Case Study of the Treatment for Victims of Domestic Violence

Client history

My case study is about a black woman who fled her home with her two children as a result of persistent domestic violence. The women had been married to her husband for fifteen years. They had two children one aged 15 and the other 13 years. She was exposed to domestic violence by her husband for the period they were together until she decided to run away from her home with her two children. They were admitted to a shelter that housed women who were victims of domestic violence. Due to the domestic violence, she had experienced, she was emotional, physically, financially and socially affected. She did not have a job that could help her provide for the family of two children. Also, the shelter in which they lived in was not conducive, and she wanted to get a job so that she could later get a place of her own where she could live with her children. The woman has stress and depression due to the various abuse events that she had gone through in the hands of her husband. Also, being in a shelter where she was not used made her worried which then led to her developing stress and depression. She had plans of seeking the help of a professional counselor who would help her and the two children to recover from the events of domestic violence they had experienced before. Although the children were not directly abused by their father, she felt the need to have then counseled by an expert so that they would revert to normal life.

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Maladaptive behaviors of the victim

When a person is exposed to traumatic events, they are likely to showcase maladaptive behaviors. According to psychological experts, such behaviors have negative impacts on the emotional stability of the victims. They are not able to adjust to their present conditions, and they find it difficult to live a healthy lifestyle (Kim & Lee, 2018). Various characters are observable in victims of domestic violence that can be categorized as maladaptive and may inhibit the reaction of the victims to treatments and other interventions.

When the woman felt that she was being subjected to torture, she could not hold it anymore and decided to run away from her husband's house with the children. The running away is a maladaptive behavior that shows how the woman feared her husband (Kim & Lee, 2018). She went to the extent of ensuring that she and the children were away from the man. The maladaptive behavior displayed by the woman would prevent her from getting better while living in her current condition. In most victims of domestic violence, they tend to go to people who would listen to them and give them comfort.

This is a trait that has been observed from the woman who goes to seek for shelter where women who were victims of domestic violence were camping. She felt safer living in the camp than living with her husband who was a threat to her security and that of her children. In addition to this, the woman seemed too worried about the conditions they were living in, and she felt that she needed a job that would help her sustain the children and herself. She would later find a place where they would live alone free from her husband's influence. Anxiety is a common symptom of victims of violence. When an individual is exposed to traumatic events, they keep remembering the experiences and end up being depressed. This is a situation that the woman finds herself in. She is depressed and needs the attention of a professional counselor for her and the children. The counselor would provide prescriptions that would help to alleviate the effects of stress and would enable her to recover from the emotional and social breakdown caused by the domestic violence from her husband.

The treatment process of victims of domestic violence includes therapy sessions with different activities (Easton, Crane & Mandel, 2017). The victims in the case include the woman and her children. With the help of a counselor, the family would be assessed for the emotional damage they had experienced due to the violence from the husband. Since the woman was directly affected, she would be introduced to a therapy schedule where she would regularly attend according to the counselor's recommendations. Ideally, the woman would be given therapy where she would be counseled to forget the vents of the domestic violence. She would be required to engage in one on one session with the expert who would then listen to her problems and provide long-term solutions to stabilize her. According to Easton, Crane & Mandel (2017), emotional instability may lead to victims of domestic violence being considered unfit to interact with other people. This is due to the problem of anger that affects their ability to be patient and listen to other people. The woman would thus view men in a different perspective as individuals who are violent and lack compassion for women. To avoid this from happening, the experts would help her to have a new view of the people around her including men.

References

Easton, C. J., Crane, C. A., & Mandel, D. (2017). A Randomized Controlled Trial Assessing the Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for SubstanceDependent Domestic Violence Offenders: An Integrated Substance AbuseDomestic Violence Treatment Approach (SADV). Journal of marital and family therapy.

Kim, S., & Lee, Y. (2018). Do Multiple Forms of Social Capital Mediate the Relationship Between Parental Violence and Children's Maladaptive Behaviors?. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260518760009.