Emotional wounds aren’t as easy to spot as a fresh cut or bruise. 

But once or twice a month, Dr Sumeena Qidwai will come across a red flag that alerts her to potential domestic abuse in the form of coercive control.

“That’s when I would gently ask a woman about her partner’s control over, maybe, finances or who she sees,” says the GP, who practises in Sydney’s inner west.

“It can take some time before [women] are comfortable to reveal it to you. I suppose it can be something they aren’t even revealing to their closest friends or family.”