Episode 111 - Supporting People Impacted by Domestic Violence with Debbie Mehaffy

Trigger Warning:  This episode speaks of domestic violence. Debbie Mehaffy is an experienced Counsellor & Life Coach who specializes in the impact of trauma-related to domestic violence. Debbie has specialized in supporting women to empowerment for over 25 years and teaches about the cycle of abuse in this podcast.   As a Counsellor & Life Coach, Debbie provides healing spaces of safety, understanding and empathy, to empower you as an individual to explore the process of feeling your feelings, and to rise again from traumatic life experiences. Debbie provides one on one Life Coaching & Counselling within private practice.  She is also a licensed ‘Heal Your Life’ practitioner teaching philosophy from Louise Hay’s book ‘You Can Heal Your Life, which she integrates into all aspects of her work.  Debbie also creates and delivers personal empowerment, and mental health programs within organizations and communities.   Debbie says “The aim of my work as a Counsellor & Life Coach is to support you to a place of empowerment and healing, where you begin to believe in YOU again." Beautiful.  Visit Debbie's website: https://deborahmehaffy.com/ for more information and to view and receive wonderful resources for yourself or someone you know.  Below is the poem we speak about in this podcast: Still I Rise Maya Angelou - 1928-2014 You may write me down in history With your bitter, twisted lies, You may trod me in the very dirt But still, like dust, I’ll rise. Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom? ’Cause I walk like I’ve got oil wells Pumping in my living room. Just like moons and like suns, With the certainty of tides, Just like hopes springing high, Still I’ll rise. Did you want to see me broken? Bowed head and lowered eyes? Shoulders falling down like teardrops, Weakened by my soulful cries? Does my haughtiness offend you? Don’t you take it awful hard ’Cause I laugh like I’ve got gold mines Diggin’ in my own backyard. You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise That I dance like I’ve got diamonds At the meeting of my thighs? Out of the huts of history’s shame I rise Up from a past that’s rooted in pain I rise I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, Welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear I rise Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear I rise Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave, I am the dream and the hope of the slave. I rise I rise I rise.