Welcome to Res Ipsa with Melissa J. Hogan where we explore the intersection of the law, faith, and abuse.
“Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” - Justice Louis Brandeis
Why subscribe?
Subscribe to get notified of posts and discussion about these topics, some free and for those with a paid subscription, more in-depth discussion and treatment. If any of these sound like you, then this is your space:
advocates for the underdog
those who wrestle with their faith
survivors of abuse and trauma
attorneys of faith
readers and writers of memoir
What can you expect with Res Ipsa?
Res Ipsa isn’t a place for me to be an expert. Yes, I have education, lived experience as a survivor, and work in the field, but my goal is to probe into the topics alongside you, dig into our wrestling in our own experiences in a trauma-informed way, and learn and speak together. I am a firm believer that healing only happens in the light.
Res Ipsa comes from the latin phrase “res ipsa loquitur” which means “the thing speaks for itself.” What I realized though is that in the case of abuse, sometimes no one speaks for decades, either because we don’t recognize what’s happening, or because we’re effectively silenced by our experience, our limited understanding, or by those in power. So abuse is just “the thing itself.” This substack is part of my effort for us all to “loquitur” or speak.
Free Fridays will be centered around a particular topic at the intersection of two or three of the law, faith, and abuse. Mondays will build on that analysis and discussion with a post called “Chicken and Bones” - examining what we keep (the chicken) and what we throw out (the bones) related to this topic. What have you and I found to be helpful and what is not? Wednesdays will personalize the experience even more with “Res Ipsa Nota” (translated as “the thing itself is known”). On Wednesdays, I’ll share more about my personal experiences with abuse, either in my own life, my work, or what I’ve seen commonly in the field.
Who am I?
I’ve been an attorney for more than 25 years in many different capacities — as a corporate health care lawyer, in the federal court system, as a strategy consultant, teaching law school, then founding a running a nonprofit (Project Alive) raising money for research and advocating in my youngest son’s rare disease.
After some personal experiences, and harkening back to the essay I wrote to enter law school wanting to be a child advocacy lawyer, I now work in the field of abuse and trauma. I represent survivors and also serve on multidisciplinary teams performing investigations into allegations of abuse in faith communities.
Along with others, I’ve played an active role in speaking out about the controlling and abusive practices at a well-known “Christian” financial media company that was part of my own story. You can read about some of the difficult and intimate details of my experience on this Roys Report piece by Julie Roys. While many difficult parts are already public, there’s much more to the story, some of which I’ll cover on Res Ipsa.
Where can you find more of my writing?
My book — Afraid of the Doctor: Every Parent’s Guide to Preventing and Managing Medical Trauma is available online wherever books are sold. You can also read more about it and the high praise it received from medical providers, health care advocates, and families. I’m working on my second book, a memoir, and I also write poetry.
Here you can find links to webinars I’ve conducted on medical trauma, podcasts on which I’ve been featured related to toxic workplaces, abuse, medical trauma, parenting in trauma, and rare disease, and peer-reviewed publications on which I am an author. I’ve also written specifically about toxic experiences with a certain “Christian” financial media company on my Medium.
You can also find me on most socials at @melissajhogan:
