Negotiating the borderlands of agency: A narrative inquiry into voice and resilience among IPV survivors in Saskatchewan

Abstract

Background

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive public health and human rights issue, yet survivors’ agency is often framed narrowly within linear victim–survivor narratives that overlook how intersecting identities and structural constraints shape their options and responses. Objectives: To explore how women who have experienced IPV negotiate agency and reclaim voice within intersecting social, cultural, and personal borderlands of experience.

Design

Qualitative narrative inquiry informed by intersectionality and borderlands theory.

Methods

Two women living in a Canadian city, who self -identified as having experienced IPV and had been out of violent relationships for at least three years, participated in biweekly narrative conversations from August to December 2023. Analysis attended to intersecting social locations (including Indigeneity, sexuality, socioeconomic position, and professional roles) and to liminal in-between moments of safety and danger, love and abuse, dependence and resistance, silence and voice.

Results

Analysis identified three interrelated movements in women's agency over time, regressive transformation, hibernation, and progressive transformation, operating simultaneously rather than sequentially. For example, Aila's parenting decisions revealed agency constrained by child welfare surveillance yet oriented toward intergenerational change, while Artemisia rediscovered her pre-abuse self through old journals and art, illustrating hibernated agency gradually re-emerging.

Conclusion

This study challenges linear victim–survivor models of recovery by conceptualizing agency as a dynamic, relational process shaped by intersectional locations and borderland spaces.

Plain language summary

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is abuse by a current or former partner. It affects millions of people worldwide and causes serious, lasting harm to physical and mental health. Much of what has been written about this issue focuses on the moment a survivor leaves an abusive relationship, as if that single decision defines their experience. But surviving abuse is far more complicated than that. This study shares the stories of two women in Canada, called Aila and Artemisia, who experienced IPV. Over five months, each woman had in-depth conversations with the researcher about their relationships, how they coped, and how they rebuilt their lives. Their stories were analyzed paying close attention to how factors like race, sexuality, economic situation, and personal history shaped their experiences in unique ways. Three patterns emerged from both women’s stories. First, over time, abuse gradually wore down their confidence, independence, and sense of self. Second, both women went through periods of going quiet and suppressing their feelings and opinions. This was not out of weakness, but as a way to stay safe. Third, both women slowly began to rediscover themselves, often through small acts like setting a boundary, speaking up, or imagining a different future. Importantly, these were not neat, one-after-another stages. The women moved back and forth between all three at different times and in different parts of their lives. This research challenges the idea that recovery is a straight line from victim to survivor. It shows that strength looks different for every person. Support services need to respect that complexity rather than expecting women to follow a single path to healing.

Introduction

Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains one of the most pervasive violations of human rights globally, affecting millions across geographic, cultural, and socioeconomic contexts. Defined as physical, sexual, emotional, psychological, or economic abuse perpetrated by a current or former partner, IPV continues to be recognized as a critical public health concern. ¹ Its impacts reach far beyond immediate physical harm, exerting profound and sustained effects on survivors’ mental health, social relationships, economic stability, and overall well-being.^1–4 Furthermore, IPV is associated with PTSD, depression, anxiety, substance use, chronic illness, and demonstrates negative effects on children’s health and development.^4–6 These harms are not uniformly distributed, but are powerfully mediated by intersecting identities and systemic inequalities, as well as by how survivors’ autonomy and agency are conceptualized in response to violence. When agency is framed primarily as a linear progression from victim to survivor, the many constrained, quiet, and creative ways women resist, endure, and rebuild become invisible.

Intersectionality and IPV

Understanding IPV requires moving beyond individual acts of violence to recognize how layered social positions, including race, socioeconomic status, disability, sexual orientation, education, and migration status, shape vulnerability, help-seeking, and recovery.^7–9 Intersectionality theory was built on the foundational work of Kimberlé Crenshaw ¹⁰ and expanded through subsequent exploration and analyses.^11–13 It has become central in IPV scholarship for revealing how these positions interact to produce unique barriers and invisible forms of violence among marginalized and minoritized groups. Recent Canadian data demonstrate that visible minority women, women living with disability, immigrants, and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals each face distinct challenges that are often obscured when IPV is viewed through a singular lens. ¹⁴ Intersectionality illuminates how factors like race, class, sexuality, and trauma history interact to shape vulnerability, access to support services, coping strategies, and resilience among survivors. ¹⁵ Empowering survivors requires recognizing that strategies for restoring agency and autonomy must embrace these intersecting identities to be truly effective. Effective responses must therefore foreground systemic inequalities while honouring individual and collective survivor experiences. Responses must also underscore the need for policy, practice, and research to adopt intersectional, trauma-informed, and multidisciplinary frameworks in both prevention and intervention efforts. While intersectionality provides a powerful lens for understanding the social positions that shape survivors’ experiences, it does not fully capture the lived quality of inhabiting those positions simultaneously and in tension. For this, a complementary framework is needed.

