THOMSON, Deborah

Deborah Thomson, with her daughter, moved to Tasmania in 2010. She now lives here with her partner of nine years and a parrot.

Deborah escaped domestic violence and, inspired by her now partner, she wrote her first book Whose Life Is It Anyway? Recognising and Surviving Domestic Violence to help others recognise abuse (in particular coercive control) in the home and to increase their motivation to leave earlier.

After publishing her first book, Deborah became a trained advocate through Engender Equality, for survivors of family violence. As part of the advocacy, she speaks at domestic violence events across Tasmania, through media channels and podcasts. Link to an example of her advocacy work Choking, non-fatal strangulation to become standalone offence in Tasmania under planned law – ABC News

Deborah has recently completed her second book, a follow up to the first which detailed lived experience with domestic violence by her then-husband; spanning seventeen years from 1985 to 2003. This book is now used in Tasmania as an information resource for family violence counsellors and students on practicals.

The new book, soon to be published, is the final chapter in Deborah’s life with a perpetrator of family violence. Whose Life Is It Anyway? Leaving a Violent Abuser is a complex yet engaging depiction of her personal journey as a parent in a custodial battle with an abusive husband, and father of their children.  It is a story that will resonate with every parent engaging in a fight for the rights of children to feel safe and free from harm…

In her spare time, Deborah writes regularly for Forty South magazine, in the column entitled Tasmanian Voices Deborah Thomson The Family Violence Epidemic.