Couples Therapy for Domestic Violence: Finding Safe Solutions

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. The Changing Face of Intimate Partner Violence Treatment
2. Assessment for Intimate Partner Violence and Screening for Inclusion in the Treatment Program
3. Domestic Violence–Focused Couples Therapy Within a Solution-Focused Framework
4. Session 1: Honoring the Problem
5. Session 2: The Foundation for Domestic Violence–Focused Couples Therapy — Defining the Miracle
6. Session 3: Introduction to Intimate Partner Violence
7. Session 4: Mindfulness and Safety Planning
8. Session 5: Escalation and Negotiated Time-Out
9. Session 6: Alcohol and Drug Use
10. Sessions 7 Through 18: Phase Two — Conjoint Treatment
11. Constraints, Multicouple Group Adaptations, and Termination
12. Our Clients
13. Our Research Findings

Suggested Readings

References

Index

About the Authors

Sandra M. Stith, PhD, LCMFT, is a professor and director of the marriage and family therapy program at Kansas State University.

Her primary research interest is in understanding and treating intimate partner violence. She has edited three books on the subject, including Understanding Partner Violence: Prevalence, Causes, Consequences and Solutions, coedited with Dr. Murray Straus, and Prevention of Intimate Partner Violence. She publishes widely in the professional literature and has received funding, with Drs. McCollum and Rosen, from the National Institutes of Health to develop and test a couple's treatment program for intimate partner violence.

Dr. Stith has worked with the U.S. Air Force Family Advocacy Program since 1998, managing and conducting a variety of family violence–related research projects.

In 2004 she received the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy's Outstanding Contribution to Marriage and Family Therapy Award, and in 2007 she received the American Family Therapy Association's Distinguished Contribution to Family Systems Research Award and Kansas State University's Distinguished Alumni Award.

Eric E. McCollum, PhD, LCSW, LMFT, is a professor in and program director of the marriage and family therapy master's program at Virginia Tech. He had a 15-year clinical career, including 12 years as a staff member of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, before beginning his academic career in 1989 as a faculty member in the marriage and family therapy doctoral program at Purdue University.

His academic interests include the treatment of intimate partner violence and the use of mindfulness meditation in treatment and in the training of therapists.

In addition to his many contributions to the professional literature, he has published two prior books, Family Solutions for Substance Abuse with Terry Trepper and More Than Miracles: The State of the Art of Solution-Focused Brief Therapy with Steve de Shazer, Yvonne Dolan, Harry Korman, Terry Trepper and Insoo Kim Berg. He is coeditor with Cynthia Franklin, Terry Trepper, and Wallace Gingerich of the forthcoming Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: From Practice to Research-Informed Practice.

In 2008, Dr. McCollum received the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy's Training Award.

Karen H. Rosen, EdD, was a faculty member at the marriage and family therapy master's Program at Virginia Tech for more than 15 years. Before that, she was a clinician and supervisor and directed the training clinic at Virginia Tech.

Her academic interests lay in the area of understanding and treating intimate partner violence. Primarily a qualitative researcher, she was the author of many professional papers and one book, Violence Hits Home: Comprehensive Treatment Approaches to Domestic Violence with Sandra Stith and Mary Beth Williams.

At the time of her death in 2008, Dr. Rosen was professor emeritus at Virginia Tech.