[violachick8]

I am listening to the episode where you had Pat Dixon's ex girlfriend on and I am going BANANAS. The discussion that you had with Chrissie Mayr was so textbook domestic violence and I am an hour into it and I HAD TO stop because it was frustrating for me. It sounds as if Pat didn't physically hit Chrissie (or at least she didn't choose to share that information on air) but he engaged in EVERY OTHER type of domestic violence possible. He controlled her schedule, who she could talk to, and by expecting her to stay up all night what job she had. He tricked her into thinking that it was all her fault and that she was the one who was the problem. Hearing that they engaged in couple's therapy got me so ANGRY because ANY therapist worth their salt should be able to see how this is a domestic violence situation.
I know this seems very random and slanderous to say all this. It only seems that way based on the anecdotes that Chrissie shared and Pat's own words from the show he was previously on. I'm in a doctoral program in psychology and run groups for domestic violence perpetrators that they have to attend as part of their parole/probation. The goal with the groups is to get them to change the way they look at the world/their relationships so they don't abuse another partner. If I stuck Pat into one of those groups he would agree with EVERY SINGLE HORRIBLE COMMENT that the group members said. I share my "qualifications" or whatever because I wanted you to get that I'm not some random person just deciding to think this. I really think that what he did to Chrissie constitutes abuse and is horribly wrong. I hope that Chrissie gets a new therapist that does not try to blame her for her partner's actions. I wanted to email her but did not know about the appropriateness of just sending this out of the blue. I hope that sharing my opinion would ultimately do good not harm to Chrissie and other potential partners of Pat's.
I hope this was clear as I am pretty upset from listening to the podcast.