Background: Violence against women is recognised as a common problem worldwide. In Ireland, 1:5 women experience emotional, sexual, physical, or financial violence from an intimate partner (Kelleher and O Connor 1995). However, little was known of how health professionals identify the issues, or how women make known their circumstances of domestic violence during general practice consultations. Aim: The aim of the study was twofold: a) to determine how the general practice team (GPT), discovered women who experience domestic violence from an intimate partner and, b) to determine how women were enabled (or not) to disclose their experiences of domestic violence when attending the clinical consultation. Participants and setting: Participants of the GPT included general practitioners, practice nurses and administrative staff working in urban general practices in the Republic of Ireland. All of the women participants had experienced intimate partner violence and had disclosed their experiences to others, but not always to the general practice team. Methodology: Using a grounded theory approach, 30 in-depth interviews were conducted with the GPT and women. Data were analysed in accordance with grounded theory methodology. Health professionals’ clinical experiences of discovering (or not) violence against women and women’s experiences of living in abusive relationships informed the data. Findings: The dynamics of general practice consultations were influenced by organisational factors and factors concerning the person: Firstly, choreographing the consultation in which the performance of engagement was explored through the iterative process of a choreography. Secondly, spiralling silences gave voice to the process of engagement (or not) with the issue of violence against women during clinical consultations. Thirdly, compartmentalising identified organisational factors in general practice that hindered, or enhanced, the discovery and disclosure of violence against women. Conclusion: This study advances a theory of conspicuous invisibility, which illuminates our understanding of women’s circumstances of disclosure and health professionals’ process of discovery of domestic violence. Underpinning the theory is a process of engagement, conceptualised as lifting the stones and seeing the slugs beneath. The model of engagement identified in this research illustrates three levels: level one, non-engagement; level two, first impression engagement or ‘on the face of it’ engagement; and level three, purposeful engagement.