Who we are

The Domestic Violence Help Paris site was originally established in 2010 by Jill Bourdais with the encouragement of the American Overseas Domestic Violence Crisis Center (now called Pathways to Safety) to fill a gap in the English speaking community of the Paris area which lacked specific help for women dealing with partner abuse.  Thanks to the current widespread availability of online technology, our services are now open to English speaking women all over France. Besides our twice-monthly online support group meetings, we also supply information on procedures for pressing charges, names of experienced defense lawyers, finding helpful associations, child custody, and other issues most frequently encountered by women undergoing couple or family abuse.

The support group is currently run by Jill Bourdais.

 Jill

Originally from Boston, Mass., Jill moved to Paris in 1980 within the context of her marriage to a Frenchman. Her advanced degrees in Clinical Psychology – both from the U.S. and France – enabled her to work as a couple and family therapist for many years at the Hotel Dieu Hospital in Paris, while at the same time seeing clients privately. She has taught relationship skills-building classes, supervised psychology students, run therapy and support groups throughout her career, and has also been doing outreach and giving talks to many Anglophone organizations in the Paris area.