Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Art as a Facilitator of Communication on Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: A Retrospective Examination of a 10-Year-Old Girl’s Therapy

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Clinical Social Work Journal Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

To adapt methods of accessing the voice of children who are exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV), this paper explores the contribution of art as means of communicating during therapy with a 10-year-old girl. Based on a retrospective review of the intervention, it presents several examples of the use of art, as well as the way in which they contributed to the creation of a direct and indirect discussion about the girls’ exposure to IPV. This is discussed in relation to the developmental world of children who have been exposed to IPV, and their location within the family as a system.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the various forms of domestic violence. Since the present paper focuses on a child’s exposure to violence between her parents, the term used will be IPV.

  2. In Hebrew, the two words are similarly spelled.

References

  • Aaro, T. (2002). Drawing as a verbally mediated activity: A study of relationships between verbal, motor, and visuospatial skills and drawing in children. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 26(3), 234–247.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Alvarez, A. (2002). Live company: psychoanalytic psychotherapy with utistic, borderline, deprived, and abused children. New York: Brunner-Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Amato, P. R., & Afifi, T. D. (2006). Feeling caught between parents: Adult children’s relations with parents and subjective well-being. Journal of Marriage and Family, 68(1), 222–235.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Betensky, M. G. (1995). What do you see: Phenomenology of therapeutic art expression. Ringwood: Readers Digest.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borrego, J., Gutow, M. R., Reicher, S., & Barker, C. H. (2008). Parent–child interaction therapy with domestic violence populations. Journal of Family Violence, 23(6), 495–505.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowen, M. (1993). Family therapy in clinical practice. New York: Jason Aronson.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowyer, L., Swanston, J., & Vetere, A. (2015). Eventually you just get used to it’: An interpretative phenomenological analysis of 10–16-year-old girls’ experiences of the transition into temporary accommodation after exposure to domestic violence perpetrated by men against their mothers. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20(2), 304–323.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buckley, H., Holt, S., & Whelan, S. (2007). Listen to me! Children’s experiences of domestic violence. Child Abuse Review, 16(5), 296–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buehler, C., & Welsh, D. P. (2009). A process model of adolescents’ triangulation into parents’ marital conflict: the role of emotional reactivity. Journal of Family Psychology, 23(2), 167.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan, J. E., Alexander, J. H., Sixsmith, J., & Fellin, L. C. (2016). Beyond “Witnessing” children’s experiences of coercive control in domestic violence and abuse. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260515618946.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Callaghan, J. E. M., & Alexander, J. H. (2015). Understanding agency and resistance strategies: Children’s experiences of domestic violence report. Northampton: UON.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cater, ÅK. (2014). Children’s descriptions of participation processes in intervention for children exposed to intimate partner violence. Child and Adolescence Social Work, 31, 455–473. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-014-0330-z.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cooper, J., & Vetere, A. (2008). Domestic violence and family safety: A systemic approach to working with violence in families. London: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dallos, R., & Vetere, A. (2012). Systems theory, family attachments and processes of triangulation: Does the concept of triangulation offer a useful bridge? Journal of Family Therapy, 34, 117–137. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6427.2011.00554.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Di Leo, J. H. (2015). Children’s drawings as diagnostic aids. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Driessnack, M. (2002). To the editor. Journal of Pediatric Health Care, 16(3), 156.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Eriksson, M., & Nasman, E. (2012). Interviews with children expose to domestic violence. Children & Society, 26, 63–73.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flashman, A. A. (2011). House depends on braking: Clinical thinking about child abuse (In Hebrew). https://alanflashman.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/d791d799d7aa-d7aad79cd795d799-d7a2d79c-d791d79cd799d79ed794-as-2003.pdf.

