ABSTRACT
Family violence is one of the most common, and yet challenging, issues that therapists encounter for two central reasons. First, clients who have experienced past or current family violence are very common in the clinical field and typically have very complicated backgrounds and are in need of multiple forms of support. In a recent survey of 347 marriage and family therapists, for example, nearly all participants—98.6%—indicated that they had worked with clients who were in domestic violence situations (Blasko, Winek, & Bieschke, 2007). Second, the existing research demonstrates that it is an issue for which many practicing therapists are ill-prepared to address (Gauthier & Levendosky, 1996). Many therapists are undertrained in family violence issues (Wingfield & Blocker, 1998), although this area of practice requires specialized training in order for therapists to be competent to address it (Wingfield & Blocker, 1998).
