03/12/2025
💜 A Therapist’s Take on the GBV Crisis in South Africa
As a mental health practitioner, the numbers coming out of South Africa aren’t just statistics;
they are a mirror reflecting the depth of collective trauma women are carrying.
Fifteen women losing their lives to gender-based violence every single day is not just a crime issue.
It’s a psychological emergency.
It means entire communities are living in chronic fear.
It means girls are learning early that love may come with danger.
It means survivors are navigating trauma with very little societal support.
The Purple Movement rose from the ground up because the emotional weight became unbearable.
Women were no longer grieving privately.
They transformed their pain into public protest.
They turned timelines purple, lay on the ground for 15 minutes, marched through streets,
and forced the world to confront a truth many preferred to avoid.
From a therapeutic standpoint, this movement matters because:
💜 Trauma heals in community.
When survivors see others standing with them, their shame decreases and their voice strengthens.
💜 Collective protest interrupts collective silence.
Silence is where abuse grows. Visibility is where healing begins.
💜 Public solidarity restores a sense of safety.
In unsafe societies, movements like this create psychological safety, even before policies change.
But the deeper question remains:
How do we build a society where women do not have to survive?
Where girls do not have to calculate their safety?
Where trauma is not the inheritance passed down through generations?
As a therapist, I can say this with certainty:
Ending GBV isn’t just about policing,
it’s about culture, healing, accountability, and teaching boys and men emotional responsibility.
Women are speaking.
They’re rising.
They’re painting the continent purple to remind us that their lives are not optional.
May this be more than a moment.
May it be the beginning of a healed society.