Help victims and survivors break the cycle of abuse! Trying to get victims and survivors of domestic abuse to recognize their own victimization can be a frustrating experience. They often become so frightened, isolated, and self-doubting that they make excuses for the abuser. Combining psychological insight with practical safety information, this book helps therapists guide their clients into understanding--and ending--the vicious cycle of wooing, tension, violence, and remorse. A Therapist's Guide to Growing Free provides a comprehensive outline of the issues, tasks, and goals involved in the treatment of victims and survivors. Its chapter-by-chapter breakdown of how violent relationships function and how to end them safely can help you guide a traumatized woman through her therapeutic journey. The guide's companion volume, Growing Free: A Manual for Survivors of Domestic Violence is the perfect handout for clients in individual therapy, group therapy, and battered women's shelters. Reading stories like their own may provide the shock of recognition they need to be able to understand--and eventually to end--the cycle of violence that characterizes all levels of domestic abuse. It outlines a series of steps they can take to ensure their emotional and physical safety. Its stories of women in abusive relationships and discussions of the cycle of abuse are direct and easy to read without ever being condescending. A Therapist's Guide to Growing Free provides the insight and therapeutic models needed for effective intervention and treatment, including: psychological effects and belief systems of victims and survivors discussions and illustrations of the cycle of violence the effects of domestic violence on children and adolescents the therapeutic challenges of couple/conjoint therapy handling crisis intervention suggestions for conducting group and therapeutic therapy for victim and batterer A Therapist's Guide to Growing Free and its companion volume provide both therapists and clients with a practical, action-oriented approach to the problem of domestic violence. It is ideal training and reference material for counselors at women's shelters, emergency room personnel, law-enforcement officers, and other professionals involved in the rescue, support, defense, and treatment of victims and survivors.

Break the pattern of abuse--safely! Battered women often become so frightened, isolated, and self-doubting that they don't recognize they are being victimized. They may minimize the seriousness of the abuse and make excuses for the abuser. The checklists, questionnaires, and personal stories in Growing Free can provide the shock of recognition they need to be able to say, “This is wrong. It has to end.” Combining psychological insight with practical safety information, Growing Free helps the reader to understand--and end--the vicious cycle of wooing, tension, violence, and remorse that characterizes all levels of domestic violence. It outlines a series of steps abused women can take to ensure their emotional and physical safety. Growing Free offers both practical and psychological resources, including: lists of abusive behaviors from ridiculing family members to physical violence common rationalizations for abuse used by both victims and perpetrator detailed discussions of protection orders and other legal matters detailed preparations and safety precautions that may make leaving less dangerous advice on what to take with you when you leave guidelines for establishing safe relationships in the future Growing Free provides readers with a straightforward, action-oriented approach to the problem of domestic violence. A companion volume available separately, A Therapist's Guide to Growing Free, offers therapists a comprehensive outline of the issues, tasks, and goals involved in treatment with victims and survivors.

Discover the effective group treatment strategies that help your school-aged clients! A child immersed in a conflicted family life may be forced to cope with a multitude of trauma, including violence, abuse, and insecurity. In A Safe Place to Grow: A Group Treatment Manual for Children in Conflicted, Violent, and Separating Homes, highly respected experts give mental health professionals the tools to provide effective group treatment for children scarred by family environments of conflict and abuse. This easy-to-understand, step-by-step manual is a developmentally appropriate treatment curriculum for traumatized school-aged children. Age-appropriate sections separate therapy for big or little kids, focusing on efficacy while presenting a comfortable multi-ethnic, multi-cultural model. A Safe Place to Grow has easy-to-understand descriptions of techniques, with each session in the curriculum containing games and activities that are therapeutic yet flexible enough to be modified whenever the situation warrants. A chapter is included to helpfully troubleshoot problems encountered when in session with either age group of children. Useful illustrations accompany the text, along with a comprehensive bibliography listing additional therapeutic resources for different types of family problems. Appendixes are included for instruction on psycho-educational groups for parents that enhance their sensitivity to their children’s needs, as well as providing an evaluation study of the group model itself. A Safe Place to Grow provides a sequence of activities within the group model aimed at each of these five goals: creating common ground and safety exploring the language and complexity of feeling defining and understanding the self defining and revising roles and relationships restoring a moral order A Safe Place to Grow is an essential resource for social workers, psychologists, family and child therapists, school counselors, and battered women and children’s advocates.

