Domestic violence is a major public health concern, affecting millions worldwide. It is underreported, often devastating and sometimes ends in murder. In Toxic Couples: The Psychology of Domestic Violence, Anna Motz integrates psychological and criminological data with clinical illustrations and discussion of current high-profile cases. She examines the complex manifestations and multiple causes of intimate partner violence. Motz disentangles the roles played by those involved and examines the addictive nature of these damaging partnerships. The book describes various forms of abuse, including physical, sexual and emotional, and analyses how intimate partner violence can escalate to murder. She explores important factors including: the role of addiction; homelessness and vulnerability; the intergenerational transmission of abuse; sadomasochistic relationships; honour-based violence. The book emphasizes the significance of female- as well as male-perpetrated violence and outlines the powerful impact on the children of abusive parents, extending the clinical awareness of professionals working with those affected. Toxic Couples: The Psychology of Domestic Violence is ideal for clinicians working with the victims and perpetrators of intimate partner violence, for students of psychology, gender studies and social care courses and for anyone interested in the psychological forces behind violence in relationships. ]
Despite changes to laws and policies across most western democracies intended to combat violence to women, intimate partner violence and abuse (IPVA) remains discouragingly commonplace. Domestic Violence and Psychology: Critical Perspectives on Intimate Partner Violence and Abuse showcases women’s harrowing stories of living with and leaving violent partners, offering a psychological perspective on domestic violence and developing a theoretical framework for examining the context, intentions and experiences in the lives of people who experience abuse and abuse themselves. Nicolson provides an analysis of survivors’ real-life stories, and thoughts about IPVA. The attitudes of the general public and health and social care professionals are also presented and discussed. The theoretical perspective employs three levels of evidence – the material (context), discursive (explanations) and intrapsychic (emotional). Domestic Violence and Psychology is divided into three parts accordingly, engaging qualitative data from interviews and quantitative data from surveys to illustrate these theoretical perspectives. Although many pro-feminist sociologists and activists firmly believe that any attempt to explain domestic violence potentially condones it, this book takes up the challenge to make a compelling case demonstrating how we need to widen understanding of the psychology of survivors and their intimate relationships if we are to defeat IPVA. The new edition has been updated to include the latest developments in IPVA research and practice, and in particular examines the impact of a violent and abusive family life on all members, including children. This is essential reading for students, academics and professionals interested in domestic abuse, as well as professionals and practitioners, including psychologists, social workers, the police, prison officers, probation staff, policy makers, and charity workers.
Couple and Family Psychoanalysis is an international journal sponsored by Tavistock Relationships, which aims to promote the theory and practice of working with couple and family relationships from a psychoanalytic perspective. It seeks to provide a forum for disseminating current ideas and research and for developing clinical practice. The annual subscription provides two issues a year. Articles Ethical Issues in Work with Families: On Facing the Music or Not “Turning a Blind Eye” by Sally Box - Couple Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy with Violent Couples: Understanding and Working with Domestic Violence by Julie Humphries and Damian McCann - Thinking about Publishing? On Seeking Patient Consent to Publish Case Material by Christopher Clulow, Ernest Wallwork, and Caroline Sehon - Ethics and Complaints Procedures for Psychoanalytic Organisations: Some Thoughts About Principles by Philip Stokoe - Becoming an Adolescent: a Body Changes in the Field of the Family by Isabel Duarte and Maria Emília Marques
This book is a challenge to the silos in our human services that an ‘atomised’ focus gives rise to. They are evident in the chasm that can exist between child and adult mental health care, between competing therapeutic approaches and, most importantly for this volume, in the segmentation of support for adults who are partners as well as parents. The contributors, all with substantial experience of providing front-line services, identify the problem their intervention is designed to address, provide a conceptual justification for the approach they have used and supply evidence for its effectiveness. Vivid illustrations bring the work to life and provide examples of best practice whose relevance can readily be transported to different settings. Unusual in bringing together approaches that encompass internal and external realities in responding to the challenges of physical constraint, emotional distress and an often-volatile social environment, the contributions are assembled to highlight a common thread that can inform services at different stages of the life course. Each chapter is accompanied by a commentary from specialists in their field who elucidate and critique the key points made by the authors and help the experience of reading the book to be one of dialogue. Engaging Couples: New Directions in Therapeutic in Work with Families explores new ways of approaching some of the key issues of contemporary family life, including depression, living with long-term conditions, inter-parental conflict and domestic abuse to name but a few, refracting them through a lens that sees our relationships as fundamental to the fabric of our lives – the most important social capital of all. It represents essential reading for clinicians and family practitioners of all persuasions, and those that train and support them in their work.
