Emmalee Bolin

Field Seminar

Margarite Reinert

Hall, J. G. (2019). Child-centered play therapy as a means of healing children exposed to

domestic violence. International Journal of Play Therapy, 28(2), 98-106.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/pla0000097

Domestic Violence is a major concern for children today. In the US approximately 8.2

million children are exposed to some sort of familial violence in the past year. Being a witness to

physical and psychological violence in families can cause detrimental effects to the children. The

younger the child is the more psychological disturbances and display of low self-esteem they will

show. Children are taught to keep secrets when violence occurs at home. This results in the child

not being able to verbally express what has happened. Children need to have interventions that

are developmentally appropriate for their age. Play therapy has been proven as an effective mean

to treat the externalizing and internalizing of problems in children who have been a witness to

DV.

Trauma is described as bad external events that happen in your life. Type 1 are single

events that happen suddenly. Type 2 are events that are continuous and happen over time like

DV. Children will have lasting changes as a result of exposure to trauma. Children may

reexperience trauma through sensations of visual triggers, unconscious behaviors may manifest if

the child was nonverbal when the trauma was experienced, fears of the future in adulthood, and

attitudes about life and limited future of their own assuming that trauma is always around the

corner.
 Children who experience type 2 trauma respond with emotional reactions like rage,

powerlessness, and sadness. Sometimes the children will be appeared disassociated from the

trauma. Denial, numbing, and withdrawn are unconscious coping mechanisms. Children will

fluctuate from being enraged and passive at times. They may turn their anger on themselves and

self-harm. Internal changes with children exposed to DV can develop into severe symptoms and

lead to mental health diagnosis. Consideration needs to happen in response to trauma and the

developmental level the child is in when exposed. Children express emotions differently than

adults. They will process visual and auditory events that will disrupt their brains ability to

process the trauma.

Children who see DV start to expect aggression as a part of everyday life. They have an

intense need to help yet being young they are helpless in situations. Their emotional relationships

are not able to flourish when the children are conflicted about their situation. Children have

conflicting experiences of love and terror and what is safe and not safe. Violence in households

makes environments unstable and inconsistent along with modeling aggression as a tool for

conflict resolution. Children are forced into a paradox of connecting to their abusive parent and

protecting themselves emotionally from them also. The feelings that contradict themselves cause

children to externalize their emotions such as school phobias, separation anxiety, learning

disorders, difficulties with peers.

Children exposed to DV will take on responsibility for the parental conflict. Behavioral

manifestations come out in their lives because of this. Internalizing and externalizing behaviors

are seen in children who witness DV more often than children not exposed to DV. 92% of

children exposed to DV had behavioral indicators for longer than one month. Being witness to

DV is a traumatizing experience to children. The data shows that 70% of children who were
exposed in preschool to DV had external and internal behaviors displayed. When a child has

maladaptive behaviors due to DV exposure they are more likely to display violent patters as

adults this is known as intergenerational transmission of violence. Developmentally some

children may not be able to discuss the traumatic events. The silence they are used to keeping

will hinder the verbal expression when trying to process the events. Interventions to help these

children should focus on trusting and healthy relationships. Symbolic communication may lessen

the externalizing behaviors. Child centered play therapy is a good tool in addressing DV and

children exposed. CCPT is based on personal attitudes and beliefs about the worth and

importance of individuals. Counselors display acceptance and allow clients self-direction, freeing

the client to explore experiences in a new way with goals and meaning.

Children are not as verbal as adults when it comes to identifying their emotions therefore

play is the natural way of communication for them. Play helps children process experiences in a

more concrete manner. Children will use objects instead of words to project their feelings,

beliefs, and perceptions about themselves and their world. Since play is the natural way for

children to communicate it is used to directly play out emotions and experiences with toys. The

counselor is therefore able to enter the child’s world and communicate at their level. Play therapy

is proven in treating external and internalizing problems in children.

