EMMA DAVEY, MSc
Hi, I’m Emma.
I’m Emma Davey, founder of The CCR Hub and My Trauma Therapy, an MBACP trauma-informed counsellor, and a survivor of coercive control myself. I hold an MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control from the University of Salford, and I’ve spoken about coercive control with BBC News, Sky News and Channel 5. But before any of that, I lived it.
My story
In 2015, I found myself inside a relationship that slowly took away my sense of who I was and, unfortunately, nearly took my life twice. What began as a relationship gradually became a cycle of control, fear and emotional turmoil that I struggled to understand, let alone escape.
I knew deep down that if I stayed, I might not survive. Eventually, I made the incredibly difficult decision to flee to Australia, putting thousands of miles between myself and my abuser in an attempt to break the trauma bond that I knew was eventually going to kill me.
Leaving physically was only the beginning. I soon realised that escaping an abusive relationship and becoming free from its psychological hold are two very different things. I had to begin the painful process of understanding what had happened to me, rebuilding my sense of self and learning to trust my own thoughts and instincts again.
That experience changed the direction of my life. What was once one of the darkest periods I had lived through eventually became part of the reason I wanted to understand trauma, abuse and the invisible bonds that can keep people trapped in harmful relationships.
I share my story not because I want to be defined by what happened to me, but because I know how lonely and confusing abuse can feel from the inside. If sharing even a small part of my experience helps someone recognise what is happening to them, feel less alone, or believe that a different life is possible, then telling my story has a purpose.
Back in the UK, many times, I reported what had happened to the police and spent 3 and a half years navigating the criminal justice system. In the end, I achieved a criminal conviction against my abuser, and he received a 19-month prison sentence for coercive and controlling behaviour in 2022.
I know what it’s like to sit across from a police officer and not know where to start. I know the exhausting, frightening work of trying to fit years of psychological abuse into a few paragraphs, for someone who wasn’t there to understand. That experience, more than any qualification, is why The CCR Hub exists. ‘I brought my controlling and abusive ex-partner to justice’ – BBC News
Listen here for my whole story with Liam Tuffs
Listen here for my whole story with Ella McCrystal
Podcast with
Lisa Sonni
I was a guest on The Dr Ramani Network
Why I built The CCR Hub
Going through the system myself and later supporting clients through it in my counselling practice showed me the same gap again and again: survivors of coercive control are rarely believed straight away, rarely given the language for what happened to them, and rarely met by professionals who understand the difference between coercive control and a single incident of violence.
The CCR Hub exists to close that gap for survivors trying to make sense of their experience, and for the professionals, like police, social workers, and CAFCASS, who are often the first people a survivor turns to.
Why education matters
One belief sits underneath everything I do: education is a huge part of recovery, and it’s the piece most survivors are never given. You can leave a relationship, even go through years of therapy, and still not fully understand what happened to you, why it worked, or why you responded the way you did. That gap keeps people stuck in self-blame long after the relationship itself has ended.
So, alongside the therapeutic support, everything I build here the Community, the Courses, the Workbook, my own sessions is designed to teach you what coercive control is: the tactics, the patterns, the psychology behind why it works. Understanding what happened to you, in plain language, isn’t a nice extra. I believe it’s core to genuinely recovering from it, not just surviving it, and it’s the part I see missing almost everywhere else in this space.
What I bring to this work
- MBACP trauma-informed counsellor
- MSc in the Psychology of Coercive Control, University of Salford
- Six years running My Trauma Therapy, an established specialist counselling practice
- National media experience — BBC News, Sky News, Channel 5, BBC London Radio, Closer Magazine, The Sun, The Daily Mail Online, That’s Life, The Dr Ramani Network When Emma Davey met Ashley Southgate in 2015, she was on “cloud nine”. Within a week of them dating, he told her he loved her, and within a month was talking about marriage, children, and their rosy future together. Although she did not realise it at the time, Emma, who lived in Kent but has since moved to Essex, was in the grip of a coercive or controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship. Details of organisations offering information and support with domestic abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline or you can call for free at any time to hear recorded information on 0800 888 809. | BBC Essex | Facebook
- Lived experience as a survivor, including navigating the criminal justice system to a conviction
A note from me to you
You are not making it up. You are not overreacting. What happened to you was real. And you are not alone.
With love and solidarity,
Emma Davey
Founder, The CCR Hub
MSc Psychology of Coercive Control · MBACP Trauma-Informed Counsellor. Survivor