When ‘it doesn't happen here’ isn't true

Recognizing domestic violence in our rural communities

Oct 7, 2026
3 hrs ago

Colleen Stegenga

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Colleen Stegenga

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and every year I find myself circling back to the same conversation with clients, neighbors and friends here in rural South Dakota: the quiet assumption that abuse is a "city problem." That it happens somewhere else, to someone else, in a life that doesn't look like ours.

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Colleen Stegenga, LCSW-PIP, QMHP, is the founder of Embracing Change Counseling Services, a telehealth and in-person private practice based in Mount Vernon, South Dakota, serving agricultural and rural communities across South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska. She can be reached at 605-306-6383 or through www.embracingchangecs.com.