reclaiming
Survivors speak about working to reclaim parts of themselves that they put aside or lost while in abusive relationships.
Nataija
“The thing that comes to mind is expressing my emotions, and being okay with saying no.”
Olive
“I would probably say surviving, rather than survivor. Survivor sounds past tense to me. I feel very much in the trenches. There is an element of survivor that feels defeating.”
Palmetto
“Who I am as a person in the core, and how I love, and my love language. And I had to learn to like to be around me.”
Acacia
“Every day that we wake up, we are surviving.”
Jonae
“I'm reclaiming peace, reclaiming joy, reclaiming all the things that I thought that I wasn't.”
Cedar
“Reclaiming being like myself, I guess. Not whoever anyone else wants me to be.”