Assessment and treatment of couples with abusive male partners: Guidelines for therapists

The literature on domestic violence and couple's therapy currently offers few clear guidelines about assessment and treatment with couples with abusive male partners. This article addresses these gaps in the literature, attempts to integrate the divergent feminist, systems, psychodynamic, and behavioral perspectives on working with these couples, integrates an ecological perspective on violence into our framework, and finally, addresses process issues within the therapeutic relationship. Guidelines for assessment include written measures and interviews of each member of the couple separately as the first step in deciding whether or not to work with the couple, depending on the severity of the violence. Treatment should begin only when therapists have thoroughly assessed for violence in the relationship. Finally, it is critical that therapists pay attention to their attitudes and reactions to couples with abusive male partners, and honestly evaluate whether they feel comfortable and competent working with these couples.