Customer Reviews

Journey Beyond Abuse: A Step-By-Step Guide to Facilitating Women's Domestic Abuse Groups

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I relied on this book heavily for the three years I lead psychodynamic, short-term group therapy for women victims of domestic violence. It is excellent! The exercises and handouts are engaging and enlightening for the women clients, and the book is easy to use and verrry practical. I did not follow the book in strict order (which could be done), but used the exercises in the group as I saw that it fit. I still remember one handout on the "59 reasons that women stay in abusive relationships" that I handed out to the group, and one woman said, "There are that many! I had no idea..." There is also an exercise where the women write down the negative things they have heard people say to them in their lives, then read aloud, defend against that statement, and crumple it up and throw it away in the garbage. I found it hokey when I read it, but it was very powerful when I did it in group.

Anyway, if you are leading groups for DV victims, this is a must. The groups I lead were mostly African-AM, Latina, Muslim, and low income, homeless, and mentally ill. And although I don't remember that the book focused much on how issues of sexuality, race, class, or mental illness affect DV specifically, it did a great solid job with DV issues that are common across all of these groups. I used other books to supplement this one to address additional issues.

It is a good book. It helps and gives important information about how to organize a group for women who were domestically abused.