Forensic psychotherapy explores the roots of violent, sexual and antisocial behaviour. It is a relatively recently created discipline that applies psychoanalytic knowledge to the assessment, management and treatment of mentally disordered offenders, forming a bridge between traditional forensic psychiatry – with its focus on diagnosis and risk – and traditional psychotherapy – with its focus on understanding why things happen. As a discipline, forensic psychotherapy seeks to understand the conscious and unconscious motivations that underpin specific offending behaviours. We need to understand not only the detail of the crime, but also the offender as a whole person within his environment, including the criminal justice environment. It aims to understand the perpetrator, the victim, and the victim within the perpetrator. In this collection, leading international experts in forensic psychotherapy explore the different aspects and developments within the field. These include first hand experiences of shaping the emerging discipline within the UK, Europe and the United States; working therapeutically with high-risk offenders in prisons and secure hospitals; exploration of female violence and work with incarcerated mothers and babies; and the latest developments in forensic psychotherapy training. This book will be of interest to professionals and academics working within the fields of forensic mental health, criminal justice, psychiatry, psychology, criminology, and sociology. This book was originally published as two special issues of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy.
Responding to the growing number of psychologically-informed services for people experiencing social exclusion and, in particular, homelessness, this book gives professionals the information and understanding they need to be fully informed in their practice with this client group. It begins with theory, looking at the psychology of social exclusion and the processes that underlie it, and considers the relationship between trauma, complex needs, homelessness and social exclusion. Presenting practical interventions and case studies, the authors then reveal what makes an effective service in practice and a client perspective on social exclusion and recovery is provided. This is essential reading for all those involved in developing services that meet the needs of socially excluded people with histories of complex trauma or presentations of complex needs, including those who are homeless, refugees and asylum seekers, Traveller and Roma communities and people involved with the criminal justice system.
New Horizons in Forensic Psychotherapy: Exploring the Work of Estela V. Welldon, edited by the author, contains many rich contributions by some of Welldon's most distinguished former students and proteges. The book consists of important chapters on the creative ways in which colleagues have utilised and expanded upon Welldon's work in the field of forensic psychotherapy in a variety of settings, including in hospitals, prisons, community mental health clinics, and, also, in private practice.
Counselling Skills for Working with Shame helps professionals to understand and identify shame and to build shame resilience in both the client and themselves. Shame is ubiquitous in counselling where there is an increased vulnerability and risk of exposure to shame. While many clients experience feelings of shame, it is often overlooked in the therapeutic process and as a result can be left untreated. It is particularly pertinent when working with clients who have experienced trauma, domestic or complex abuse, or who struggle with addiction, compulsion and sexual behaviours. Written in an accessible style, this is a hands-on, skills-based guide which helps practitioners to identify what elicits, evokes or triggers shame. It gives a general introduction to the nature of shame in both client and counsellor and how these become entwined in the therapeutic relationship. It focuses on increasing awareness of shame and how to release it in order to build shame resilience. With points for reflection, helpful exercises, top tips, reminders and suggestions for how to work with clients, this is a highly practical guide for counsellors, therapists, mental health practitioners, nurses, social workers, educators, human resources, trainee counsellors and students.
There is an expectation that women will be nurturers and carers. Women who have been judged violent, destructive and criminal and who are detained in the criminal justice system can find themselves perceived through a distorted lens as unwomanly. This book explains how they become hypervisible in their difference, while the histories of trauma and suffering that are communicated through their offending and other risk behaviour remain hidden, and so are unseen. Bringing together authors uniquely placed as experts in their fields, Invisible Trauma argues that it is essential to trace the traumatic roots of women’s violence and criminality. Powerful intergenerational factors perpetuate the cycles of offending and trauma re-enactment that current sentencing practice overlooks. The authors present a psychoanalytically informed account of the development of violence and other offending, identifying pathways for change to address trauma within the lives of these women and their children, and also to create a responsive, effective and sensitive workforce. Invisible Trauma highlights the role of emotional, social and cultural forces in traumatising women who come into contact with the criminal justice system and uncovers areas of their lives that are all too often hidden from view. It will be invaluable to those working in clinical and forensic psychology, mental health nursing, psychotherapy, social work, medical practice and women’s health, as well as frontline practitioners in the criminal justice system, the health service and third sector organisations and for anyone with an interest in racism, equality and social justice.
