Specific Concern:. Women Who Have Experienced The Trauma

According to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The National Institute of Justice, one in four women in the United States has experienced domestic violence during her lifetime (Battered Woman Syndrome, 2012). This type of abuse can be fatal and detrimental to one’s personal growth. When woman are repeatedly abused, they show different signs, symptoms and general characteristics. These characteristics are defined as Battered Woman Syndrome.

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,

Survivor Therapy focuses on issues of safety, empowerment, validation, strengths, education, alternative, restoring clarity of judgment, understanding oppression, making decisions, and healing the effects of trauma. (Treating the Domestic Violence Victim: Crisis Intervention and Beyond).

Many women and men seek intimate relationships in order to fill their emotional needs of security, safety and love. Their journey starts off with their loved ones spoiling them with flattering gifts and emotional words. The love they feel is so wonderful and deep that they believe that nothing can come between them. They are so happy and convinced that they will live happily ever after with the one they love. Unfortunately, the fairytale they have dreamt about was only temporary and soon comes to an end. The love story they have ones longed for turns into a horrible nightmare. The emotional words they were once spoiled with turn into howling screams and name-calling. The flattering gifts turn into physical abuse. This relationship is referred to as domestic violence or intimate partner violence. This happens when a partner or significant other declares power, authority and control over the other partner. To maintain this authority and control, the abusive partner uses emotional, physical or sexual abuse over his victim (Alters 27). Victims will desperately look for an exit out of this relationship, but only to be blocked by numerous walls of the despair, fear and misery. Many people are convinced that victims have the option of leaving, but they are too weak and they choose not to. What many people don 't know is, victims of domestic violence have many reasons preventing them from leaving their abusers. In most cases the outcomes of leaving are

The Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence (WSCADV, n.d.) provides training for advocates of domestic violence (DV) survivors and their families. This paper reflects my experiences as I worked through the first three sections of training: the history of the DV movement; the key requirements of DV advocacy; and safety planning. The primary thread throughout the training sections is the importance of providing advocacy based on survivor-empowerment and meeting clients where they are. In this paper, I also explore my role as a mental health counselor in an interdisciplinary response team working with survivors of domestic violence.

Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) impacts millions of families worldwide (Watts & Zimmerman, 2002). In fact, in the United States alone on average nearly 20 people per minute are physically abused by an intimate partner. During one year, this equates to more than 10 million women and men (National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, 2010). In light of this troubling information, the clinical social worker may find him or herself called upon to serve this most vulnerable population.

Many feel if they seek help, the abuser will find them and it will only get worse. The victims need to feel safe, or else they are not going to use the programs to receive help. As both of these articles reveal, these programs are not working. On the contrary, “The Seriousness of Domestic Violence Is Exaggerated” argues that it’s not because the programs are ineffective, but that it’s due to the increase in social services available. However, due to the countless studies that were done, it has been proven that this domestic abuse is a problem. Moreover, there needs to be more effort taken into putting these programs into action. Improvements in how the programs are put into practice need to be made, since how the programs are put into practice now are not efficient

In completing this essay, an opportunity was provided to select a case study and determine whether individual, group, or both kinds of services would be most effective treatment for a client. The essay will be based on the case study of Working with Survivors of Domestic Violence: The case of Charo. The issue the client is facing will be discussed, along with my recommended intervention. The essay will conclude with identifying the best delivery method for an intervention with supporting resources to validate my decision.

Even though I have studied social work for years I still did not feel like I could empathize with victims of domestic violence as much as one would think and I felt guilty because of it. At my internship, when talking to Military Sexual Trauma victims, I felt like I understood more of their reasons because they did not have a choice but to stay in. Out here in the civilian world, one would think that you can pack up and leave whenever you want. It turns out that it is not that easy. Playing that game “In Her Shoes” on the first day of class made me look at this reality in a very different way. One can say that women are dumb for staying in a relationship, but not taking into consideration other factors such as children, threats, low-self-esteem, shame, and lack of resources. Although I may never experience this type of abuse, I can at least empathize with victims of domestic

Women who are chronically battered has been categorized as a subclass of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is composed of the following symptoms: re-living the battering as if it were reoccurring even when it is not, efforts to circumvent the psychological effect of battering by avoiding activities, people, and emotions, hyperarousal or hypervigilance, disrupted interpersonal relationships, body image distortion or other somatic concerns, and sexuality

Women will continue to suffer from domestic violence unless there is some sort of intervention to help them. When dealing with this population, it is essential to create a safe environment where the woman can talk freely about the abuse without any retaliation from the abuser. When someone comes into a therapeutic session, everyone deserves to be treated with respect and care. This in turn will create a sense of hope that a different type of life can be possible. Also, knowing that there is a support system can help the woman begin the process of change. Despite this, the process of leaving the abusive partner is slow (Warshaw, n.d.)

Domestic violence is a very important social problem that we must educate ourselves on because it has such a profound and negative effect on the individual(s) being abused. They are affected mentally, emotionally, physically, and I know from experience that the scars can run very deep. Being in an abusive relationship for three years was devastating to my self-image as a teenager, and because of these feelings of inadequacy, my decreasing esteem allowed me to stay in such a dangerous scenario. Healing from the negative effects of that relationship has been a difficult journey for me, and I can only imagine how much more difficult it must be for women abused for years on end. To this day, I struggle greatly with the ability to let go of my own "control"

Domestic abuse is a startling issue in today’s society, and there are many different forms of it. Domestic abuse is defined as “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” [1]. There are numerous forms of domestic abuse, including both physical and emotional violence. Many people who are trapped in these toxic relationships often feel helpless and worthless, and may think they have no way to escape their situation. However, with the right guidance and support, they can free themselves and emerge as a stronger person.

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

The authors of this article found there were many treatments available for women who have been emotional abused by a spousal, but found that there wasn’t any, “clear empirical support for the efficacy” (Reed & Enright, 2006, p. 920). Many researchers have defined the abuse or established ways