CCPT therapist models acceptance to the children. This relationship is the basis for

change and a way to be with children interacting. Reflecting play, content meaning, feeling,

encouraging, and positive regard helps teach the children a different way to express their

emotions. Practicing coping skills and mastering tasks in play therapy can help the child develop

feelings of empowerment and self-acceptance. When they feel freedom and control through play

the children will be encouraged to develop positive coping skills and help their problem-solving
skills in a nonthreatening manner. Children are validated through CCPT and this will decrease

their anxiety. Respect and relationship are imperative in the change and learning process.

Exposure to DV is an issue that many children face today. There are long lasting impacts

if the trauma is not addressed through a therapeutic setting. Therapists who want to work with

DV exposed children should be well trained in CCPT and trauma.

Callaghan, J. E. M., Fellin, L. C., Alexander, J. H., Mavrou, S., & Papathanasiou, M. (2017).

Children and domestic violence: Emotional competencies in embodied and relational

contexts.  Psychology of Violence, 7(3), 333-342.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/vio0000108

Psychological research on the experience of child exposure to DV has shown negative

impacts on the children. Studies have shown that children who experience DV are emotionally

incompetent due to difficulties in their emotional development. This study shows how children

who have witnessed DV cope with their emotions.

In developmental psychology it is assumed that children develop competencies through

parental modeling and coaching of emotions. Parents help shape a child’s ability to label and

express emotions. The parent’s ability to talk to the child about emotions being felt by them is

also a catalyst of development. Because high conflict relationships result in the parent’s lack of

ability to use emotional regulation themselves the children do not get the modeling they need to

learn.

It is thought that children who experience DV are less likely to be able to express

emotions properly than children in nonviolent homes. Those children tend to be reactive and

quick to anger. Children who experience DV may be more emotionally incompetent in areas of
emotional awareness, recognition of emotions, and regulation of them. Due to the lack of

emotional competence those children grow up to enter violent relationships themselves causing

the intergenerational transmission of violence. The children were asked questions about how

they felt with their emotions instead of labeling the specific emotion. They would also show

images to children to see what emotion they tied the images with.

Children who experience DV often are able to read the situation and look for cues as to

how the interaction is going to turn out. When they were shown images, it was hard for them to

think abstractly because they are used to using this skill in the action every day. Children are

used to reading situations in order to keep themselves and others safe when conflict arises.

Researchers ability to interpret a child’s emotion suggests that you first hear the

symbolism in their explanations. The person has to be able to listen for the context of the child’s

experience to understand the emotion they are feeling. The goals of this article are to understand

the complexities of the emotional world for children exposed to DV, looking at how they

recognize and reflect on their own and others’ emotions. And to see the need for explorations of

emotions in research practice and challenge research so they can identify the richness of

participants emotional contexts.

Children who experience DV are constrained in their explanation for expressing those

emotions. They lack the language skills to communicate their experiences. Children have self-

expression that is limited, and they will struggle to label their feelings. This can also be used as a

strategy for protecting themselves and others in DV relationships.

Children’s emotional embodiment and their experiences of emotions are relational.

Children can identify when connections of emotions and relational subjects are getting escalated.
A child will be able to identify with the victim or apart from them, differentiating who they are

compared to the other person.

Children interviewed identified that getting feelings out is important. In DV relationships

there is often a power and control that restricts emotions from being shown. They will stifle their

emotions to protect the family and not inflame the abuser. Saying how you feel can be both risky

and cathartic to a child when the witness DV.

Children who experience DV have complex emotional worlds and their understanding of

their emotional experiences are embodied, relational, and from the point of view of themselves.

By allowing children to explore and articulate their emotions in their own way instead of adult

constructs they are able to identify their own emotional lives. Children do not passively learn

emotions; they experience and manage their emotions in relevant ways. Children exposed to DV

can explain their emotions it just has to be looked at in the context of their family and

experiences.