Borderlands theory: A dual approach

Borderlands theory, developed by Gloria Anzaldúa, ¹⁶ explores the psychological, spiritual, and social spaces that exist at the intersection of different social positions and identities. Anzaldúa contends that “a borderland is a vague and undetermined place created by the emotional residue of an unnatural boundary. It is in a constant state of transition” ¹⁶ (p. 13). Where intersectionality names the social positions that shape survivors’ experiences, borderlands theory attends specifically to the liminal, in-between spaces where those positions are actively negotiated, spaces of both/and rather than either/or, and constant transition rather than fixed identity. ¹⁶ For IPV survivors, borderlands are the spaces where safety and danger coexist, where love and abuse are not easily separated, and where autonomy and dependence are simultaneously felt. These borderlands can include the psychological and emotional space between recognizing abuse and taking action, the social space between isolation and community support, and the intergenerational space between learned expectations and personal empowerment. Borderlands theory recognizes that survivors often inhabit multiple, overlapping spaces simultaneously, ¹⁶ each presenting distinct challenges and opportunities for agency and resilience. Importantly, recovery is rarely a clean passage from one state to another but rather an ongoing negotiation within and across multiple borderland spaces at once.

Reconsidering agency in IPV

Agency, often used interchangeably with empowerment or autonomy, refers to the capacity of survivors to act autonomously and make their own choices. ¹⁵ In the context of IPV, agency is often framed as the ability of those affected by violence to make decisions that change their lives, even when constrained by abusive relationships.^15,17–19 This involves both intrinsic agency, the internal capacity to understand one’s rights and self-worth, and instrumental agency, the ability to take actions that influence one’s situation. ¹⁸ In much of the existing IPV literature, agency is conceptualized primarily as a singular act or endpoint, most often the decision to leave, rather than as an ongoing, constrained, and context-dependent process.^17–19 This framing renders invisible the many forms of resistance, survival, and self-preservation that women enact within and throughout abusive relationships. The enactment of agency in IPV can be heavily shaped by socio-cultural and economic barriers and is best understood, not as an individual attribute but, as something deeply embedded in social and structural contexts. ²⁰ Women often exhibit agency in ways that are not immediately visible, acting with intentionality even within abusive relationships. Understanding how and why agency takes these constrained and often invisible forms requires a framework that attends to both structural position and lived negotiation. Together, intersectionality and borderlands theory provide exactly this, recognizing the complexity of survivors’ experiences and offering a more dynamic lens through which to understand how agency is lived, lost, and reclaimed over time. This paper reports findings from a narrative inquiry with two women survivors of IPV in a Canadian city, analyzed through the lenses of intersectional and borderlands theory. The analysis identified three interrelated movements in their agentic experience: regressive transformation, hibernation, and progressive transformation, contributing a more dynamic understanding of how agency is lived, lost, and reclaimed over time.

Methodology

The methodology section outlines the approach taken to explore the narratives of women who have experienced IPV. The research focused on understanding how these narratives reveal the negotiation/renegotiation of power and agency, and how women perceive the relationship between these concepts in the context of their lived experiences. NI, as defined by Clandinin and Connelly, ²¹ offers a powerful methodological approach for exploring such phenomena through the storied experiences of women in violent intimate partner relationships. By utilizing Clandinin and Connelly’s ²¹ approach to narrative work, researchers can delve deeply into the lived experiences of survivors, uncovering rich insights that contribute to understanding how women can self-identify agency and reclaim power in violent relationships. The relational nature of NI makes it particularly suitable for working with survivors of IPV, fostering a trusting relationship between the researcher and the participant, while also building the participants’ confidence and capacity rather than dependence. The collaborative and co-constructed nature of the narrative, as emphasized by Clandinin and Caine, ²² allows for a more authentic representation of the survivors’ experiences. This study draws on NI and narrative resonance to, first, look across two narratives using intersectionality and borderlands theory and, second, to situate both narratives within theoretical and evidentiary realms. The guiding research question was: How do survivors of IPV negotiate agency and reclaim voice within intersecting social, cultural, and personal borderlands?

Narrative resonance

The concept of resonant threads in NI and qualitative research refers to the recurring patterns or connections that emerge from participants’ narratives. ²³ These threads are not meant to signify universal or generalizable experiences; rather, they are context-dependent, as highlighted by Vandermause, ²⁴ who emphasizes that qualitative findings are often influenced by the specific circumstances of the participants involved. According to Stavrou, ²⁵ these threads “emerge from the stories viewed across a life” (p. 16), indicating a holistic and longitudinal perspective that captures the intricate patterns spanning individual narratives. This approach facilitates the appreciation of the complexity of human experiences as they unfold over time, rather than reducing them to static themes. ²⁶ Such insights have the potential to inform policy, practice, education, and future research in ways that are responsive to the lived realities of those whom research aims to understand and support. An example of a resonant thread running across both women’s narratives was self-silencing. This was represented by the gradual suppression of voice, opinion, and self-expression through journeys of IPV. For one participant, self-silencing functioned as a survival strategy within violent relationships and was later re-encountered as a pattern to consciously unlearn. For another, it appeared as the discarding of her authentic self under coercive control, and its reversal became central to her recovery. Tracing this thread across both stories revealed self-silencing as simultaneously a form of harm and a form of protection. This particular work is based on the interim research texts of an NI doctoral study. The full stories are available as a data set, upon request, and are summarized in the findings section below.

