This paper is intended as a discussion paper to open up talk in the literacy community on how literacy programs can account for the impact violence has on learning. It builds on the author's previous research on issues raised by literacy workers, educators, researchers, academics, therapists, and counselors concerning this impact. The current study is seeking to better understand what supports and what hinders making change in literacy programs so that the programs can more fully support learning for all women, and in particular those who have experienced violence. In this paper the author tries to reveal the processes of "dominant discourses" that exclude the issue of violence from education, thus making change unlikely. Seeing language and current practices as discourse offers a tool to get outside a focus on what is right and draw attention to examining how certain discourses open and close possibilities. (Contains 10 references.) (JDM)