Domestic violence

Case history:
A woman reported with bruises, injuries and burns on her body. She was emotionally,
psychologically and sexually abused by her partner. Her husband was a suspicion. He stalks her,
keeps checking his phone, and doesn’t allow her to go anywhere alone. He also disrespects his
wife in front of their children. He constantly threatened her with knives or any other object. A
victim was continuously living in fear. She was taken to a psychologist by her friend.

Behavior definition:

 A coercive behavior in any relationship in which one partner to gain or maintain control
over another partner.
 Threats to hit, injured or use of any weapon are all include in psychological abuse.( e.g. use
of any weapon by a abuser to threat).
 Presence of bruises, injuries, cuts bites, burns and scars are all included in physical abuse
(e.g. biting, battering, shovering, punching any type of violent behavior inflicted on victim).
 Sexual abuse occur when coerces by a partner for sex without a consent of victim. Marital
rape and harming of sexual parts are also seen in many cases.
 Deflating a victim sense of self wroth or self-esteem is part of emotional abuse. It always
takes place when constant criticism, name calling, injuring a victim relationship with his/her
children or interfering with victim’s activities.
 Stalking (cyber stalking, phone spying, spying, collecting information , repeatedly calling to
check etc.).
Long term goals:

 There should be end of verbal, emotional, sexual violence completely in a relationship.

 Develop skills to communicate with your partner without fear (can talk about relationship
maintenance).
 Develop ability to say NO to sex without fear.
 Empowerment and increase options to improve life skills (including improved
communication and self-assertive skills).
 Take possible steps to guarantee safety and able to live free from fear.
 Maintenance and return to the level of psychological and emotional functioning as was
before the abuse.
 Maintenance of self-esteem and self-worth to realize victim his importance and
developed some hope.

Short term objective Therapeutic interventions

 Proper history taking including nature,
frequency and duration of domestic
violence.
 Medical assessment and collection of
all physical evidence of assault.
1. Talk to client, interview them properly
(proper intake) .
2. Build rapport by empythesizing with
them.
3. Ask open ended question, listen them
carefully and don’t get judgmental.
4. Gather all the information, including
verbal, sexual, physical, emotional and
psychological abuse, how frequent does
that all happen?
5. Refer a client to a physician who can
deal with physical abuse cases
6. Proper examination, evidence
collection through assessment.

 Explanation of emotion experienced by
victim and impact of abuse in his/her
daily functioning and her/ his well-
being.
 Comprehensive assessment is vital to
ensure the client receives appropriate
services and referrals.
 Verbalize symptoms of anxiety or
depression including any homicidal or
suicidal thought.
 Psycho educates the client about
domestic violence.
 Describe his/ her thoughts schemas and
core beliefs and how they are affecting.
7. Treatment would also carry out for
physical injuries.
8. Evaluate his/ her feeling regarding to
abuse, how much she/ he is affected.
9. Create a symptom timeline with a client
to aware him/her about his/ her own
situations.
10. Areas to assess include mental status,
suicidibility, homocidity , current risk
for violence , treatment history and
trauma history
11. Assess a client by administering self-
report inventories of depression or
anxiety, for identification. Evaluate the
nature and give feedback to client.
12. Accurate informal should be given to
the client about the nature of trauma
and its effects.
13. Group support can also be used, where
in small number of people with similar
trauma histories compare their stories ,
give each other advice and discuss
interpersonal violence and its effects .
14. Handout can also be used through
which information on topics such as
prevalence and impact of interpersonal
violence and social resources to the
survivor is shared.
15. Talk with client about their negative
thoughts about himself/ herself and tell
him/ her strategies that how these

 Identification of what triggers
memories, flashbacks and anxiety or
avoidant behavior.
 Capitalize in the feeling of trust and
safety that client have developed during
session.
 Describe what client have gained from
these sessions.
 Reviewed of what they have
accomplished throughout the sessions.
negative concept can be subtracted by
himself/herself.( negative thought
which is their core belief e.g. they
don’t deserve to be happy. They are
useless etc.)
16. Automatic thought record as an
effective way of challenging negative
beliefs about themselves and traumas.
17. Identify the coping strategy used by a
client to deal with these triggers .
18. Effective coping strategy and
communication technique will be
taught.
19. Role play technique (assertive
technique) can be used in group to
address healthy expression of anger or
any other relevant emotion(
psychodrama tic technique can be
utilized in role play session).
20. Client has opportunity to express what
they have gained from therapy.
21. The facilitator will praise the client for
the growth and point out their newly
found strength in order to promote
control and confidence in their abilities.
22. Facilitator will review all the points and
client repeats his long term goal and
how they plan to attain those goals
Diagnostic suggestion:

Axis I: 308.3 Acute stress disorder

309.24 Adjustment disorder with anxiety

309.0 Adjustment disorder with depression

309.28 Adjustment disorder with mixed anxiety and depressive mood

300.4 General anxiety disorder

296.xx Major depressive disorder

V65.2 Partner relational problem

995.81 Physical abuse of adult

309.81 Post traumatic stress disorder

995.81 Sexual abuse of adult

780.03 Vegetative depression

AXIS II: 301.83 Borderline personality disorder

301.6 Dependent personality disorder

 NAME: Sehrish Ansar
Class: PMD
SUBJECT: CRISES COUSELING
SUBMITTED TO: MA’AM ANUJUM ARA
 REFRENCES:
 Domestic violence behavioral definition [retrieved from]
https://www.justice.gov/ovw/domestic-violence
http://family.findlaw.com/domestic-violence/what-is-domestic-
violence.html

 Domestic violence long term goals [retrieved from]

https://www.nap.edu/read/5285/chapter/6#111

 Domestic violence short term objectives and therapeutic interventions

[retrieved from]
https://www.ukessays.com/essays/social-work/therapeutic-intervention-
and-women-experiencing-domestic-violence-social-work-essay.php
http://www.apadivisions.org/division-49/publications/newsletter/group-
psychologist/2012/11/partner-violence.aspx

 Domestic violence [retrieved from]

The crisis counselling and traumatic events. Treatment planner, second
edition