Domestic Abuse Help Why Marital Therapy Is Not the Treatment of Choice

•Domestic Violence Treatment Domestic Abuse Intervention in the Context of Relationship Therapy
People ask, Why are you trying to help people 'fix' relationships that many people urge you to flee? We are by profession, practice and expertise healers first. Our belief is that people, at the core of their being, have the capacity for change. Every person in an abusive relationship, whether they are the abuser or abused, can influence the dynamics of the relationship. Now this doesn't mean to imply that domestic abuse survivors are responsible for the battering or even have the ability to...

•Domestic Violence Counseling When the Counselor Becomes Your Enemy
I often hear domestic violence survivors complain that the counselor they are seeing with their partner has sided with him/her. These victims expected to seek therapeutic remedy for the dysfunction that they live, and they discover they have gained another enemy. Here are some things you will want to know if you are going to a therapist with your partner for domestic abuse. 1) Expect the therapy to be fertile ground for a continuation of what you experience in the privacy of your own home....

•Domestic Abuse Counseling How to Engage Your Partner in Abusive Relationship Therapy
Identifying the problem is half of the solution. We hear this in healthcare and in domestic abuse counseling, too. But when you are on the receiving end of domestic abuse, you often lose sight of the fact that identifying the problem is part of the treatment. Battered women expect their abusive partners to have admitted that they are batterers in order to enter into therapy. Not true! In fact, more often than not, batterers voluntarily entering into domestic abuse therapy are in denial that...

•Domestic Abuse Counseling 5 Clues for a Positive Outcome in Domestic Abuse Treatment
Do you think my husband will/can change? Spousal abuse survivors embarking on domestic abuse counseling ask this question. They want to know if I think their husbands will change. And the husbands secretly ask, Will/can she change? Now, let's face I, I don't have a crystal ball but I can tell you what a good prognosis looks like. I can tell you how someone presents wherein the chances are in their favor for a positive outcome in domestic abuse treatment. And, I can tell you which prospective...

•Domestic Abuse Therapy 4 Fundamental Steps to Dismantling Your Partner s Denial
You may be longing for help with domestic abuse, yet your partner is in complete denial. What do you do? Some people shy away from getting help for domestic violence because they claim that their partner will never admit to being abusive. Well, this may be true, but this is certainly not a reason to allow things to remain status-quo. Your partner's denial is the normal resistance in the initial stage of treatment. Domestic violence therapy is designed to help one overcome that very...

•Psychological Legal Abuse When Your Psychotherapy Is the Victim
We all know that when we see a victim of domestic abuse, there are other people impacted by this person's victimization. Some are affected directly, some indirectly, some intentionally and some inadvertently. Now if you've read my writings, you know I address the impact of intimate partner violence on survivors, on children, on batterers in divorce, and on the healthcare providers employed. Come with me and let's look closer at the impact of this dynamic on your therapy. Let's say you and...

•Verbal Abuse in Marriage How to Deal with Verbal Sniping in Abusive Relationships
Emotional verbal abuse in marriage is commonplace in couples of all walks of life. Sometimes it's an innocent reflexive gesture that comes out unconsciously. And other times, it's an oral blow intended to smack you across your heart and soul. The question is what do you do in the moment it comes your way? And then, as a result of this, what follows? Swallowing Emotional and Verbal Abuse Spousal abuse survivors become accustomed to swallowing emotional and verbal abuse as though it was part...

•Legal Domestic Abuse The Reality of Family Violence and Institutionalized Abuse
When domestic abuse survivors show up in the system to protect their children and themselves from family violence, they can unknowingly step into institutionalized abuse. This is especially true when they rely on family court to provide remedy for domestic violence. What Is Institutionalized Abuse? Institutionalized abuse is where one person willfully, openly and legally is taking advantage of and violating the rights and liberties of another person...all while being paid. People worldwide...

•Psychological Help for Patients Victimized by Intimate Partners A Clinical Advocacy Model
When the family wants the patient sick, treatment and recovery are impossible. This is the way it usually appears for all practical purposes. Family members' defenses protect interpersonal and intergenerational dysfunction...unless the patient is internally inspired and externally supported to break the cycle. As clinicians we know the patient's resistance is an integral part of the psychotherapeutic change process. And in the context of therapy we learn to work with it. We use it to create...

•Healing Emotional Abuse Boundary Issues of Domestic Violence
We hear about domestic abuse survivors' boundary issues as though this is what got them in the abusive relationship. Well, maybe it did. However, it's also true that their progressive dismantling of their personal boundaries is what keeps them safe while living in an abusive relationship. If you are in an abusive relationship, you probably know what I mean. Now it may not necessarily be something that you are conscious of, but I trust you are aware of the fact that if you say no, to...