Participants and setting

Consistent with NI’s commitment to depth over breadth, this study prioritized sustained relational engagement with a small number of participants over wide representational sampling. The aim was not thematic saturation but narrative richness supporting a longitudinal, co-constructed understanding of each woman’s story across time and context. This inquiry took place in a mid-western Canadian city with a population of approximately 250,000. Participants were women over the age of 18 who self-identified as having experienced violence in one or more past intimate partner relationships. To prioritize participant safety, only those who had been out of violent relationships for at least three years were invited to participate. Participants were recruited via postings on local social media platforms of organizations that either directly provide support for IPV or that offer widespread support services to at risk women. These organizations will not be named here to further ensure participant safety. Recruitment materials generated a small number of inquiries (n=6). Of these, two women met all eligibility criteria, expressed sustained interest, and were available to engage in multiple in-depth conversations; no eligible participants were excluded. The composition of the sample emerged from this recruitment process rather than from a priori quotas or diversity targets.

Participants engaged in bi-weekly, audio-recorded conversations, each about 90 to 120 minutes. There were a total of eight conversations over the course of five months, from August to December 2023. These conversations focused on the participants’ experiences of IPV. The meetings took place in locations chosen by the participants, ensuring a safe, comfortable, and confidential environment suitable for discussing sensitive topics. The use of NI prioritized the careful co-construction of individual stories rather than breadth or representativeness. ²² The time-intensive nature of this work makes two participants appropriate and consistent with established NI practice. ²³ The goal was not saturation of themes but richness of narrative, allowing for sustained engagement with each woman’s story across time. ²³

Ethics

Procedural ethics encompassed informed consent, confidentiality, privacy rights, and protecting participants from harm. ²⁷ This study was reviewed and approved by the Behavioural Research Ethics Board at the University of Saskatchewan (Project #4055). All participants provided written informed consent prior to any data collection. During the consent process, participants were provided a full description of the research process, both verbally and in writing, paying attention to explaining measures for protecting participants’ confidentiality. The voluntary nature of their participation was emphasized, and participants were informed of their right to withdraw parts of their contribution or leave the study at any time, without need for explanation or fear of penalty. The start of each session included a review of the consent and a check-in with each participant.

Given the sensitive nature of IPV, the study also incorporated explicit safety and trauma-informed safeguards in addition to formal ethical approvals. ²⁸ Although all participants had been out of violent relationships for at least three years, conversations were scheduled at times and in locations chosen by the women to minimize any risk of contact with, or surveillance by, former partners, and communication about the study was kept discreet. At the start of each session, the author reviewed consent, checked in about current wellbeing, and reiterated that participants could pause, skip questions, or stop at any time without affecting their honorarium, which was provided at the outset to avoid any sense of economic pressure to continue. Distress was monitored throughout via ongoing dialogue and attention to verbal and non-verbal cues. In one instance, when a difficult memory surfaced, the author, a cisgender female registered nurse, responded by slowing the pace, offering grounding strategies, and collaboratively deciding whether to continue, reschedule, or shift focus. The author’s background as a registered nurse likely facilitated participants’ trust in discussing health, trauma, and bodily experience, and may have oriented attention toward physical and psychological manifestations of abuse. The author actively monitored her own reactions throughout by maintaining a reflective journal and seeking informal peer debriefing after particularly difficult conversations to reduce the risk of a professional lens narrowing the analytic space. A referral plan for counseling and community support was in place, and participants were offered information about resources regardless of whether visible distress occurred, recognizing that reactivation of trauma may emerge after, not only during, research encounters.

From field text to research texts

Narrative inquiries use a variety of field texts as a means for data collection,^21–23 all of which have a degree of interpretation involved. For this inquiry, the author relied on journalling and field notes, as well as the bi-weekly conversations with each woman. ²³ Conversations replaced the formal research interview as a means of data collection, permitting in-depth probing, and the development of mutual trust without the inherent inequality imposed by the research interview. ²² There was no formal interview guide, rather the author engaged with some guiding ‘wonders’ ²¹ to focus on creating a relational space where the women would feel safe to share their storied experiences. These topics included stories of what brought them to their relationships, how they supported themselves throughout, stories of leaving and recovery, and other stories of empowerment and control throughout the IPV journey.

