Understanding • Escaping • Healing
SAFE AND SOUND
Understanding, Escaping, and Healing from Domestic Violence
Is this normal? Am I overreacting? Is it abuse if he’s never hit me?
If you’ve found yourself asking these questions, Safe and Sound
can help you recognize what is happening and begin moving toward safety,
healing, and freedom.
About the Book
Abuse doesn’t always leave bruises.
It can begin with charm and affection, then slowly shift into control—subtle looks that make you doubt yourself, comments that sting but are dismissed as “jokes,” or pressure to distance yourself from friends and family.
Over time, finances, choices, relationships, and stability can become increasingly controlled until your independence begins to disappear and the woman you once knew feels out of reach.
In Safe and Sound, advocate and licensed social worker Valerie Flanigan shines a light on the often-hidden realities of coercive control and emotional abuse. Drawing from more than 30 years of experience supporting survivors, she offers practical information to help women recognize abuse, understand patterns of power and control, and begin reclaiming their lives.
Whether you are just beginning to question your relationship or preparing to take steps toward freedom, Safe and Sound meets you where you are.
Knowledge Can Be a First Step Toward Freedom
Recognize. Understand. Reclaim.
When something feels wrong but you can’t quite name it, understanding
what you are experiencing can help bring clarity.
01
Recognize
Learn to identify warning signs of emotional, psychological, and financial abuse—including behaviors that may be easy to dismiss or difficult to explain.
02
Understand
Understand how power, control, manipulation, and coercive behaviors can operate within an intimate relationship.
03
Reclaim
Begin identifying practical steps toward greater safety, support, healing, and freedom for yourself and your children.
Inside Safe and Sound
Clarity and practical tools for moving forward.
Recognize the Warning Signs
Identify emotional, psychological, and financial abuse and understand why harmful patterns can be difficult to recognize from inside the relationship.
Understand Power and Control
Learn more about the mindset and tactics behind controlling behavior and how coercive patterns can gradually erode independence and confidence.
Think About Safety
Learn practical considerations for creating a safety plan for yourself and your children as you evaluate your circumstances and possible next steps.
Navigate Support Systems
Gain information that can help you approach legal and support systems with greater understanding and confidence.
When You’re Questioning What’s Happening
You deserve clarity about what you are experiencing.
Domestic violence is not limited to physical violence. Emotional abuse, psychological manipulation, financial control, isolation, and coercive behaviors can profoundly affect a woman’s freedom, confidence, and sense of self.
Safe and Sound was written to help women put words to behaviors that may have left them confused and questioning their own perceptions.
Valerie brings more than three decades of experience supporting survivors of domestic violence and individuals affected by childhood trauma to a resource designed to educate, equip, and help women consider their path forward.
Understanding what is happening can be an important step toward making informed decisions about what comes next.
Meet the Author
Valerie Flanigan
Valerie Flanigan
Valerie Flanigan is an advocate and licensed social worker with over 30 years of experience supporting survivors of domestic violence and individuals impacted by childhood trauma.
She is the founder of LIFT Life Coaching, Living In Freedom Today, a coaching practice devoted to helping women reclaim their power, restore their peace, and step into a life of freedom.
Your Journey Can Begin Here
Understand what’s happening.
Consider your next steps.
Move toward freedom.
If you are questioning your relationship, trying to understand patterns of control, or beginning to consider what comes next, Safe and Sound offers information and practical tools to help you move forward with greater clarity.