Hone your group work skills to make sessions even more meaningful! Social Work with Groups: Mining the Gold examines a wide array of varieties of social group work practice, from corrections through empowerment and international issues. It explores ways to deal with youth violence (following the shootings at Columbine High School), issues of social exclusion, empowerment practice, groups in correctional settings, group work practice with seniors, gender diversity, multicultural groups, teleconferencing groups, and education for social work group practice. Every chapter author who contributed to this timely and important volume reflects the “gold” to be mined in the use of groups in social work. Linda Hutton shares her first-hand experience of working with chronically paranoid schizophrenic clients who are also chemically addicted. Marshall Rubin and Carol J. Hinote explore ways of working creatively with different populations--Rubin confronts the use of structured program designs and Hinote describes the challenge of being a woman worker with a group of mentally ill men. Paul Abels and Sonia Leib Abels examine the use of narratives in social work with groups. Beverly Ryan and Patty Crawford discuss the creation of support groups for elderly people dealing with loss, and Jean East, Susan Manning, and Ruth J. Parsons explore ways for group work to advance the social work empowerment agenda. Social Work with Groups also explores case studies of: a school-based project to prevent violence a European group work plan to fight social exclusion in a multicultural environment a prison-based group work program ways to use gender diversity to enrich the group experience Social Work with Groups brings you insightful commentary from the people who are developing cutting-edge programs and expanding the boundaries of group work. No social worker who wants to function most effectively in a group setting should be without it!

Explore the latest research and practice information in group work! Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is a collection of research and information presented at the Twentieth Annual International Symposium on Social Work with Groups. Resiliency issues are explored in relation to children, couples, managers, survivors of torture, poor women, HIV/AIDS affected youth, and other population groups. The contributors were keynote speakers and paper presenters at the symposium. They represent a wide range of fields of practice and experience. For social workers, students, educators, and practitioners, this volume examines how group work can improve resiliency in your community. Here's a sample of what you'll find inside: Keynote Speaker Jeremy Woodcock's experiences in his groundbreaking resiliency work with victims of torture Alex Gitterman's brilliant exposition of the notions of resiliency and vulnerability--he outlines the current thinking and puts it into a group work context case examples that illustrate resiliency in children a discussion of how residential settings can function like a 24-hour group and how to use that group effectively to strengthen the resiliency of the residents a way to use groups to help develop social and economic capital for poor women through investment clubs group themes and practice strategies for group work with couples who have differing HIV status Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency also contains chapters reflecting the personal experiences of the authors. One shares her transformation from a worker who did case work in a group into a social group worker. Another shares a reminiscence of a personal journey during her formative years as a budding group worker. From its description of how the use of group work principles and skills can benefit managers and programs to its challenge to group workers to incorporate some community work skills into their repertoire, Group Work: Strategies for Strengthening Resiliency is more than a fascinating read--it is a tool to help you keep abreast of the latest theory and practice in this ever-changing field.

The must-have guide to honestly and sensitively answering your clients' questions Written to help therapists view their clients' questions as collaborative elements of clinical work, What Do I Say? explores the questions some direct, others unspoken that all therapists, at one time or another, will encounter from clients. Authors and practicing therapists Linda Edelstein and Charles Waehler take a thought-provoking look at how answers to clients' questions shape a therapeutic climate of expression that encourages personal discovery and growth. Strategically arranged in a question-and-answer format for ease of use, this hands-on guide is conversational in tone and filled with personal examples from experienced therapists on twenty-three hot-button topics, including religion, sex, money, and boundaries. What Do I Say? tackles actual client questions, such as: Can you help me? (Chapter 1, The Early Sessions) Sorry I am late. Can we have extra time? (Chapter 9, Boundaries) I don't believe in all this therapy crap. What do you think about that? (Chapter 3, Therapeutic Process) Why is change so hard? (Chapter 4, Expectations About Change) Will you attend my graduation/wedding/musical performance/speech/business grand opening? (Chapter 20, Out of the Office) Where are you going on vacation? (Chapter 10, Personal Questions) I gave your name to a friend . . . Will you see her? (Chapter 9, Boundaries) Should I pray about my problems? (Chapter 12, Religion and Spirituality) Are you like all those other liberals who believe gay people have equal rights? (Chapter 13, Prejudice) The power of therapy lies in the freedom it offers clients to discuss anything and everything. It's not surprising then, that clients will surprise therapists with their experiences and sometimes with the questions they ask. What Do I Say? reveals how these questions no matter how difficult or uncomfortable can be used to support the therapeutic process rather than derail the therapist client relationship.

Tackling relationships, career, and family issues, John Kim, LMFT, thinks of himself as a life-styledesigner, not a therapist. His radical new approach, that he sometimes calls “self-help in a shot glass” is easy, real, and to the point. He helps people make changes to their lives so that personal growth happens organically, just by living. Let’s face it, therapy is a luxury. Few of us have the time or money to devote to going to an office every week. With anecdotes illustrating principles in action (in relatable and sometimes irreverent fashion) and stand-alone practices and exercises, Kim gives readers the tools and directions to focus on what's right with them instead of what's wrong. When John Kim was going through the end of a relationship, he began blogging as The Angry Therapist, documenting his personal journey post-divorce. Traditional therapists avoid transparency, but Kim preferred the language of "me too" as opposed to "you should." He blogged about his own shortcomings, revelations, views on relationships, and the world. He spoke a different therapeutic language —open, raw, and at times subversive — and people responded. The Angry Therapist blog, that inspired this book, has been featured in The Atlantic Monthly and on NPR.