Data analysis

Clandinin and Connelly describe data analysis as the development of interim research texts that are positioned between field texts and the final, published research. ²¹ As such, this data analysis proceeded through an iterative, multi-step NI process that emphasized immersion, reflexivity, and resonance rather than theme saturation or categorization.^22,25 The analysis began with an in-depth immersion into transcripts that were read multiple times to develop an embodied sense of each woman’s story. These readings informed the construction of narrative accounts for Aila and Artemisia. Each account wove together field texts, transcripts, and contextual details into a coherent, co-constructed story.^22,23 Journal entries from the conversations with each woman were referred to extensively to integrate author’s reactions, thoughts, and emerging understandings, especially in relation to how the theoretical frameworks were applicable. This approach acknowledged and accounted for the author’s influence on interpretation, as emphasized in NI. ²⁸

Once interim narratives were developed, they were subjected to open coding that focused on participants’ own language around voice, agency, safety, coercive control, intersections of identity, and moments of tension or contradiction. ²⁹ The author served as the sole coder throughout, though credibility was enhanced through member checking with both participants as well as informal peer debriefing with a colleague. Coding involved the use of highlighters, notes, and analytic memos to label key concepts, ideas, and experiences within each narrative. This was followed by focused coding to discern patterns, connections, and relationships between codes, with particular attention to commonalities and tensions in the women’s experiences of abuse, the erosion and re-shaping of agency, and their own conceptualizations of agency. The alignment and misalignment of these commonalities and tensions with broader dynamics of power and control were carefully considered, with the goal of tracing threads of narrative resonance.^25,30 Both participants reviewed and commented on their written stories and selected analytic interpretations, leading to refinements in how key experiences and expressions of agency were represented. This is consistent with collaborative approaches in NI.^21–23 For example, initial written narratives described a process of leaving primarily in terms of individual decision-making; feedback from both women prompted a revision that more centrally foregrounded the role of their support network, ultimately shaping how the progressive transformation movement was framed in this paper.

The analysis was guided by two theoretical frameworks including intersectionality ¹⁰ and borderlands theory. ¹⁶ Intersectionality informed how intersecting identities shaped each woman’s experience, with intersections noted in relation to gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, trauma history, social support, and race (recognizing this list as non-exhaustive). ¹⁰ Borderlands theory was used to identify liminal, in-between spaces ¹⁶ where participants negotiated safety, autonomy, and resistance. Borderland moments were noted where tensions in thoughts, actions, or experiences were evident; for example, wanting to leave an abusive relationship while feeling unable to do so, or feeling controlled yet simultaneously demonstrating resistance. Through additional rounds of coding and memo-writing explicitly focused on intersectionality and borderlands theory, these theoretical lenses helped illuminate how intersectional locations and borderland moments shaped experiences of constrained, hibernating, and emergent agency. The three movements identified in this study, regressive transformation, hibernation, and progressive transformation, emerged inductively through iterative cycles of open and focused coding, analytic memoing, and narrative resonance tracing across both women’s stories. They were not imposed as a priori categories but coalesced during focused coding rounds informed by intersectionality and borderlands theory. These connections between participants’ accounts of eroding autonomy, strategic withdrawal, and gradual self-reclamation became analytically coherent across both narratives. These movements were subsequently refined through member checking and interpreted in light of existing literature on coercive control, self-silencing, and posttraumatic growth. The reporting of the study conforms to the COREQ statement. ³¹

Two journeys unfold: Findings in pursuit of agency

The findings below are presented in three parts. First, a summary of each woman’s narrative is provided. Subsequently, an overview of each woman’s intersections and then borderlands are presented separately, highlighting the crucial aspects of their experience of IPV and agency. These findings reflect an overall perspective on the women’s journeys throughout IPV and the various other factors that intersect and overlap along the way. The following summaries present each woman’s story as it unfolded across our conversations.

Aila’s story

Aila’s story is one of resilience, transformation, and hope in the face of profound adversity. Born in Western Canada, Aila experienced a childhood marred by abuse and neglect. From the age of five, she and her sister were separated from their father and lived with an aunt and uncle who subjected her to physical and sexual abuse. Despite these hardships, Aila’s love for her sister became her anchor, driving her to protect and care for her younger sibling. As Aila grew older, the lack of positive relationship models and her traumatic experiences led her into a series of abusive relationships. She had children early and struggled with addiction, perpetuating a cycle of violence and dysfunction. One particularly violent relationship became a turning point in Aila’s life. During this time, she encountered two individuals who would play crucial roles in her journey to recovery: a persistent police officer and a compassionate victim services worker. Aila reflects on this period, saying:

You're teaching a little child that love has hurt and is uncomfortable, right? But it's normal. And that's okay, so then growing up to teenage years, right? Same thing. Just normal, right? Everybody goes through this kind of stuff.

The support and persistence of these individuals helped Aila begin to see herself differently and imagine a life free from violence. She recalls the impact of the victim services worker:

When I met her, just being able to say how I was feeling or going out and not having to answer for it and all these things that people don't take for granted. I didn't have to answer to anybody or explain where I'm going or what I'm doing, how long I'm going to be, and all of that stuff just started like overwhelming me.

