Managing A Group Of Intimate Partner Violence

Support groups for alcohol addiction place an emphasis on being “powerless,” further reinforcing an excuse often made by abusers in family violence situations (Al-Anon, 2008). This idea can also serve to increase the feelings of hopelessness experienced by victims. When taught to victims of domestic violence, placing the blame of abuse on use of the substance as opposed to the abuser serves to contradict the message of the abuser’s responsibility for the behaviors (Chartas & Culbreth,

The aim of this support group will be to allow the group members a space to be heard and to be supported by other people who are going through the same issues as them. The group will provide a confidential and supportive place for it’s members to talk about their experiences without fear of judgement or reprisal. The group members will help each other to regain their confidence and self worth, and hopefully help each other learn how to take the next steps to put an end to the violent situation that they find themselves in. Most of all the group will be there to help it’s members feel supported as to suffer abuse from a partner is to be completely devoid of support.

Working with victims of domestic violence can be an extremely rewarding and fulfilling endeavor. One of the most crucial aspects for a paralegal working with victim of domestic violence is adequately engaging in the task of educating oneself to understand the commonalities of such victims and the ordeals that they have been through. Such clients are drastically different from other individuals who have suffered other physical and violent crimes. Understanding the background of someone who has lived through domestic violence is absolutely central to being able to provide adequate and sensitive legal care. Most victims of domestic violence are women (95%) though domestic violence can have an impact on ever age, class, race, ethnic, cultural or religious group (purplerainfoundation, 2012). "In the United States, nearly one in three adult women experience at least one physical assault by a partner during adulthood (American Psychological Association, Presidential Task Force on Violence and the Family 1996 Report)" (purplerainfoundation, 2012). These women are often terrified of their partner's temper, apologize when they are abused and often in the most extremely controlling and isolated environment where the abusive partner will control who the partner sees and where the partner goes outside of the home, jealous of outside relationships (purplerainfoundation, 2012). In these abusive relationships the women are hit,

Throughout the world, we hear many stories about individuals being victimized, and individuals who have are the perpetrators. Also, many of these news segments are based off of headed situations between intimate relationships. Many relationships become this way because of stress about work, paying bills, past circumstances, and much more. There are many micro and macro level risk factors that pertain to victims (prior history of intimate partner violence, female sex, and youth), and perpetration (anger issues, low self-esteem, low income, and depression). “These factors are some of the very important factors that shape victimization and perpetration in intimate partner violence” (Seccombe, 2015, p.318).

Psychoeducational groups relating to additions or substance abuse are designed to assist participants in their stages of change, learn about recovery, provide information to families to understand behaviors, and to assist participants with resources and skills (U.S Department of Health and Human Services, n.d). Psychoeducational groups will support participants and encourage them to take responsibility for their actions. These groups will utilize different methods to replace addictive behavior and practice mindfulness to work on any cognitive impairment that their addiction has produced (U.S Department of Health and Human Service, n.d). In addition, substance abuse or addiction psychoeducational groups provide participants support and peer confrontation. Other members are able to support the group by offering education about what has worked well for them, or what has not work well. The group processes also provides emotional support for members to assist in personal recovery.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) or Domestic Violence (DV) is “the willful intimidation, physical assault, battery, sexual assault, and/or other abusive behavior as part of a systematic pattern of power and control perpetrated by one intimate partner against another. (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), n.d.).” Many victims fail to report IPV because they only consider physical assault as a form abuse, however verbal abuse falls under IPV, as well as emotional and psychological abuse. In the state of California, 32.9% women and 27.3% have experienced some form of IPV, intimate partner sexual violence, or stalking (National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV), n.d.). In order to reduce the rates of IPV, batter intervention programs were created. The goal of these programs was to psychoeducate the batter on IPV and its effects in an effort to prevent recidivism. However, research has shown that these programs have not been very effective and that some improvements must be made.

How do women who experience intimate partner violence create coping mechanisms for staying in the relationship or leaving. The term intimate partner violence is used to describe physical, sexual, or psychological harm done to an individual by a current or former partner or spouse. This type of violence can occur among heterosexual or same-sex couples (Centers for disease Control and Prevention [CSC], 2014). Intimate partner violence is a problem because even after a woman leaves the relationship she still has a chance of being abused by her former partner because he is angry at the fact that he no longer has control over her and that she actually left. This problem is significant because out of these women who have left, they not only get abused

Methods in reducing violence often focus on either the re-education of the perpetrator or preventing violence through education in a wider setting. One strategy in the reduction of violence is the psychological treatment of the perpetrator in a group therapy setting. Through a group therapy setting, perpetrators are able to communicate with other people in similar situations and are together, able to self-examine their own self-beliefs and actions and create new social norms that exclude sexism or violence. Such group therapies often use the Duluth Model in reducing violence as a education tool for male perpetrators. Another strategy use in is the prevention of violence in school based prevention programmes such as The Olweus Bullying Prevention

“ (Gold & Richert, 2003, p.191). Creating a safe space within a group setting is imperative, as this allows for sharing and camaraderie among members. Co-facilitation of a women’s support group involves helping client process through their trauma and cope with triggers. The aforementioned group consists of up to ten women survivors of trauma who have completed individual therapy and dialectical behavioral skills group. This group is held weekly for a two-hour session to include a mindfulness exercise and supportive feedback and validation among group members and

Domestic Violence is a problem sweeping the nation. This problem can affect anyone from anywhere but is generally acting out upon children and adult women in abusive relationships. Domestic violence is emotionally and physically scarring for anyone involved, and as a result could take multiple intervention meetings to begin to understand the issue, alleviate the associated problems, and to assist the victim in getting back on his or her feet. The consequences of abuse include anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and self-harm. Children may begin to act differently to their usual behavior - withdrawal is very common, as is self-harming (Khan, 2012). There are two ways that people can consider interventions for victims of

Research supports the use of group work, as opposed to one-to-one therapy, for perpetrators of domestic violence (Holt, 2015).

Research supports the use of group work, as opposed to one-to-one therapy, for perpetrators of domestic violence (Holt, 2015).

You are doing a presentation on ‘’domestic violence’ with an interagency group. One of the participants states that they are having a difficult time understanding the issues involved and asks ‘’Why don’t the women just leave the situation and make a better life? What may be your internal reaction (thoughts, feelings, etc.) to this question and what answer would you give the participant? Be SPECIFIC- WRITE EXACTLY WHAT YOU WOULD DO AND SAY.

Per Anthony & Mullen (2016) in group dynamics, norming is part of the group counseling stage where problems are solved, and group members began to understand the group and respect the group leader. Using identification and hope in a domestic violence group can have a positive change on peer relationships within the group (Gladding, 2016). Identification occurs when group members can relate to another member and hope is thoughts that the future and possibilities will be better (Gladding, 2016). In a group setting, identification is essential to have cohesion among the members (Gladding, 2016). Moreover, I believe that if I know others in the group share my experience, I would feel more at ease. When I think about the instillation of hope, I

family attempts to prevent continual violence (Crandall et al., 2005). Researchers have offered two explanations for why women experiencing abuse have few supporters and a poor quality support network. The first is that the partner purposely isolates the women in order to maintain control over