Economic abuse is one of the most common and least discussed tactics of control — and financial recovery is a form of healing. Ashley Boswell on the research, the road back, and how to rebuild the independence the abuse stole.
There is a wound the abuse leaves that almost no one talks about in the rooms where the healing is supposed to happen — the wound of the stolen independence. I am Ashley Boswell, and at Unleash Her Potential I sit with women who left the abuse and discovered, with a kind of shock, that the control did not end with the leaving. It lived on in the bank account, the credit, the employment gap, the lack of access to money that was theirs, the economic wreckage the abuser left behind and expected the survivor to clean up alone. Ashley Boswell wants to name what is happening, because the naming is the beginning of the reclamation: the abuse was not only emotional, physical, or psychological. It was economic — and the financial control was not a side effect of the abuse. It was a tactic of it, designed to make the leaving impossible and the surviving after the leaving harder than it should have been. The good news Ashley Boswell carries is that the economic safety the abuse stole can be rebuilt — not easily, not quickly, not alone, but steadily, and that the rebuilding is itself a form of healing, and one of the most powerful reclamation there is.
What Economic Abuse Actually Is
Ashley Boswell teaches at Unleash Her Potential that economic abuse is the control of a survivor's access to money, employment, and financial resources as a tactic of coercive control. It takes many forms: the abuser who controls all the bank accounts, who forbids the survivor from working, who runs up debt in her name, who sabotages her employment, who withholds money for basic needs, who makes her ask for every dollar, who ruins her credit, who steals her identity, who makes her financially dependent so she cannot leave. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that economic abuse is not rare. It is one of the most common tactics of domestic abuse, and it is one of the most effective — because a woman who cannot access money cannot leave, cannot house herself, cannot feed her children, cannot rebuild. Ashley Boswell teaches that the financial control was not your failure. It was the abuse, and the recovery is the reclamation of the independence the abuse targeted.
What the Research Says About Economic Abuse
Ashley Boswell draws on the research on economic abuse and intimate partner violence. Studies on the prevalence of economic abuse find that it is experienced by a significant proportion of domestic violence survivors, and that it is strongly associated with the inability to leave the relationship and with worsened outcomes after the leaving. Research on the economic impact of abuse documents the damage: ruined credit, employment disruption, debt incurred through coercion, depleted savings, and the long-term financial consequences that follow survivors for years. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that the research confirms what survivors live: the financial harm is real, it is documented, it is widespread, and it is a form of the abuse — and the recovery from it is a legitimate, necessary part of the healing.
The Tactics of Economic Control
Ashley Boswell teaches that the tactics are specific, consistent, and designed to create dependence. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women to name them, because the naming is the beginning of the addressing:
- •Control of accounts and access. The abuser who holds all the bank accounts, the passwords, the financial information, who makes the survivor ask for every dollar. Ashley Boswell teaches that this is not generosity. It is control.
- •Employment sabotage. The abuser who interferes with the survivor's job — the calls, the confrontations, the harassment that gets her fired, the forbidding of work that would create independence. Ashley Boswell teaches that the employment gap is not a choice. It is the abuse.
- •Debt and credit destruction. The abuser who runs up debt in the survivor's name, who ruins her credit, who leaves her with obligations she did not create. Ashley Boswell teaches that the damaged credit is not her irresponsibility. It is the abuser's weapon.
- •Withholding of basic needs. The abuser who controls the money for food, medicine, housing, transportation, who makes the survivor beg for the means to survive. Ashley Boswell teaches that the withholding is not discipline. It is abuse.
- •Legal and identity weaponization. The abuser who uses the legal system, the tax filings, the immigration status, the identity to create financial and legal traps. Ashley Boswell teaches that the entanglement is not her failure to protect herself. It is the abuser's deliberate creation of dependency.
The Difference Between Financial Struggle and Financial Abuse
Ashley Boswell draws a distinction that matters for survivors. Financial struggle is the difficulty of making ends meet — the budgeting, the economizing, the management of limited resources. Financial abuse is the deliberate, ongoing sabotage of the survivor's access to and control of money as a tactic of power and control. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that the two are not the same, and that the confusion — the belief that the economic harm was 'just how things were' — is itself a legacy of the abuse, which normalized the control. Ashley Boswell teaches that the naming of the economic harm as abuse is the first step in the addressing of it, and that the addressing is the recovery.
