# Write Where We Belong Write Where We Belong — where poetry, philosophy, Adlerian psychology, and the healing powers of art and belonging converge. Join us on the axis of grief, violence, justice and art where we gather together to create communities of change. Page: Feed: --- ## [What Were You Wearing? Documenting the Violence that Shapes the Lives of Women and Children](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/what-were-you-wearing-documenting) _2026-06-02 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ Watch now | An immersive survivor-centred documentary art exhibit curated for the Michigan Justice for Children Conference, July 29-20, 2026. [Listen](https://api.substack.com/feed/podcast/200333829/cf7060e9f4040228cd03b955502014ae.mp3) ## [Why Didn't She Just Leave? Documenting the Violence that Prevents Women from Leaving the Men Who Abuse Them](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/why-didnt-she-just-leave-documenting) _2026-05-22 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ It isn't a decision to stay. It is an attempt to stay alive. ## [Trauma like a camera flash](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/trauma-like-a-camera-flash) _2026-05-15 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ It can be so blinding that, in its aftermath, one can no longer see anything at all. ## [Without a Trace](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/without-a-trace) _2026-05-13 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ In drug-facilitated sexual assault, the evidence often vanishes before it can even be collected. ## [What Were You Wearing?](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/what-were-you-wearing-24e) _2026-05-12 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ How a single question became a global survivor-led movement for change ## [A look inside the Church's "playbook for concealing the truth.” What it really knew about the abuse of children. What it chose to hide. And how that concealment was engineered & achieved for decades.](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/a-look-inside-the-churchs-playbook) _2026-05-09 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ The main thing was not to help children, but to avoid "scandal." - 2018, Pennsylvania grand jury. ## [Clergy abuse records don't tell the whole story. They don't talk about grooming. The way entire families were lured into believing grown men kissing little girls was normal.](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/the-records-of-priest-abuse-in-chicago) _2026-05-08 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ Because obedience is itself part of the architecture. And why so many of us didn't know we could say no. ## [Because child abuse is not "seduction." A scouting storyboard from the "What Were You Wearing?" exhibits.](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/because-child-abuse-is-not-seduction) _2026-05-07 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ It is predatory grooming and coercive control by an adult in a position of authority for the purpose of committing sexual abuse against a child. Calling it seduction implies collaboration. It is not. ## [The credibility of our truths will not be defined by the limits of anyone else's imagination or what "makes sense" to them.](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/the-credibility-of-our-truths-will) _2026-05-06 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ In the case of Robert Hadden, it took the limits of just one woman’s imagination to allow a predator who had already been taken into custody unfettered access to vulnerable women. ## [Home of the Agentic Pull Request (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/liV7Wm6mC7KD) _2026-05-06 · **Sponsored**_ CLI-first, TUI-ready toolkits and a moshscript installer — join the waitlist ## [Because art matters, and great art is inspirational](https://marysimmerling.substack.com/p/because-art-matters-and-great-art) _2026-05-06 · Mary Simmerling, Ph.D._ A poem inspired by "namesake" by Tianyi Li