Samantha existed in a controlling situation for 3 years, finally escaping in 2006.
“He’d hate me having any contact whatsoever with my mum. I would have to meet her in secret because when he found out, there were always consequences. When I went out with my girlfriend to a pub only five minutes from my house he bombarded me with so many phone calls and texts saying that if I loved him I wouldn’t leave him on his own. So I stopped going out, because it was easier.”
Samantha Billingham is a survivor, advocate, and campaigner with a focus on coercive control and institutional accountability.
About Our Founder
Samantha Billingham is the founder of SODA (Survivors of Domestic Abuse), Stronger Beginnings, and the author of The ABCs of Coercive Control
A practical framework for understanding and identifying coercive control that has been adopted in training and awareness work across multiple sectors.
Samantha delivers training to professionals and organisations, with a particular emphasis on the subtle and early signs of abuse that statutory services routinely miss. She is actively campaigning for mandatory coercive control awareness training across all sectors.
Her work is rooted in a simple principle: survivors should be empowered, not managed. Institutions should be held to account, not excused.