In her 30s, after the violent event, Aila’s life took a positive turn. She went through detox, maintained sobriety, and even attended university. While her relationships were not perfect, she began to challenge the deeply ingrained belief that love must hurt. Aila’s focus shifted to breaking the cycle of violence for her children, teaching her daughters to use their voices and her sons to treat others with respect. Today, Aila radiates compassion and kindness despite her traumatic past. She has developed coping mechanisms to deal with flashbacks and triggers, focusing on breathing and grounding techniques. Her story is a testament to the power of resilience, the importance of support systems, and the possibility of breaking generational cycles of trauma and abuse.

Intersections

Table 1 illustrates the intersectional aspects of Aila’s experiences with IPV as an Indigenous woman. The table effectively demonstrates the complex personal, social, and institutional factors in the context of IPV, highlighting the unique challenges and strengths that emerge from these intersections in Aila’s life story. For Aila, Indigeneity is inseparable from childhood trauma, poverty, and child welfare involvement, shaping both her exposure to violence and her constrained options for help-seeking. As an Indigenous mother who had been in care and who then parented under child welfare scrutiny, mistrust of systems and fear of losing her children structured her decisions to remain silent or delay disclosure. This fear manifested in Aila’s specific decisions to minimize contact with authorities and delay disclosure even when violence escalated. At the same time, Indigeneity, kinship, and parenting grounded her efforts to break intergenerational cycles and teach her children different ways of relating.

Table 1.

Aila’s intersections.

Aspect	Intersection	Description
Identity	Race and Gender	Indigenous women face compounded risks from both racism and sexism in IPV contexts.
Socioeconomic Factors	Poverty and Abuse	Economic hardship increased Aila’s vulnerability to abuse in childhood and adulthood.
Family Dynamics	Motherhood and Survival	Parenting influenced Aila’s motivation to break cycles of violence and teach healthy relationships.
Coping Mechanisms	Substance Abuse and IPV	Substance use served as both a trauma coping strategy and heightened vulnerability to ongoing abuse.
Cultural Resilience	Indigenous Identity and Healing	Reconnecting with cultural roots supported Aila’s recovery and empowerment. Resilience in the face of historical and ongoing oppression.
Institutional Support	Justice System and Personal Agency	Interactions with police/Victim Services shaped Aila’s ability to seek help and assert personal agency.

Borderlands

Table 2 illustrates various aspects of borderland experiences in Aila’s life story, showcasing the complex intersections of cultural identity, trauma, and personal growth. These examples highlight how Aila navigated the liminal spaces between different cultural norms, coping mechanisms, and personal identities, demonstrating the multifaceted nature of Indigenous experiences in Canada.

Table 2.

Aila’s borderlands.

Borderland	Example from Aila’s story
Cultural Fluidity	Navigated life both on/off reserve, adapting to conflicting cultural norms.
Intergenerational Trauma	Child of residential school survivors, caught between tradition and colonial disruption.
Addiction and Sobriety	Moved between using substances to cope and seeking healing in sobriety.
Victimhood and Survivorship	Protected family while enduring abuse, embodying both vulnerability and resilience.
Silence and Voice	Transitioned from feeling silenced to speaking out and reclaiming her story.
Past Trauma and Future Hope	Teaching her children healthier values, aiming for transformative change.

Artemisia’s story

Artemisia’s story is a powerful narrative of resilience, self-discovery, and survival in the face of IPV. As a young woman in her university years, Artemisia found herself targeted by a predatory classmate who quickly ensnared her in an abusive relationship. Despite her prior knowledge of violence in relationships, she recalls she initially failed to recognize the signs in her own situation. The relationship began with intense love bombing, making Artemisia feel cared for and special. However, it soon devolved into a cycle of control and isolation. Her abuser dictated every aspect of her life, from the media she consumed to her appearance and social interactions. Artemisia recalls a pivotal moment when she sent a selfie to her boyfriend, only to be berated, leading her to discard items that represented her true self.

Throughout her ordeal, Artemisia maintained a core of agency and resilience, which she describes as a hibernating part of herself. She emphasizes the crucial role of a support network in her ability to leave the relationship and recover. Family, friends, and understanding colleagues provided the safety net she needed to escape and rebuild her life. Years after leaving her abuser, Artemisia faced a frightening reminder of her past when he attempted to contact her through various online platforms. This experience underscored the ongoing challenges and fears many survivors face, even long after leaving abusive relationships. Reflecting on her journey, Artemisia discovered that her true self had remained intact despite her abuser’s efforts to change her.

Artemisia’s story concludes with powerful insights into the complexities of preventing IPV and the importance of systemic change. She acknowledges the deep-rooted societal issues that contribute to abuse cycles while maintaining hope for progress through research, policy changes, and increased awareness. In her final thoughts, Artemisia offers encouragement to other survivors:

As we walk towards this world, I would want everyone like me, who is navigating abuse, or working on healing, to take comfort in their resilience, to know they are powerful, they are worth it, and they can … survive and thrive, while their abuser rots inside.

