Understanding Resistance Among Survivors of Domestic Violence and Abuse: A Co-Produced Study in the United Kingdom

Domestic violence and abuse (DVA) is a global problem that affects approximately one in four women in their lifetime. An area of unexplored research is how women use a range of strategies to honor resistance, manage the risk, avoid abuse, and cope with the pain of DVA. Art-based methodology and interpretative phenomenological analysis approaches were used which determined seven strategies employed by women in order to survive DVA: apparent compliance; maintaining a sense of self; knowing boundaries; keeping hope in sight; imagining freedom; degrees of rebellion; and denial. This created a conceptual model for understanding DVA survivorship (The SEED Model).