"I’M Still Here"

A Letter to My Children About Family Violence, Sexual Abuse, Surviving and Thriving

Im Still Here is the story of one woman who experienced the trauma and pain of child sexual abuse, sexual assault, and wife battering. She was seventeen when she married, and by the age of twenty-two, she had three children and was terrorized by her husband. She escapes the marriage after eleven tumultuous years but must leave two of her three children with their father, only to end up with a man who manipulates and dominates her. She leaves him, and years later lives with another abusive man. Elizabeth has to ask herself: why? What is it about her that draws her to abusive men? And why is her behaviour so troublesome to her?
Through several forms of therapy by many therapists and reading self-help books, she begins to understand her thinking, her behaviour, and her physical ailments from the time she was a child. Finally, in one year, she took a monumental step in self-awareness by writing her memoir, Im Still Here. During research and writing this book, she discovers, the process has become a yearlong therapy session, and she is the client and the therapist. Im Still Here helps her understand how her life experiences molded who she has become based on science and her life. And hopefully, my story will provide insight for those struggling with trauma from family violence or sexual abuse, and, for Victim Assistants and first responders.