These words capture the ongoing psychological reckoning that shapes post-separation recovery, in which reclaiming power is inseparable from reorienting one’s relationship to the abuser.

Intersections

Table 3 illustrates a nuanced exploration of intersectionality in Artemisia’s experience with IPV as a queer woman with a professional background in gender-based violence prevention. The table illustrates how Artemisia’s unique position challenges common assumptions about IPV while also revealing the multifaceted nature of survivorship and resilience in the face of gender-based violence.

Table 3.

Artemisia’s intersections.

Aspect	Intersection	Description
Knowledge	Education & Survivor Experience	Her expertise in gender-based violence reveals that being informed does not prevent abuse and can add unique barriers.
Coping	Trauma, Identity & Resilience	Art, personal history, and trauma intersect in her journey to reclaim resilience.
Community	Social Support & Recovery	Strong support networks were essential for her safety and recovery.
Advocacy	Personal Narrative & Societal Change	Sharing her story connects individual experience to broader policy and social awareness.

Borderlands

Table 4 explores the concept of borderlands in the context of Artemisia’s journey through IPV. It illustrates various dimensions where Artemisia experienced liminality, existing between different states of being or identity. These borderlands represent the complex psychological and social spaces that Artemisia navigated, highlighting the multifaceted nature of recovery and self-discovery after trauma.

Table 4.

Artemisia’s borderlands.

Borderland concept	Description in Artemisia’s journey
Identity Fragmentation	Navigated between true self and identity imposed by abuser; struggled to maintain core self.
Professional Knowledge vs. Personal Experience	Balanced expertise in violence prevention with lived experience as a victim.
Reclaiming Identity	Rediscovered suppressed aspects of self after leaving abuse.
Silence vs. Speaking Out	Shifted from silence to empowerment by sharing her story.
Vulnerability vs. Strength	Moved between victimhood and survivorship with support networks.

Discussion

Employing intersectionality and borderlands theory facilitated a heightened relational understanding of the complexities of participant journeys, illuminating both shared commonalities and unique tensions. These narratives were situated within established evidence and theory while remaining grounded in lived experience, offering a nuanced understanding of how women negotiate agency, reclaim voice, and live with the enduring legacy of violence. The women’s stories were critical to understanding survivor experiences as an ongoing, non-linear process of agency rather than a singular shift from victimization to empowerment.^15,32 Many of the concepts heard from the two women were about voice, self-advocacy, and finding the strength to speak up and stand up toward reclaiming their sense of self. Both Aila and Artemisia struggled with a loss of voice, control, and decision-making ability but, through their journeys and small steps toward reconnecting with their authentic selves, they felt aspects of their agency had been regained.

Across Aila’s and Artemisia’s stories, these shifts in agency appeared as a patterned, yet fluid, circulation between erosion of autonomy, strategic withdrawal, and gradual re-emergence of self. Both women described periods of deep regressive change in which autonomy and self-esteem were worn down, alongside moments of hibernation marked by self-silencing, emotional numbing, or going quiet to minimize harm. They also showed early signs of progressive transformation through small acts of refusal, boundary-setting, and future-oriented imagining. The women continued to move back and forth among these states, sometimes experiencing them simultaneously in emotional, economic, and relational domains, and these patterns persisted well after their abusive relationships had ended. Framing their stories through these intertwined movements makes it possible to attend to subtle forms of intersectional, constrained, protective, and emergent agency. ³³ These forms of agency may be obscured by more linear models of recovery, or by terminology that emphasizes either victimization or empowerment but not their co-existence. ³³ This integrated lens underscores that survivors’ paths are multidimensional and non-linear, shaped by intersecting identities and borderland locations, and continually re-negotiated over time in relation to violence, support, and structural conditions.^10,16

Within this broader pattern, one recurring movement in both narratives can be understood as a form of regressive transformation. Regressive transformation captures the gradual erosion of autonomy, self-esteem, agency, and personal boundaries. Perpetrators employ various tactics that are designed to degrade and manipulate, leading to a loss of identity and independence.^34–36 These coercive control tactics used by perpetrators are often subtle and cumulative, making them difficult to recognize and resist. These tactics can include emotional abuse, economic control, social isolation, and threats.^34–37 Over time, these behaviors create a climate of fear and dependence, where the survivor’s “space for action” (p. 59) becomes increasingly restricted. ³⁵ This constriction of personal freedom is not limited to physical constraints but extends to psychological and emotional realms, as well. Kirkwood’s ³⁸ research identifies six psychological responses to emotional abuse, including degradation, fear, and objectification, which collectively distort the victim’s self-perception and sense of agency. ³⁹ Both women experienced a loss of voice and decision-making ability because of this regressive transformation. Artemisia found herself unable to express her authentic self, while Aila described letting others control her actions and thoughts. This loss of autonomy is a key feature of regressive transformation, as it makes it increasingly difficult for survivors to recognize and resist the abuse.

