"I was isolated from my family, my phone was always checked and hidden from me … everything was always my fault."

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

This how Sheree Schonian describes being trapped in an abusive relationship for 16 years.

She was only a teenager when she met her then-partner, and his controlling behaviour quickly seeped into every part of her life.

"If my skirt was too short, or if my skirt wasn't short enough … which friends I could have, what nights I could go out, what I could eat and what I could drink," she said.

"As I got older and I started working, he then took control of my finances."

To target this form of domestic violence, the state government on Monday launched a $5 million, two-year public awareness campaign about coercive control.

The campaign includes online resources about how to identify coercive control and where to go to seek support.

"I want every Western Australian to know it doesn't have to be physical to be family and domestic violence," Premier Roger Cook said.

'Emotional scars'

Ms Schonian said this form of abuse has had a significant impact on her life.

"Because it is not physical, there are no bruises or markings on somebody that you can sort of recognise that something's happening to them," she said.

"The coercive control and the emotional abuse that comes with it, and the trauma, I believe what that does to your soul … I feel that emotional scars sort of last a lot longer and you carry that a lot more through your life and then to next relationships.

Domestic violence can have deadly consequences, with the federal government's Intimate Partner Homicide Dashboard recording the deaths of 15 women at the hands of their partner between January and June this year.

Four of those women died in WA.

This figure includes incidents where the offender has been charged with murder or manslaughter, or who died prior to arrest but who would have otherwise been charged with homicide.

There are other datasets which track violence against women, including Destroy the Joint's counting Dead Women which has recorded 50 deaths for 2024.

Move to criminalise abuse

Yet WA is one of the only states in Australia that has not criminalised coercive control.

The state government has not said when it will introduce such legislation, and there is little time remaining to do so before the end of the year.

Minister for the Prevention of Family and Domestic Violence Sabine Winton said the government was prioritising the issue.

"We will take our advice from the experts and key stakeholders to make sure when we do criminalise coercive control, victim-survivors are safe, everybody clearly understands what coercive control is and that we have successful convictions," she said.

Recent legislative reforms were also passed to make it easier for coercive control survivors to obtain restraining orders.

Awareness increases 'demand'

CEO of the Centre for Women's Safety and Wellbeing, Alison Evans, has welcomed the new campaign but is calling for more funding for support services.

"Awareness raising campaigns inevitably increase demand for specialist family and domestic violence services," she said.

"Put simply, they cannot keep up with demand. This can put women and children who are experiencing coercive and controlling behaviours at greater risk of danger."