I'm the Family Violence Doctor™

I make family violence everyone's business, challenge the everyday talk that fuels family violence, and show how everyone can help combat it. I love working with wellbeing leaders who want a research-based speaker and coach to shift societal culture from rescue to care.

A management / business consultant by trade (RSA & NZ qualified), researcher, author, speaker, coach—I now dedicate my retirement life to educating the public (school, university & community qualified) about the dynamics of domestic (DV) / intimate partner (IPV) or family violence (FV).

I spent the past 27 years of living in New Zealand turning the philosophy of family violence into day-to-day strategies for building resilience and sustainable wellbeing (PhD thesis, Waikato Uni), using both law and lore in family dispute resolution (Master's thesis, Awanuiārangi Uni), and founding it on client experiences of protection orders, parenting orders, relationship property division, and separation agreements—in and out of the courtroom.

I'm a woman who rebuilt her life after cultural displacement, gendered expectations, sacrificial relationships, and financial losses. I survived cancers, miscarriages, and the grief of losing an unborn child, yet raised two strong daughters with unwavering presence and love. I reinvented myself across countries, identities, and eras—from professional success to being seen as “just a mother,” and now to running an e‑business in a world that didn’t exist when I was born. I'm a woman who learned to speak up through a heavy accent, who carries pain without numbing it, who studies history to break its cycles, and who lives simply, gratefully, and with care for the land. I'm someone who shaped her own identity, confronted inherited beliefs, admitted her mistakes, and remained brave enough to grow. Most of what I’ve done, I did without the support of parents or siblings—and still, I stand, with humour, heart, and an unbroken will to rise. #iRi$eWeRi$e

As developer practitioner of The Kruger Method®, I believe every New Zealander can help combat our invisible national disaster—family violence (55% of NZ women experience IPV in their lifetime).

Ask me How? Book me to speak at your next event or coach your team.

My signature speech:

"The opposite of Care is Rescue: The moral reorientation required to combat family violence." © 2026 Susanna Kruger

Text +64 27 538 9789 │ Email office@familyviolencedoctor.com