Metz, C., Calmet, J., & Thevenot, A. (2019). Women subjected to domestic violence: The

impossibility of separation.  Psychoanalytic Psychology, 36(1), 36-43.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/pap0000186

The US and France are seeing domestic violence at alarming rates even though there are

policies and prevention measures that have been taken. Since women tend to go back to their

violent partners the researchers wanted to assess what psychic factors lead to this behavior.

Women have traumatic infantile relationships which play a part in their choice to stay with a

violent partner. A main factor identified in this study of 30 participants was that early distress in

life with other relationships plays an unconscious effort to attempt to repair the relationship with
the violent partner. Results indicate that the women need to uncover the source of their issues in

order to find out why they stay.

In the United States one in four women will experience DV in their lifetime. About 1200

women are killed by intimate partner violence every year in the US. Gender relations in societies

throughout the world are thought to be the reason behind DV. Women’s passivity is supported by

family, community and cultural institutions. Factors associated with risk of intimate partner

violence include low education, exposure to DV with parents, abuse during childhood, and

acceptance of violence and gender inequality. Stigma that stops women from seeking help when

IPV occurs are cultural, internalization and anticipated. Any goal of social change with women

leaving DV relationships needs to understand the psychology of the partnership.

Insecure attachment is linked to dysfunctional intimate relationships. Attachment theory

to couple therapy is important to analyze in marital violence. A similar study showed that men

who were seeking treatment for marital violence had fearful avoidant attachment styles. The

anger the man feels will appear in their relationships and come out as assaultiveness. Insecure

types of attachment in women make them unable to satisfy the relationship or themselves. The

partner who inflicts the violence is taking their hatred of themselves out on their partner. The

point of the relationship is for each partner to fulfill an unconscious need to fix the relationship

they are still conflicted about in their past. The more outside forces try to separate the couple the

more they are bonded together and stick together.

The focus of the study is on women and why they stay in abusive relationships with men.

The goal is a pleading change for social change in order to protect the women better especially in

separation cases. The couple brings their own childhood trauma with them to the relationship.

This is an intergenerational problem.

Thomas, K. A., Mederos, F., & Rodriguez, G. (2019). “It shakes you for the rest of your life”:

Low-income fathers’ understanding of domestic violence and its impact on children. Psychology

of Violence, 9(5), 564-573. doi:http://dx.doi.org.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/vio0000196

A study was conducted with men who were in responsible fatherhood groups RFG. RFG

are evidenced based curriculum for parenting for fathers. Childhood exposure to domestic

violence is prevalent in the RFG participants. The important factor for change is the previous

experience or exposure to the DV. Childhood exposure to DV is 18% for children under 18.

Psychological DV exposure is around 16% for children under 18. Intersectionality of

socioeconomic status is important factor in assessing DV prevalence. Those who are

impoverished will experience higher rates of DV. Structural oppression is also a big issue with

the intersect of DV. Due to the stereotype about low income men of color they are seen as

perpetrators, criminals, and deadbeat dads. Society does not invest in these men as a source for

mentoring their children.

Three factors in research of low-income men report that the fathers want and pursue

positive involvement with their children, have the desire to be good fathers therefore motivated

for personal reflection and growth, and they provide an important role in the development and

wellbeing of their children. RFG programs have positively engaged these low-income men. In

these groups the men work on parenting skills, employment options, and personal development.

A few other groups work on healthy co-parenting and DV. The participants were in their 30’s

and were from marginalized multi-stressed populations. Unmarried, unemployed or

underemployed, no college, and have criminal records. Violence seems to be common facet of
their lives. In their childhood they suffered poverty, family instability, abuse, neglect, and DV

exposure.

The men in the study seen fatherhood as an opportunity to break the cycle of abuse they

have lived in their lives. They also identify how their own exposure to DV has negatively

impacted their parenting and relationships with their children. These men do not connect their

childhood exposure to violence against their partners, however. This study was to identify

perspectives of participants around the topic of DV. The authors wanted to know how these men

identified DV and analyze their knowledge of how DV effects their children. Questions

addressed in the interviews were “what comes to mind when the term domestic violence is

used?” They also explored thoughts about how DV affects children both boys and girls and their

different ages. And how fathers can prevent DV and their children’s involvement in it during

their life.