  • Frankel, J. (2002). Exploring Ferenczi’s concept of identification with the aggressor: Its role in trauma, everyday life, and the therapeutic relationship. Psychoanalytic Dialogues, 12(1), 101–139.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Freud, A. (1974). The ego and the mechanisms of defense. New York: International Universities Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Furth, G. M. (2002). The secret world of drawings: A Jungian approach to healing through art. Toronto: Inner City Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Georgsson, A., Almqvist, K., & Broberg, A. (2011). Naming the unmentionable: How children exposed to intimate partner violence articulate their experiences. Journal of Family Violence, 26, 117–129.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert, T., Farrand, P., & Lankshear, G. (2012). Troubled lives: Chaos and trauma in the accounts of young people considered “at risk” of diagnosis of personality disorder. Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences, 26, 747–754. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6712.2012.00991.x.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Goldblatt, H. (2003). Strategies of coping among adolescents experiencing inter parental violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 18(5), 532–552.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Groves, B. M., Van Horn, P., & Lieberman, A. F. (2007). Deciding on fathers’ involvement in their children’s treatment after domestic violence. In J. L. Edleson & O. J. Williams (Eds.), Parenting by men who batter: New directions for assessment and intervention (pp. 65–84). New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grych, J. H., Wachsmuth-Schlaefer, T., & Klockow, L. L. (2002). Interpersonal aggression and young children representations of family relationship. Journal of Family Psychology, 16(3), 259–272.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hague G., & Mullender, A. (2006). Who listens? The voices of domestic violence survivors in service provision in the United Kingdom. Violence Against Women, 12, 568–587.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hahn, S. A., & Postmus, J. L. (2014). Economic empowerment of impoverished IPV survivors: A review of best practice literature and implications for policy. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 15(2), 79–93.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamama, L., & Ronen, T. (2009). Children’s drawings as a self-report measurement. Child & Family Social Work, 14(1), 90–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holden, G. W. (2003). Children exposed to domestic violence and child abuse: Terminology and taxonomy. Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review, 6(3), 151–160.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Holstein, J. A., & Gubrium, J. F. (2011). The constructionist analytics of interpretive practice. In N. K. Denzin & Y. S. Lincoln (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of qualitative research (4th ed., pp. 341–358). Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holt, S., Buckley, H., & Whelan, S. (2008). The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people: A review of the literature. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32, 797–810.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huss, E., Elhozayel, E., & Marcus, E. (2012). Art in group work as an anchor for integrating the micro and macro levels of intervention with incest survivors. Clinical Social Work Journal, 40(4), 401–411.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Izaguirre, A., & Cater, Å (2016). Child witnesses to intimate partner violence their descriptions of talking to people about the violence. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516639256.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnston, J. (2003). Group interventions for children at risk from family abuse and exposure to domestic violence: A report of a study. In R. Geffner, R. Igelman & J. Zelner (Eds.), The effects of intimate partner violence on children (pp. 203–225). Binghamton: Haworth.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kamal, L., Strand, J., Jutengren, G., & Tidefors, I. (2017). Perceptions and experiences of an attachment-based intervention for parents troubled by intimate partner violence. Clinical Social Work Journal, 45(4), 311–319.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Karkou, V. (2010). Arts therapies in schools: Research and practice. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation: An approach on Bowen theory. New York: Noryon & Co.