The impact of regressive transformation can be profound and long-lasting. Survivors often report feeling helpless, powerless, and unable to make decisions for themselves. ⁴⁰ This loss of agency is particularly damaging as it undermines the survivor’s ability to seek help or leave an abusive relationship. Constant exposure to abuse and control can also lead to changes in brain structure and function, affecting areas responsible for decision-making, emotional regulation, and stress response, ⁴¹ thereby further entrenching feelings of entrapment and incapacity. For both women, the effects of regressive transformation extended beyond their immediate relationships, shaping their capacity to envision a future free from abuse and to imagine themselves as agents in that future.

A second intertwined movement discerned from the stories can be described as hibernation. Hibernation captures a psychological and relational state in which survivors enter a period of self-silencing and emotional withdrawal as a survival strategy in the face of ongoing abuse. Marked by practices such as denial, avoidance, mental disengagement, and the suppression of one’s own needs and desires, hibernation allows survivors to minimize conflict, reduce immediate risk, and preserve what remains of their emotional resources. ⁴² Conceptually aligned with self-silencing, this “loss of voice” (p. 766) occurs when women mute their self-expression to preserve harmony and maintain their romantic partnerships, even when doing so requires disavowing their own perceptions and priorities. ⁴³ Within IPV, such self-silencing functions as a trauma response and can be understood in relation to the freeze response, where minimizing visibility and affective presence becomes a means of survival.^44,45

The stories of Aila and Artemisia illustrate hibernation as both protective and costly. As a protective mechanism, it allows the survivor to conserve emotional energy and reduce the immediate threat of abuse. By withdrawing and becoming less visible, survivors attempt to avoid triggering their abuser’s anger or control tactics. ⁴⁶ Artemisia explicitly described hibernation as a state in which parts of herself were not destroyed but hibernating, dormant yet preserved, later rediscovered through old journals and lists that testified to a still-intact inner self. Aila’s narrative similarly revealed periods of profound withdrawal and silence during intense abuse, reflecting an inward retreat that shielded her from further harm while allowing a core self to endure. In situations where overt resistance might lead to escalated violence, self-silencing becomes a way for survivors to maintain a sense of inner autonomy, even as their external freedoms are restricted. ³⁶

While hibernation may offer short-term protection, it can have significant long-term consequences for the survivor’s mental health and sense of self. Prolonged self-silencing can lead to depression, anxiety, and further loss of self-esteem. ⁴⁰ It can also make it more difficult for survivors to recognize the full extent of the abuse they are experiencing, as they become accustomed to suppressing their own perceptions and needs.^47,48 The state of hibernation can persist even after the abusive relationship has ended. This prolonged state of withdrawal can complicate the recovery process, making it challenging for survivors to rebuild their sense of self and reclaim their voice. Both stories underscore how hibernation, while protective, can have long-lasting effects. Artemisia’s struggle to reconnect with her authentic self and Aila’s challenges in unlearning harmful relationship patterns show how the impact of hibernation can persist even after leaving abusive situations.

Running alongside regressive transformation and hibernation was a third movement that can be understood as progressive transformation. Progressive transformation refers to the gradual process through which survivors reclaim agency, autonomy, and self-identity in the aftermath of, and sometimes during, abusive relationships. This trajectory often involves repeated cycles of growth, setbacks, and renewed progress, reflecting both the enduring impact of violence and the resilience of survivors. ⁴⁹ Building on work that describes the negotiated expansion of self in IPV, ⁵⁰ progressive transformation includes a future orientation in which women begin to articulate desires, aspirations, and possibilities beyond the abusive relationship. Artemisia’s ability to envision a future beyond her abuser, even during the worst times, exemplifies this emerging capacity for self-advocacy and future-focused imagining.

A central feature of progressive transformation is the rebuilding of self-esteem and self-efficacy through small acts of resistance, boundary-setting, and self-assertion. This process aligns with the concept of post-traumatic growth, where positive psychological changes occur as a direct result of adversity and trauma.^49,51 As survivors start to recognize the abusive nature of the relationship and trust their own perceptions, they may re-engage with supportive networks, take concrete steps toward safety or independence, and challenge internalized negative beliefs.^40,49,52 Aila’s story demonstrates how transformation can occur even after decades of experiencing abuse, highlighting the resilience and capacity for growth inherent in survivors. Progressive transformation, therefore, is not a singular endpoint but an ongoing, uneven journey of reclaiming voice, re-inhabiting one’s body and story, and re-making a life shaped, but not determined, by the legacy of violence. ⁵³

Taken together, these three movements operate less as stages and more as interwoven strands of women’s agentic experiences. In this study, the terms regressive transformation, hibernation, and progressive transformation function as empirically grounded, theoretically informed analytic categories that emerged through iterative engagement with the interim research texts, coding, and narrative resonance, rather than as a priori stages imposed on survivors’ experiences.^21,29 While they draw on existing constructs such as coercive control, entrapment, and self-silencing, these categories extend current language by emphasizing survivors’ shifting space for action over time, the ways in which agency can become both constrained and preserved, and the non-linear character of recovery.^34–36,43 Rather than discrete, sequential phases through which all survivors progress in a uniform way, they are best understood as overlapping and co-existing states that can be experienced simultaneously in different areas of life.