This book is about the hope underlying the ability to survive the early years. Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is both metaphor and framework of the despair and hopelessness that some babies and parents experience in their efforts to hold on and go through difficult circumstances. Their early experiences are not voyages "into a sunny and cheerful sea": some are years-long voyages into horror and weariness - babies born into difficult families, into countries in difficulties or into difficult circumstances. Some babies born into difficulties are pretty much alone because their mothers might be too ill to look after them, and nurses are too busy to fulfil the maternal function other than changing and feeding them. They may have been born in war zones, or in prisons, or have been in intensive neonatal premature units. Unlike mothers who recall the early years with their babies as a dance of understanding and development, other carers don't recall hearing the music at all.
Mothers Accused and Abused: Addressing Complex Psychological Needs brings together stories about mothers who are accused of harming, and in some cases killing, their children, children who subsequently harm or kill others and the challenges to professionals who work with them. Contributors consider the deeply rooted cycles of neglect and abuse manifested in the childhoods of mothers, who only come to our attention when their extreme distress is expressed through their actions. By recognising the long-standing, unmet dependency needs of abused and neglected women, the book argues that longer term engagement can prevent a seemingly endless repetition of court hearings and imprisonment, and thereby address cycles of neglect. With sections on mothers in prison and interventions following child care proceedings, Mothers Accused and Abused will be a valuable resource to those working in the criminal and civil justice systems, social work and mental health as well as others who, in a professional or personal capacity, encounter troubled mothers and their children.
This cutting-edge and comprehensive fourth edition of Women’s Lives: A Psychological Perspective integrates the most current research and social issues to explore the psychological diversity of girls and women varying in age, ethnicity, social class, nationality, sexual orientation, and ableness. Written in an engaging and accessible manner, its use of vignettes, quotes, and numerous pedagogical tools effectively fosters students’ engagement, active learning, critical thinking, and social activism. New information covered includes: neoliberal feminism, standpoint theory, mujerista psychology (Chapter 1) LGBT individuals and individuals with disabilities in media (Chapter 2) testosterone testing of female athletes, precarious manhood (Chapter 3) raising a gender non-conforming child, impact of social media on body image (Chapter 4) gender differences in narcissism and Big Five personality traits, women video-game designers (Chapter 5) asexuality, transgender individuals, sexual agency, "Viagra for women" controversy (Chapter 6) adoption of frozen embryos controversy (Chapter 7) intensive mothering, integrated motherhood, "living apart together", same-sex marriage (Chapter 8) single-sex schooling controversy (Chapter 9) combat roles opened to U.S. women, managerial derailment (Chapter 10) work-hours dilemmas of low-wage workers (Chapter 11) feminist health care model, health care for transgender individuals, Affordable Care Act (Chapter 12) feminist critique of CDC guidelines on women and drinking (Chapter 13) cyberharassment, gendertrolling, campus sexual assault (Chapter 14) transnational feminism, men and feminism (Chapter 15) Women’s Lives stands apart from other texts on the psychology of women because it embeds within each topical chapter a lifespan approach and robust coverage of the impact of social, cultural, and economic factors in shaping women’s lives around the world. It provides extensive information on women with disabilities, middle-aged and older women, and women in transnational contexts. Its up-to-date coverage reflects current scientific and social developments, including over 2,200 new references. This edition also adds several new boxed features for student engagement. In The News boxes present current, often controversial, news items to get students thinking critically about real-life applications of course topics. Get Involved boxes encourage students to actively participate in the research process. What You Can Do boxes give students applied activities to promote a more egalitarian society. Learn About the Research boxes expose students to a variety of research methods and highlight the importance of diversity in research samples by including studies of underrepresented groups.
