By applying her cultural sense of self and incorporating a case study, the author’s reflective work examines family violence and the compulsive and seductive aspects of so-called “victim blaming” which, she contends, operate as a defence against institutional anxieties experienced and borne by individual practitioners. In this reflective piece the author considers family violence, and aspects of domination described above from my lived experience as an indigenous woman, and as a migrant from the Global South. She also incorporate a social work case study from an Aotearoa New Zealand context to further explore cultural aspects of family violence or domination.