Dr. Mei-Ling Ellerman
Background Description:
I am a coercive control expert, researcher, legislative advocate, and advocate. I am the Research and Advocacy Fellow on Domestic Abuse and Coercive Control with the Center for Global Development and Sustainability at Brandeis University, MA. I work directly with survivors, domestic violence coalitions, advocacy groups, and legislators to educate on coercive control and improve protections for adult and child survivors. I am trained as a DV Advocate and have been trained as an Expert Witness by the renowned coercive control expert, Dr. Lisa Fontes. I have also fulfilled the 24 hour staff training requirement for conducting abuser education programs.
I have conducted research projects on coercive and controlling dynamics for over 20 years, funded in part by Fulbright funding, the David L. Boren NSEP Fellowship, and UNESCO. For 10 years, I have dedicated myself exclusively to research on domestic abuse/coercive control.
My first domestic abuse research project on the experiences of survivors of color was conducted in collaboration with my organizational partners, the Asian Task Force against Domestic Violence (ATASK), Casa Myrna Vazquez, and the Mass Law Reform Institute (MLRI). Once the opportunity to pass new domestic abuse legislation arose, I put aside my research to work collaboratively with other advocates, survivors, state coalitions, and advocacy groups to support the successful passage of Massachusetts’ first coercive control legislation.
I also study domestic abuse and pro-abuser legislation across the US, and work with policy experts.
Availability for Clients in 2026:
I am only available for 1 hour consults and other short-term work through mid-June. I will resume working with clients in August, and will be available to teach my 4 hour law enforcement trainings on coercive control and the 209A in the Fall. I work one-on-one with survivors who need to clearly document their and their children’s experiences of coercive control for Family, District, or Criminal Courts. For example, they may need a clear narrative for a restraining order; they may need to be able to describe the coercive control violations of their restraining order to the Court and police; or need a statement for their hearing/trial describing the forms of abuse and control they and especially their children have experienced.
Current Projects in 2026:
Abusive Litigation research based at Brandeis University. On behalf of the TRAC statewide coalition, I am studying survivors’ experiences of abusive litigation in MA, and have been sharing the research findings with legislators in support of an Act relative to Controlling and Abusive Litigation.
I won the Byrne JAG Federal Grant in collaboration with the Wayland Police department, to create a model to train the police and community on coercive control and the 209A. I have piloted my police training in Wayland with 12 town police represented, and will hold the community training in June.
2025:
I created a 4-5 week 13 hour training for women survivors of coercive control, and taught it multiple times. I hope to return to teaching this course again, but am focused on research and advocacy work at present.
What is Coercive Control?
Coercive control is a term that can be used interchangeably with domestic abuse, but it is also a framework or model that explains the complex and sometimes seemingly contradictory dynamics of domestic abuse. Abusers rely on a constellation of tactics to frighten, traumatize, isolate, threaten, confuse, control, and harm their adult and child victims. They often also use coercive control over their children, in large part to harm and control their safe parent.
These tactics could involve categories of abuse such as: psychological abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, financial abuse, legal abuse, immigration abuse, faith-based abuse, animal abuse, and many more. And abusers may try to make their victims change any given aspect of their daily lives from how they walk, talk, eat, have sex, clean, drive, care for their children, to how they work. They may control their victims’ time, movements, communications, resources, access to support, and may blame and discredit their victims in different arenas outside the home. Their tactics tend to change post-separation, because of reduced access to their adult victim, and this is when they tend to target the children more directly.
The button above will take you to a video recording of one of Dr. Lisa Fontes’ presentations on coercive control, which Dr. Ellerman hosted.