Domestic Violence & Abuse therapists

About domestic violence & abuse

If you are in immediate danger right now, call 911. If you need to talk to someone confidentially about domestic violence, the National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7: call 1-800-799-7233 or text START to 88788. The Hotline can help with safety planning, shelter, and immediate resources in your area in over 200 languages.

Domestic violence and intimate-partner abuse take many forms. Physical violence is the most recognized, but emotional abuse, coercive control, financial abuse, sexual coercion, isolation from family and friends, and digital surveillance can each cause severe and lasting harm — sometimes more lasting than physical injuries. Patterns often build slowly, and many people don't recognize what's been happening to them until they're well into it. If something in your relationship feels wrong and you can't quite name it, your instinct is worth trusting.

Therapy for survivors of abuse is most useful when there's a baseline of safety — physical safety from the person who harmed you, and the psychological space to focus on healing rather than survival. If you're still in the situation, the most important therapy work is usually safety planning, which a specialized advocate (through the Hotline above or a local DV organization) can do alongside or before traditional therapy. Some therapists in this directory are trained in trauma-informed support during this earlier phase and can coordinate with advocacy services.

Once you're out, therapy works on the aftermath: trauma symptoms (often meeting criteria for PTSD), the identity reconstruction that follows getting out of a controlling relationship, the grief and complicated feelings (including, often, missing the person who hurt you, which is normal and not a sign you should go back), and rebuilding the trust in your own judgment that long-term abuse can erode. Common approaches include trauma-focused CBT, EMDR, Internal Family Systems, and longer-arc relational work.

For people who have been on the other side — who have used violence or control in relationships and want to stop — different specialized programs exist. Some clinicians here work in batterer intervention or specialized anger work. Reach out via the matching form if that's what you're looking for; that's a different track from survivor support.

Therapists in this directory who specialize in abuse survivorship have the training to do this work safely. They will not push you toward decisions about your relationship; they will help you build the clarity and resources to make your own.

If you're in danger, please call 911 or 1-800-799-7233 before browsing the directory.