    Google Scholar 

  • Klepsch, M., & Logie, L. (2014). Children draw and tell: An introduction to the projective uses of children’s human figure drawing. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Madigan, S., Ladd, M., & Goldberg, S. (2003). A picture is worth a thousand words: Children’s representations of family as indicators of early attachment. Attachment & Human Development, 5(1), 19–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Malchiodi, C. A. (1997). Breaking the silence: Art therapy with children from violent homes. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malchiodi, C. A. (1998). Understanding children’s drawings. New York: Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Malchiodi, C. A. (2008). Group and play therapy program for children from violent homes. In C. A. Malchiodi (Ed.), Creative interventions with traumatized children: Basics of practice (pp. 264–284). New York: The Guilford Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mallia, G. (1997). The use of comics strip in adult education practice. In G. Baldacchino & P. Mayo (Eds.), Beyond schooling. Malta: Mireva Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGee, C. (2000). Childhood experiences of domestic violence. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills, E., & Kellington, S. (2012). Using group art therapy to address the shame and silencing surrounding children’s experiences of witnessing domestic violence. International Journal of Art Therapy, 17(1), 3–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milner, M. (2010). On not being able to paint. New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Mulholland, M. J. (2004). Comics as Art Therapy. Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 21(1), 42–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mullender, A., Hague, G., Imam, U., Kelly, L., Malos, E., & Regan, L. (2003). Children perspective on domestic violence. London: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nissimov-Nahum, E. (2008). A model for art therapy in educational settings with children who behave aggressively. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 35(5), 341–348.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Onyskiw, J. E. (2003). Domestic violence and children’s adjustment: A review of research. Journal of Emotional Abuse, 3(1/2), 11–45.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osofsky, J. D. (1995). Children who witness to domestic violence: The invisible victims. Social Policy Report: Society for Research in Child Development, 9(3), 3–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Överlien, C. (2013). The children of patriarchal terrorism. Journal of Family Violence, 28, 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-013-9498-9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Överlien, C. (2017). ‘Do you want to do some arm wrestling?’: Children’s strategies when experiencing domestic violence and the meaning of age. Child &Family Social Work, 22(2), 680–688.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Överlien, C., & Hydén, M. (2009). Children’s actions when experiencing domestic violence. Childhood, 16, 479–496.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peled, E. (2000). Parenting by men who abuse women: Issues and dilemmas. British Journal of Social Work, 30(1), 25–36.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Peleg-Oren, N. (2002). Group intervention for children of drug-addicted parents—Using expressive techniques. Clinical Social Work Journal, 30(4), 403–418.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rubin, J. A. (2011). Child art therapy. Hoboken: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Santelli, J. S., Rogers, A. S., Rosenfeld, W. D., DuRant, R. H., Dubler, N., Morreale, M., English, A., Lyss, S., Wimberly, Y., & Schissel, A. (2003). Guidelines for adolescent health research: A position paper for the Society for Adolescent Medicine. Journal of Adolescent Health, 33(5), 396–409.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Scott, J. (2008). Children as respondents: The challenge for quantitative methods. In P. Christensen & A. James (Eds.), Research with children: Perspectives and practices (2nd ed., pp. 87–108). New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Solberg, A. (2014). Reflections on interviewing children living in difficult circumstances: courage, caution and co-production. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 17(3), 233–248.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Swanston, J., Bowyer, L., & Vetere, A. (2014). Towards a richer understanding of school-age children’s experiences of domestic violence: The voices of children and their mothers. Journal of Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 19(2), 184–201.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, E. H., & Trice-Black, S. (2012). School-based group interventions for children exposed to domestic violence. Journal of Family Violence, 27, 233–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tufford, L., Mishna, F., & Black, T. (2010). Mandatory reporting and child exposure to domestic violence: Issues regarding the therapeutic alliance with couples. Clinical Social Work Journal, 38(4), 426–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ullman, S. E. (2011). Is disclosure of sexual traumas helpful? Comparing experimental laboratory versus field study results. Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment & Trauma, 20, 148–162.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wallter, D. (2006). Art therapy for children: How it leads to change. Clinical Child Psychology, 11, 271–282.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winnicott, D. W. (1971). Playing and reality. New York: Psychology Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Young-Bruehl, E. (2003). Where do we fall when we fall in love? New York: Other Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Menny Malka.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Malka, M. Art as a Facilitator of Communication on Exposure to Intimate Partner Violence: A Retrospective Examination of a 10-Year-Old Girl’s Therapy. Clin Soc Work J 47, 185–197 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-018-0689-y

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10615-018-0689-y

Keywords

Navigation