How Anna Coutts-Trotter is helping other survivors of abusive relationships

After being in an abusive relationship as a teenager, Anna Coutts-Trotter is on a mission to help other survivors of abuse.

Anna Coutts-Trotter says conversations with fellow survivors of abuse led to her founding the Survivor Hub, a survivor-led, not-for-profit organisation that supports people impacted by sexual assault.

Ms Coutts-Trotter, 23, told ABC’s Australian Story she experienced “every kind of abuse imaginable”, including violence, in her first relationship while she was still in high school.

“The abuse became worse and it became more physical,” Ms Coutts-Trotter said.

“I told myself that I wasn’t worthy because he told me I wasn’t worthy

“I started to control the way that I was eating because I thought I could control the way I looked, because that’s what he was telling me about myself.”

After leaving the relationship and telling her parents, Ms Coutts-Trotter said she decided to report the behaviour to the police.

“I was really concerned that they wouldn’t believe me,” she said.

“But I did end up speaking to the police, and the police were really helpful in helping me identify what I’d experienced.

“Even though I was still terrified and really uncertain of what it would look like, I did still decide to report and go to court.”

Ms Coutts-Trotter say she wants to be able to use her voice to make changes. Picture: Australian Story

“I thought it was an incredibly courageous thing to do, and I know that her whole motivation was to stop him hurting other people,” Ms Coutts-Trotter’s mother, federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek, told Australian Story.

But Ms Plibersek, who formerly worked in domestic violence, said if she knew “how incredibly difficult the process would have been”, she would have “begged” her daughter not to do it.

“I felt as though I was on trial,” Ms Coutts-Trotter said.

“I felt as though everything I’d done, all the ways that I’d responded, that were natural to me and natural to many other survivors, were being used against me,” she said.

Tanya Plibersek said her daughter’s actions were “incredibly courageous”. Picture: NCA Newswire/ Gaye Gerard

Ms Coutts-Trotter’s father, Michael, who was the head of the NSW Department of Communities and Justice at the time, said the experience was “immensely frustrating on occasions.”

“It feels like it’s not a fair fight,” he said.

It was at court in the days leading up to the matter that Ms Coutts-Trotter met Bek, who was in the midst of a trial against her own perpetrator.

“Bek and I spoke for a few hours about what to expect in the court process but she also spent so much time just supporting me and telling me that she knew exactly how it felt to be sitting there in my position,” Ms Coutts-Trotter said.

“I felt like she knew me at that time the best that anybody in my life knew me.”

Ms Coutts-Trotter said it was her conversations with Bek and meeting her criminology teacher, Brenda Lin, who is also a survivor, that led her, Ms Lin and two other young survivors to establishing the Survivor Hub.

“We run meet-ups, which are peer support groups, and they’re open to all survivors older than 16 years old,” Ms Coutts-Trotter said.

“Even though it’s really hard and it can be really re-traumatising, I want to be able to use my voice to make changes.”

Ms Lin said there had been an overwhelming response so far.

“Over the past 12 months, we’ve had more than 800 people register for our meet ups,” she said.