The Power and Control Wheel was created by the Domestic Abuse Intervention Project in Duluth, MN to describe the many ways that domestic violence shows up in our lives. I encourage clients to use it to help describe the behaviors that they are seeing. For some, this gives them the clarity to finally understand what is happening. For others, it helps them talk to others, especially professionals, about the relationship dynamic that is leading them to file for divorce or fight custody.
From the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, “the wheel diagram serves as tactics abusive partners use to keep survivors in a relationship. The inside of the wheel makes up subtle, continual behaviors over time, while the outer ring represents physical and sexual violence. Thus, abusive actions like those depicted in the outer ring reinforce the regular use of other, more subtle methods found in the inner ring.”
Tina Swithin, founder of One Mom’s Battle, designed a separate wheel to describe the behaviors that protective parents see from the abusive parent once they have separated (post-separation abuse).
Behaviors on the post-separation power and control wheel include:
- Counter Parenting
- Alienation Allegations
- Neglectful/abusive parenting
- Coercive Control
- Isolation
- Harassment and stalking
- Legal abuse
- Financial abuse
