Domestic Violence Specialists, LLC

Relational harm does not begin with crisis. It begins with disconnection.

Safety and harm are not fixed conditions. They are shaped and reshaped over time by the quality of our relationships, by the stories we are told, by what our bodies remember, and by what our communities can hold. A care practice that honors this truth begins long before intervention and extends well beyond any single event.

Domestic Violence Specialists, LLC offers a community-based, trauma-informed practice that centers dignity, choice, and the deep complexity of relational life. Rather than locating harm solely in individual actions, this work situates it within a broader ecology of histories, families, physiology, and systems.

Core Orientations

This practice integrates multiple, layered frameworks:

1. Trauma-Informed Practice

• Honors the physiological, emotional, and cognitive impacts of trauma
• Draws from attachment theory and relational neuroscience to understand how early bonds shape patterns of safety and survival
• Prioritizes choice, voice, and pacing over prescribed outcomes
• Recognizes that healing happens in relationship… with self, with others, with community

2. Intersectional and Anti-Oppressive Analysis

• Understands relational harm as deeply shaped by systems of oppression: racism, ableism, colonization, patriarchy, and economic violence
• Acknowledges that what looks like “safety” to some has been a site of surveillance and dispossession for others
• Designs support that centers those most impacted, and honors cultural context, history, and resistance

3. Community-Based Responses

• Rejects oppression and control as tools for healing
• Builds accountability through relational care
• Centers interdependence and creativity

Working Within Complexity

This work is informed by research and practices that recognize how connection and harm can coexist. Healing does not require erasing that complexity. It requires learning how to hold it.

Frameworks include:

• Attachment and Relational Theory
• Neurobiology and Somatic Practice
• Transformative and Restorative Justice
• Public Health and Ecological Models of Harm

This practice does not offer easy answers. It offers deeper questions, grounded support, and tools to navigate the terrain of harm and healing with more spaciousness and clarity.

Care as Ongoing Practice

Every offering begins by asking:

• What does care feel like in this moment?
• What would support look like if it honored both agency and neurobiological regulation?
• What kind of response invites healing. Not just for individuals, but for the relationships and communities around them?

There is no single map for this work. But there are ways of traveling together, with attention, courage, and care.