- Give your friend information about BWSS, the Crisis and Intake line number and website, www.bwss.org.
- Help your friend with her self-esteem. Tell her what you admire about her; why you value her as a friend; what are her strengths and special qualities.
- Support her emotions: fear, anger, hope, grief in the loss of her relationships, etc.
- Help with children: they need support for their feelings, to know the reality of what is going on, to know they are not to blame.
- Help with Children/Responsibilities – women often are the primary caretakers of children/elders/community and often have other paid/unpaid work responsibilities resulting in a heavy load to carry so think of ways you can help with the load and offer practical help like childcare, ride to work/home, grocery shopping.
Be Supportive and Willing to Listen
- Let your friend know that you believe what she has told you — chances are; the situation is worse than she is letting on.
- Encourage, but do not pressure your friend to talk about the violence. Allow her to say as much or as little as she wants in her own words.
- Offer to accompany her to the police, transition house, or any other place she is frightened to approach for help. Your presence will help her to be strong and will show her that she is not alone.
- No matter how tempting it is to bad-mouth her partner, stop yourself and try to focus on the abuse as the problem. Most women love their partners and want the violence to stop, but they want the relationship to continue.
- Allow your friend to make her own decisions.
- Do not fix or go into advice-giving, listen, and understand the multitude of emotions she is feeling that are all normal.
Remember: You may be the only person that can see your friend through a life without violence. Don’t give up on her — just because the decisions she makes are different from the ones you might make doesn’t mean she doesn’t want or need your support. If she is not ready to leave at this time, please read page 1 of this brochure. People who use violence do so as a way of controlling their partners. A woman who has been assaulted may come to believe that she can have no control over her life and that her ability to make decisions is flawed. To help her feel more confident and regain control over her life:
Let her know that there are no simple solutions but that change is possible. The first step is to look after her safety.
- Point out different options available to your friend, and help her to evaluate each one. Your role as a friend is to support, not rescue.
- Allow her to decide which option is best for her. If you strongly disagree, remember that it’s her life, not yours.
- Let her know that you’ll stand by her no matter what.
Help make a safety plan
Remember: Abuse rarely occurs only once and usually gets worse and more frequent with time. Helping to develop a safety plan may be the best way to help your friend protect herself from further harm. And if she doesn’t use the plan this time, she may next time or the time after that.
A safety plan is a plan of action for when an assault occurs or is about to occur. To help your friend develop a plan which will work for her, the following information is needed:
- When do the assaults usually occur? Are they predictable?
- What does her partner do or say before assaulting her?
- Where can she go before an assault occurs to keep her and her children safe? Is there an understanding friend or relative who can provide her shelter?
- Does the presence of a third person reduce the chance that her partner will assault her? If so, can she invite someone into her home over-night?
- If she can’t get out before an assault, how can she get help afterward? Where can she go, who can she call, and how she can get herself to a safe place
You can get more information about safety planning on our website, bwss.org, or by safety planning by calling the BWSS Crisis and Intake Line, 1-855-687-1868.
The important thing is to help her develop a plan which goes in logical order from the time the assault occurs (or is about to occur) until she reaches safety.
If you are going to help me… help me to help myself.
- Please be patient while I decide if I can trust you.
- Let me tell my story, the whole story in my own way.
- Please accept that whatever I have done, whatever I may do is the best I have to offer and seemed right at the time.
- I am not “a person.” I am this person, unique and special.
- Don’t judge me as right or wrong, bad or good. I am what I am and that’s all I’ve got.
- Don’t assume that your knowledge about me is more accurate than mine. You only know what I have told you. That’s only part of me.
- P lease hear my feelings, not just my words. Accept all of them. If you can’t, how can I?
- Don’t ever think that you know what I should do. You don’t. I may be confused, but I am still the expert about me.
- Don’t place me in a position of living up to your expectations. I have enough trouble with mine.
- Don’t save me or try to “fix” my situation. I can do it myself. I knew enough to ask for help, didn’t I?
Increase your knowledge
Remember: The better informed you are, the better able you will be to help her.
- Find out more about the issue of violence against women by contacting a transition house or BWSS. These agencies can also talk with you in confidence about your friend’s situation and provide some helpful information.
- Make a list of phone numbers of agencies and individuals who can offer services to your friend. Call BWSS for more information about these services.
Taking care of yourself
Remember: There are no simple solutions for your friend. If you have a friend who is hurting, don’t ignore the violence. You may be the one link she has to a world without violence.
- Helping a friend who is in an abusive relationship is often stressful and can be dangerous. You need to look after your own physical and emotional well-being.
- Don’t confront your friend’s abusive partner about the violence. The partner will likely make it even more difficult for you to see your friend and could become violent towards you.
- Talk with resource persons about your feelings, fears, frustrations, and reactions to the abuse. You can do this without giving away your friend’s name or betraying her confidence in any way.
View the List of Transition Houses in BC
BWSS Services and Programs
- Crisis and Intake Line, 1-855-687-1868
- Counselling
- Support Groups
- Victim Services Program
- Legal Advocacy Resources and Services
- Indigenous Women’s Program
- AWARE Employment Program
- Black Women’s Program
- Latin American Women’s Program
- Thrive Program
Download the How to Help A Friend pamphlet
