Women in IPV Treatment for Abusers and Women in IPV Survivor Groups: Different or Two Sides of the Same Coin?

The Calgary Counselling Centre offers therapy groups for both women whose partners abuse them, “You’re Not Alone” (YNA) and women who abuse partners, “Responsible Choices for Women” (RCW). The study examines 262 group members (157 RCW & 105 YNA), comparing their demographics and scores on measures of physical and non-physical partner abuse, and mental health symptoms. At pretest, women in YNA reported significantly more problematic depression, anxiety, general distress and trauma symptoms than women in the RCW program. Nevertheless, the factorial repeated measures analysis of variance on pretest/posttest data from 177 women found statistically significant improvements on all four outcomes measures for women in both groups, although women in the YNA survivor groups made the most improvements on depression, stress and general distress. Clinical implications are described.