Karen McAndless-Davis and Jill Cory are friends and colleagues who share a deep compassion and respect for women who have experienced abuse.
Together, they bring over three decades of experience to their work. They bring together solid research, counseling experience and personal accounts to help women make sense of their relationships.
Their unique women-centred approach helps women reflect on their experiences to gain new understanding. The profound insights of a highly effective group counseling program are now available to any woman who reads When Love Hurts.
Jill began working with women in abusive relationships at the Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter in the early 1980s. After moving to Vancouver, she researched women’s experiences in leaving abusive relationships. For the following seven years she developed and facilitated counseling programs for women and their abusive partners. Jill currently works at B.C. Women’s Hospital and Health Centre supporting staff who respond to women experiencing abuse. Jill lives with David, her partner of 24 years, and their two children, Becky and Ben.
Karen’s passion for this issue comes from personal experience. Her partner, Bruce, was abusive for the first ten years of their relationship. After several years of hard work (involving both group and individual counseling), Bruce changed his abusive behaviour and the beliefs underlying his actions. Karen and Bruce have now been happily married in a relationship of trust and respect for over ten years. They have two children, Luke and Isaac. While Karen experienced abuse, she participated in a group counseling program. The support and encouragement that Karen received in this group kindled her desire to help other women living with abuse. For many years now, she has provided individual and group counseling to women in various communities. She also travels widely to provide training on the women-centered approach presented in “When Love Hurts.”