The fathers in this study were able to understand DV and the impact on their own

children through personal experiences of DV in their own lives as children. Themes that emerged

in the study interviews were that physical violence over other DV was focused on, fathers felt

powerless and profiled, childhood DV exposure has life altering effects, understanding of DV on

a person depends on the individual and their coping mechanisms, and lastly effects on other

relationships throughout life.

The findings shown that fathers had a solid understanding about DV and the effects

witnessing DV has on the children exposed to it. Because most of the low-income fathers had

personal experiences with DV growing up they could comprehend possible effects on children.

The men focused on physical violence more than the psychological violence the children

experienced. Therefor it is unknown if they understand what effects the psychological abuse has
on children who are exposed to it. The fathers understanding of effects of DV exposure on

children directly reflects the findings in studies such as Adverse Childhood Experience Study.

The findings of the study showed that low-income fathers must have opportunities to

process their own traumatic childhood events. Painful traumatic experiences are powerful

motivators to engage men in antiviolence work. RFG programs should include DV prevention

efforts in their curriculum. Violence is often a learned behavior that people develop but it can be

unlearned. Programs have the opportunity to share this knowledge in an effort to encourage

nonviolence and healthy relationships. It may be worth the program’s time to develop skill

building activities so the fathers learn how to address DV with their children and peers since

most of these participants already had a basic understanding and insight of how DV effects the

children.

Spencer, C., Mallory, A. B., Cafferky, B. M., Kimmes, J. G., Beck, A. R., & Stith, S. M. (2019).

Mental health factors and intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization: A meta-

analysis. Psychology of Violence, 9(1), 1-17.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.briarcliff.idm.oclc.org/10.1037/vio0000156

Authors identify that biological, psychological and social factors are contributing factors

that lead to the development of mental health disorders. Specifically, they wanted use the

biopsychosocial lens to understand if mental health disorders such as depression, anxiety, PTSD,

antisocial PD, and borderline PD were linked to IPV perpetration and victimization for men and

women. The authors wanted to determine if biological factors like sex could differentiate

between if the mental health disorders displayed made a person more susceptible to be a

perpetrator or victim. It is further explained that women are more likely than men to be
diagnosed with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and borderline PD. Men and women express

symptoms differently with mental health issues. Women are more likely to internalize symptoms

and men externalize symptoms. When men externalize symptoms, they are impulsive, have

intense anger, and avoid. Women on the other hand express feelings of emptiness, have unstable

relationships, self-harm, and have a negative affect.

The data collected and analyzed from previous studies showed that depression, anxiety,

PTSD, antisocial PD, and borderline PD were significant correlates for perpetration when both

women and men’s data was combined. Depression, anxiety, PTSD, antisocial PD, and borderline

PD were also significant for victimization. Anxiety had more of a correlation to victimization.

Antisocial PD and borderline PD were correlated with perpetration while depression was aligned

more with victimization.

In women perpetration was more in line with borderline PD whereas victimization was

aligned with PTSD. With men the correlation of mental health disorders was no significant

difference if they were perpetrator or victim. Overall the result of the data collection shown that

anxiety and PTSD are related to victimization and antisocial PD and borderline PD are related

more to perpetration. Data shown that antisocial and borderline PD are stronger correlates for

perpetration. It is likely that these mental health diagnoses are not due to IPV perpetration or

victimization whereas anxiety and PTSD can either be due to the IPV issues or happened before

IPV occurred. It is important in treatment of IPV that clinicians address the mental health

disorders like antisocial and borderline PD in order to reduce IPV recidivism.

Gender role socialization could be a part of the results for why PTSD and borderline PD

were more definitive for victimization and perpetration in women. Gender data shows that

women are more likely diagnosed with depression due to their internalization of their problems
and stressors society puts on them. So it makes sense that depression is correlated with IPV in

women more than with men.