Welcome to Decoding Us™ DFV Awareness Education Powered by HCCA
Decoding Us™ helps people look beyond the obvious signs of domestic and family violence and better understand the behaviours that can be harder to recognise. Through education and practical examples, we explore when everyday relationship behaviours may begin to cross the line into manipulation, restriction, coercion or control — including patterns that can be disguised as care, concern, jealousy or protection. The aim is to help people recognise patterns, understand the role of power and control, and feel more confident identifying when something in a relationship may not be okay.
Healthy Connection
Explore what respect, trust, communication, boundaries and individuality can look like in healthy relationships.
Understanding the Signs
Learn to recognise unhealthy patterns, manipulation, coercive control and behaviours that can be mistaken for care.
Know What's Right for You
Build confidence in identifying your needs, values, boundaries and dealbreakers — because relationships aren’t one-size-fits-all.
Understanding Domestic & Family Violence
Educational webinars exploring the patterns, behaviours and impacts of domestic and family violence.
Domestic and family violence is not always easy to recognise. It does not always involve physical violence, and controlling or abusive behaviours can sometimes appear subtle, confusing or even ordinary when viewed in isolation.
HCCA’s educational webinar series explores domestic and family violence, coercive control and related forms of abuse through accessible, trauma-informed education. Each webinar focuses on a different topic and can be attended individually.
Seeing the Unseen
Understanding Non-Physical Abuse & Coercive Control
Abuse does not have to leave a bruise to have a profound impact.
This one-hour webinar explores how seemingly small behaviours can combine to create patterns of power, restriction and control.
We’ll explore:
● What coercive control can look like in everyday life
● How seemingly small behaviours can form a pattern
● Control disguised as care or concern
● Spoken and unspoken rules within relationships
● The role of power, restriction and fear
● Why non-physical abuse can be difficult to recognise
Who Is It For?
Victim-survivors, friends and family, informal supporters, community members and anyone wanting to understand domestic and family violence better. No previous knowledge or experience is required.
The webinar combines research, professional knowledge and lived-experience insight to make complex patterns easier to recognise and understand.
Future Topics
The Hidden Playbook — Understanding Manipulation .
Explore common manipulation tactics, how they can influence decisions and behaviour, and why they can be difficult to recognise within a relationship.
When Reality Gets Rewritten — Understanding Gaslighting.
Explore gaslighting, reality distortion and patterns that can cause someone to question their memory, judgement or perception of events.
Care or Control? — When Concern Becomes Restriction.
Explore how care, jealousy, protection or concern can sometimes cross into monitoring, restriction and control.
Why Don’t They Just Leave? — Understanding the Complexities of Leaving.
Explore the emotional, practical, financial and safety barriers that can make leaving an abusive relationship difficult — and why separation can sometimes increase risk.
After Leaving: When the Abuse Doesn’t End — Understanding Post-Separation Abuse.
Explore how abuse and control can continue or change after separation, including harassment, intimidation and ongoing attempts to maintain control.
When Money Becomes a Weapon — Understanding Financial Abuse.
Explore how money, employment, debt, property and access to resources can be used to restrict independence or maintain control.
Someone Told Me They’re Being Abused. What Do I Do? — Responding Safely to Disclosures.
Practical, trauma-informed guidance for responding to someone experiencing abuse — including what can help, what can unintentionally make things harder and why listening without judgement matters.
Webinar Details
Format: Live online via Zoom
Duration: 1 hour
Cost: $35.00
Personal Disclosure: Never Required
Dates: Coming Soon
Certificate of Completion
Participants who attend the full webinar will receive a digital Certificate of Completion from Decoding Us™ | HCCA.
About The Facilitators
HCCA’s webinars are developed by Linda Awramenko West, Founder of Holistic Care Counselling & Advocacy (HCCA), and delivered in collaboration with Emma Newman-Muller.
Emma brings experience in youth support, facilitation and team leadership to HCCA. She leads HCCA’s girls’ youth programs and works alongside Linda to deliver community education and webinars. Her approach is trauma-informed, giving her a strong understanding of the importance of safety, choice, respect and meeting people without judgement. Emma brings a warm, practical and approachable style to facilitation and is particularly passionate about creating safe and supportive spaces.
With a background in counselling, youth work and trauma-informed practice, Linda has a particular focus on domestic, family and sexual violence, coercive control and victim-survivor experiences within service and justice systems. She is currently undertaking postgraduate study in sexual violence prevention, response, law and justice.
Together, Emma and Linda bring complementary experience, perspectives and strengths to HCCA’s programs, with a shared commitment to making education around domestic, family and sexual violence accessible, respectful and grounded in real-world understanding.
Need Support?
This series provides education and information and is not a crisis or emergency service.
Emergency — 000 If you or someone else is in immediate danger.
1800RESPECT — 1800 737 732 National domestic, family and sexual violence counselling and support, 24/7.
DVConnect Womensline — 1800 811 811 24/7 Queensland domestic and family violence crisis support.
Lifeline — 13 11 14 24/7 crisis support.
