Citation

McCloskey KA, Fraser JS. Psychotherapy 1997; 34(4): 433-446.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1997, American Psychological Association)

DOI

10.1037/h0087653

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article seeks to provide an alternative approach to traditional point-of-contact crisis services for victims of domestic violence. This approach, based on a feminist Mental Research Institute brief therapy model, takes into account the many forces arrayed against battered women that influence their decisions about staying or leaving their batterers. Many service organizations provide services targeted to the woman who leaves, not the woman who stays. Thus, this approach provides a model with which to fit the services to each woman, not the woman to the services. In addition, by honoring and acknowledging the many forces that keep women from leaving, service providers may reduce their rates of burnout by redefining the meaning of successful intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)