Christina Huffman comes from a scientific background. For her, numbers matter and they tell stories. Part of her own life story is captured in an alarming statistic: 50% of trans women will experience Domestic Violence at some point in their life.

Christina is a survivor of two abusive relationships. She dives deep into her own personal pain to share with us how the abuse manifested in each – one of which was overtly physical and the other primarily showed up in emotional and financial control. Christina also explores how being a transgender woman was weaponized by an abuser and required careful consideration as to whether she could seek protection from the police.

What we hear from Christina is a common refrain among survivors: When you are being hurt, your first instinct is simply to make the pain stop. So, you do what you have to in the immediate to survive; to stop the pain. It’s also not the most painful instance which causes you to leave, but rather the point where you finally say, “Enough.”

A lesson that Christina hopes everyone takes from her experience is that recovery from abuse is a long road. Be patient with survivors. Give them grace; give them support; give them time. For Christina, it took more than a year, going to therapy, and the death of a friend – the sister of the podcast host – to finally say the “A word:” Abuse.

Resources that Christina would like to share include:
- Wendt Center for Loss and Healing (located in Washington, DC): https://www.wendtcenter.org/
- The Trevor Project: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/