Transforming Into Men Who Matter: Increasing Empathy in Domestic Abuse Treatment

ABSTRACT

Men referred to domestic abuse treatment are typically involuntary clients, ranging from being legally mandated to being under significant pressure from others to attend. Such treatment programs have mixed results in achieving change in abusive behaviours. Most programs emphasise taking responsibility for abusive behaviour by examining the precursor thinking beliefs and values, with less attention paid to learning new interpersonal skills that replace antisocial behaviours with prosocial alternatives. Empathy provides a measurable moderator of moving beyond simply acknowledging responsibility for past abuse into learning and applying prosocial relationship enhancement skills with their treatment cohort, families, and significant others. This paper describes a program that builds empathy skills through a series of program and mentalisation tasks that include routine client feedback using the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS). Evidence of increased retention and statistically significant changes in empathy using the Social Empathy Index are provided from a previous study examining the same program. The practice and research implications for domestic abuse clients and other involuntary populations are discussed.

IMPLICATIONS

• Involuntary clients continue to have high dropout rates across a range of client populations and are a challenge to engage in the change process. With the application of the client feedback tools and relationship enhancement skills described in this paper professionals can more effectively engage other types of involuntary clients in their change efforts.

• The focus on empathy and relationship enhancement skills can lead to reduced treatment dropout across involuntary client populations referred for substance use, domestic violence, or other offender behaviours.

送去做家暴治疗的男性一般是非自觉的，要么基于法律之强迫，要么由于他人之压力。这类治疗项目对于施暴者行为的影响比较复杂。大多数治疗项目都强调向施暴者先前的思想信仰及价值观寻找原因，而较少关注学习新的人际技巧，用亲社会行为取代反社会行为。共情明显有助于将检讨以往家暴行为转变为学习、应用亲社会的关系技巧与治疗人员、家属以及重要关系人相处。本文介绍的项目通过一系列感同身受的功课，包括采用PCOMS（改变结果的伙伴管理系统）的客户反馈，来培养共情技巧。以往对同样项目的一项研究证明了容留的增加以及统计上显著的共情变化（采用社会共情系数）。笔者还讨论了实践及研究对于家暴经历者和其他非自觉人口的意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Involuntary Clients
• Domestic Violence
• Social Work Practice

Acknowledgments

The author thanks George Braucht, a consultant on the use of PCOMS, and the domestic abuse clients that made this paper possible.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.