Does your partner belittle you, call you names and minimise your feelings? How to recognise emotional abuse

Emotional abuse in intimate relationships often flies under the radar, or is seen as less serious than physical abuse, but the scars it leaves can remain with victims for years

Emotional abuse is non-physical, abusive behaviour that can include coercive control. Picture: Getty Images/iStockphoto

Amy Mulvaney

“There’s always the assumption with abuse and domestic violence that there has to be physical abuse there, that there has to be a mark or a bruise. But actually, abuse can happen without any physical abuse at all.”

This is the message about emotional abuse that Women’s Aid wants to bring to the fore in Ireland.