Limitations

This study has several limitations that should be considered when interpreting the findings. The sample consisted of two women living in one mid-sized Canadian city, both of whom had been out of violent relationships for at least three years and were willing to engage in sustained, in-depth conversations about their experiences. While this depth of engagement is consistent with NI, it means the findings are not transferable in a generalizable sense and may not reflect the experiences of women who are still in abusive relationships. Further, it may not reflect the experiences of women who face greater barriers to participation, or whose intersectional identities differ from those of the two participants. The recruitment process relied on social media postings through support organizations, which may have reached women who were further along in their recovery and already connected to services, potentially limiting the range of experiences represented. As the sole researcher and coder, the author’s positionality as a cisgender woman and registered nurse was present at every stage of data collection and analysis. A health-oriented disciplinary lens may have sharpened attentiveness to psychological and embodied experience while casting less light on dimensions of the women’s stories that fall outside clinical frameworks, including cultural, spiritual, and relational ways of knowing. These influences were actively monitored through reflexive practice, though they cannot be fully accounted for.

Recommendations for action

This study highlights that supporting survivors of IPV requires both concrete practice changes and broader structural shifts that honour narrative, intersectionality, and borderlands of experience. Practitioners should invite narrative, rather than yes/no, disclosures.^54–56 For example, asking survivors to describe a usual day, what makes things safer or less safe, and what has helped them endure can reveal constrained and hibernating forms of agency that checklist assessments may miss. Practitioners can also then listen carefully for cues related to constrained agency,^57,58 for example, “I have no choice”, and respond by collaboratively identifying small yet realistic options for safety and choice. This approach facilitates an authentic interaction without pressuring disclosure or confrontation, thereby respecting survival driven decisions while gently widening the space for action. Hibernation and self-silencing, for example, keeping the peace, should be recognized as a survival strategy^43,59 rather than as a sign of passivity. When validating such hibernation strategies, using gentle, narrative questions can surface what has helped survivors endure and reframe those practices as skills and strengths rather than deficits. When emergent agency appears through future-oriented talk, small refusals, or new help-seeking, these steps should be explicitly named and affirmed. The next small, concrete action can then be co-created with the survivor,^55,60 such as contacting a trusted person, documenting incidents, or exploring a specific support. Each step can be framed as part of an ongoing, non-linear process of reclaiming voice and power. Across constrained, hibernating, and emergent states, practitioners and services can consistently offer options for peer-led, narrative-based, and culturally grounded supports. These might include culturally appropriate healing spaces, ⁶¹ queer-affirming groups, ⁶² and arts-based programs. ⁶³ Allowing survivors to choose what feels safest and most resonant aligns practice with intersectional and borderlands-informed understandings of safety and belonging. ⁶³

Conclusion

Through the lens of NI, intersectionality, and borderlands theory, the multifaceted experiences of two survivors, Aila and Artemisia, were explored, revealing the interpretive intricacies operating among personal, social, and cultural factors that shape journeys through IPV, resilience, agency, and recovery. The journeys of both women, from silence to speaking out, demonstrate the significance of narrative reclamation in recovery. This process is shown to be both a form of personal healing and a source of insight with implications for practice and policy. Their stories reveal how survivors can maintain a core of resilience even in the face of severe abuse, and how the process of recovery often involves rediscovering and reclaiming aspects of identity that were suppressed or altered during the abusive relationship. Findings suggest policies are needed that address IPV through an intersectional lens, recognizing the diverse experiences and needs of survivors based on their unique identities and circumstances. Support services and interventions should be designed with an understanding of the complex borderlands that survivors navigate, offering flexible, culturally sensitive approaches that foster agency and resilience. Future studies should continue to explore the nuanced experiences of IPV survivors, particularly focusing on how different intersections of identity and social factors influence experiences of agency and resilience.

Author biography

Dr. April Mackey is a registered nurse and interdisciplinary scholar (BSN, MN, PhD) specializing in health equity for marginalized populations. Her community-engaged research addresses gendered violence, menstrual health, and equity-seeking communities using participatory and narrative methods. She collaborates with partners across Canada, Ethiopia, Malawi, and Brazil to advance trauma-informed, equity-oriented interventions.

ORCID iD

April Mackey https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7069-5843

Ethical considerations

This research was reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board at University of Saskatchewan (Project #4055).

Consent to participate

All interview participants provided written consent to participate in the research.

Consent for publication

All interview participants provided written consent for publication of the findings.

Data Availability Statement

The data analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.*