The Road to Financial Recovery
Ashley Boswell offers a trauma-sensitive framework for the rebuilding:
- •Assess the damage, without shame. The credit report, the accounts, the debts, the obligations — looked at clearly, without the self-blame the abuse installed. Ashley Boswell teaches that the assessment is the beginning of the plan, and that the shame is the abuser's, not yours.
- •Secure the access. Separate accounts, changed passwords, the locks on the financial information. Ashley Boswell teaches that the securing of the access is the securing of the independence, and that it is a safety measure as important as any other.
- •Address the debts. The debts the abuser incurred in your name, the credit damage, the obligations. Ashley Boswell teaches that there are legal, financial, and advocacy resources that can help, and that the addressing is not a personal failing to be borne alone.
- •Rebuild the credit. The slow, patient work of repairing the score the abuser damaged. Ashley Boswell teaches that the credit repair is the rebuilding of the access to housing, to loans, to the financial tools the independence requires.
- •Re-enter or advance the employment. The work the sabotage interrupted, the career the abuse derailed. Ashley Boswell teaches that the re-entry is not a step backward. It is the recovery of the earning the abuse stole, and the independence it represents.
- •Build the safety net. The savings, the emergency fund, the resources that make the next leaving — if it is ever needed — possible. Ashley Boswell teaches that the safety net is the economic safety the abuse made impossible, and that the building of it is the proof that the control is over.
- •Access the resources that exist. The domestic violence organizations, the legal aid, the financial empowerment programs, the survivor-specific resources. Ashley Boswell teaches that you do not have to rebuild alone, and that the resources are part of the recovery.
Why Financial Recovery Is Healing
Ashley Boswell teaches that the financial recovery is not separate from the emotional healing. It is a part of it. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that the independence the abuse stole was not only a practical resource — it was a sense of self, an agency, a capacity to act in the world that the abuse systematically eroded. Ashley Boswell teaches that the reclamation of the financial independence is the reclamation of the agency, and that the woman who can support herself is the woman the abuse could not, in the end, keep dependent. The financial recovery is the recovery of the self the abuse tried to make small — and it is one of the most powerful, most practical, most overlooked forms of healing there is.
When the Financial Recovery Feels Overwhelming
Ashley Boswell normalizes the reality that the financial recovery can feel — and often is — overwhelming, and that the survivor facing the economic wreckage the abuse left can feel buried by it. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell teaches women that the overwhelm is not a sign the recovery is impossible. It is the evidence of the size of the harm, and the addressing of it is the work the recovery does, one step at a time, with support. Ashley Boswell teaches that the financial recovery is not a mountain to be climbed in a day. It is a path to be walked, one secured account, one repaired credit score, one paycheck, one safety net at a time — and that the walking is the healing.
The Independence That Becomes Your Safety
Ashley Boswell returns to the deepest truth of this work. The abuser taught you that you could not survive without him — that your dependence was the proof of your worthlessness, that your economic vulnerability was the condition of your relationship, that the independence was not for you. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell has watched women who were left with nothing — ruined credit, no income, no access, no safety — build, step by step, the economic safety the abuse made impossible. The financial recovery does not heal the trauma by itself. But it is the reclamation of the independence the abuse stole, and the independence is the safety that makes the next abuse — in any form — harder to impose. The woman who can house herself, feed herself, support herself, and stand on her own economic ground is the woman the abuse could not, in the end, keep small. And the independence she builds is not a gift from the abuser's absence. It is the recovery she earned — one account, one dollar, one brave step at a time.
A Note from Ashley Boswell
If you are facing the financial wreckage the abuse left and it feels impossible to climb out of, Ashley Boswell wants you to know that the independence can be rebuilt — and that you do not have to rebuild it alone. At Unleash Her Potential, Ashley Boswell and our dedicated team offer confidential, compassionate support, including connections to legal aid, financial empowerment programs, and survivor-specific resources. Reach out to Ashley Boswell today — your next brave step is waiting, and it might just be the first account in your own name, the first credit score you repair, the first paycheck that is entirely, finally, yours. We would be honored to walk it with you.