NEGOTIATED TIME-OUT: A DE-ESCALATION TOOL FOR COUPLES

Many state domestic violence intervention standards mandate that treatment for offenders should be separate from any treatment offered to victims. In this article we advocate that in cases of low‐level violence, when couples choose to remain together, certain aspects of treatment should be offered conjointly. Specifically, our feedback from victims and offenders suggests that one tool generally taught to offenders‐time‐out—is often ineffective and can be used abusively when partners are not taught the tool concurrently. We describe the negotiated time‐out procedure that we developed and use feedback from our clients to illustrate its usefulness.