10/27/2025
💜 October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month
This month is a reminder that intimate partner violence isn’t something that happens “somewhere else” — it is here, in our neighborhoods, among the people we love, and sometimes behind closed doors we never realized were unsafe.
In Durango, our community is grieving deeply. In month of October, we have lost three lives to intimate partner violence across two separate incidents — two separate households forever changed, families shattered, and a community still holding these losses with heartbreak and anger. These tragedies are not statistics. They are people whose light should still be here. Their absence is a call to collective action and care.
Domestic violence does not always look like physical harm — it can also be coercive control, isolation, financial restriction, psychological manipulation, “walking on eggshells,” threats toward children or pets, immigration-related intimidation, and more. If something feels off in your relationship and you’re questioning your own safety, you are not overreacting. Your experience matters. Safety matters.
A note from me, professionally and personally:
As a psychotherapist, it is sacred work to walk beside people in cycles of harm and healing. In honor of DV Awareness Month, I completed a continuing education course this October specifically focused on current standards in intimate partner violence care, including:
🔹 Risk assessment
🔹 Safety planning
🔹 Intervention confirmation
🔹Trauma-responsive support that does not unintentionally increase danger
I remain committed to being a safe space — one where clients can talk about complex relationships without judgment, pressure, or shame. You are never “overreacting” for wanting peace in your own home. You never have to prove harm to deserve safety.
💜 If you or someone you love is navigating an unsafe relationship, please know there is help, even if leaving isn’t possible right now. Safety is a journey, not a moment — and you do not have to walk it alone.
You matter. Your safety matters.
Our community is holding the lost with tenderness — and fighting for the living with care.
