Ivette Attaud

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Domestic Violence, Domestic Abuse And Healing Expert

Ivette Attaud Quick Facts

Main Areas: All issues surrounding domestic violence and abuse; healing from the effects
Career Focus: Author, Motivational Speaker, Workshop Facilitator
Affiliation: My Life My Soul, The Unspoken Journey of Life After Domestic Abuse

Ivette Attaud was born and raised in Harlem and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1984. Within a year after graduating, she married her high school sweetheart and moved to Fort Bragg, North Carolina and for the next five years endured a verbally and physically abusive marriage. While living in North Carolina, she gave birth to three daughters, including a set of twins born 3 months prematurely after a violent physical assault by her abuser. After 5 years of violence, abuse and a suicide attempt, Ivette took her two surviving daughters, returned to New York and was divorced by the time she was 23.

While raising her 3 children as a single parent, she managed to run a successful floral design and wedding planning business while working a full-time job for 6 years before realizing what her true passions were – public speaking and helping others.

Ivette broke her silence after 18 years of suffering from the effects of the abuse, including severe depression and chronic post-traumatic stress disorder and began her transition from victim to victorious. Realizing how difficult but empowering the healing journey is and without finishing college, she combined her talent for public speaking along with her ability to use her personal experience as a teaching tool to become a motivational speaker and social entrepreneur. In October 2008, with the support of The Church of the Resurrection, she founded and launched My Life My Soul, The Unspoken Journey of Life After Domestic Abuse.

Ivette has served on the Battered Women’s Justice Committee of Voices of Women Organizing Project in New York as well as contributed research regarding law guardians to their report Justice Denied: How Family Courts in NYC Endanger Battered Women and Children, and received a Certificate of Completion in Victim Assistance Training from the New York State Office For Victims of Crime. She has received numerous awards for speaking at various events, facilitated a domestic violence and abuse training for Chaplains, and talked to teens in various high schools about dating violence.

She has written a book about her experience, My Life My Soul, A Woman’s Story of Surviving, Healing And Thriving After An Abusive Relationship, to be published in April 2011. Her article, entitled Surviving The Loss of A Child was recently published in Spotlight On Recovery Magazine.

From 2008 to 2010, Ivette successfully produced and hosted My Life My Soul Talk Radio, a community awareness project of My Life My Soul, a weekly internet radio show centered on raising awareness and encouraging healing from the effects of violence and abuse. The show became highly popular, with over 12,000 national downloads as of September 2010. Beginning in 2011, My Life My Soul will launch the following projects:

Changing The Face of Domestic Violence, One Person At A Time a weekly 12-part webinar series that focuses on general domestic violence education and awareness, including safely helping others in abusive relationships without jeopardizing your own safety.
You Are The Architect Of . . . You – Building The Life You Want, One Brick At A Time, also a weekly, 12-part empowerment webinar series designed to encourage, motivate and inspire others to move past fears in order to move forward.
Survivors United Against Teen Dating Violence is a community-based response to teen dating violence. This program is a diverse and creative community approach where survivors of all types of abuse reach out to New York City and New Jersey High Schools with our powerful and compelling life experiences to talk about dating violence and healthy relationships, and to help schools introduce and/or facilitate a teen dating violence training/curriculum.

Other Programs & Highlights

My Life My Soul Talk Radio has been instrumental in not only raising awareness about domestic violence and abuse, but providing a vehicle for others to share their story.

Developed and facilitated a workshop for Community Mediation Services staff in Queens on maintaining a level of sensitivity towards clients who experience domestic violence and abuse;

Facilitated two educational workshops in conjunction with the United Chaplains, State of New York for members of the clergy as well as lay people on dealing with domestic violence in their congregations;

Visited various high schools and colleges in New York City and New Jersey to talk to students as well as parents about Teen Dating Violence;

The core missions of My Life My Soul is to empower survivors of abusive relationships through open discussions on how domestic abuse affects their lives; to explore issues not openly talked about that survivors face after leaving their abuser; to eliminate isolation; to exchange valuable information and provide emotional support; to explore individual self-image and reinforce self-confidence. My Life My Soul also empowers, encourages, motivates and inspires others to use their voice to not only speak out against domestic violence and abuse, but to work together to make a positive difference.

From 2008 to 2010, My Life My Soul Talk Radio openly discussed all issues surrounding domestic violence and abuse, with over 12,000 downloads. Some of the issues discussed on My Life My Soul Talk Radio included:

Domestic Violence In The Military

Violence in Same Sex Relationships

Domestic Violence In The Congregation

Dads as Positive Role Models for Their Children

Pregnant Women and Domestic Violence

Survivors Turned Authors Discussing Their Book

Teen Dating Violence

Loving Again After Abuse

Healthy and Unhealthy Relationships

Loving Yourself

Non-Custodial Parents and Child Support – Are The Laws Fair?

My Life My Soul Talk Radio featured guests from across the country, including:

Barbara Bentley (Northern California), Survivor and Author of A Dance With The Devil, The True Story of A Marriage To A Psychopath. Shortly after appearing on My Life My Soul Talk Radio, Barbara appeared on Dateline NBC to discuss her book;

Wendy Behary, Founder and Director of The Cognitive Therapy Center of New Jersey;

Kay Briggs (Austin, Texas), Survivor and Author of The Magic Seashells, From A Sea Of Darkness To An Ocean Of love, Healing, Depression And Childhood Abuse;

Eldonna Fernandez, MSgt, USAF Retired (California), Survivor and Co-Author of Heart Of A Military Woman;

Tiffiney Penn (Pennsylvania), Survivor, Author and Founder of the Soul Survivor Foundation;

David Ilan (Southern California), Celebrity Artist of Point With Purpose;

Keith Whitt, Producer of Taken Into Custody. This is his story of how the courts denied him the right to obtain custody of his infant son when his son’s mother abandoned the baby with her parents.

Part 1 of My Life, My Soul - Surviving, Healing And Thriving After An Abusive Relationship has just been released! You can read an excerpt and purchase your copy at www.mylifemysoul.com

Favorite Quotes & Thoughts from Ivette Attaud

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself. ~Harvey Fierstein

Your own words are the bricks and mortar
of the dreams you want to realize.
Your words are the greatest power you have.
The words you choose and their use establish the life you experience.

~ Sonia Croquette ~ world-renowned author, storyteller, vibrational healer, and six-sensory spiritual teacher