From cycles of harm to pathways of hope: a multi component approach for treatment of trauma and attachment in parents and young children after domestic violence

Abstract

This dissertation reports about research into treatment for parents and their young children (0-6 years old) who experienced intimate partner violence (IPV). Insight is given into the problems that this target group experiences, specifically parental childhood maltreatment experiences, PTSD symptoms of parents and children, impairments in parenting, and children’s emotional and behavioral problems. The effectiveness of two treatments for this target groups is reported, namely NIKA, a 5-session attachment-based intervention that uses videofeedback and a 6-session EMDR therapy for parents. Furthermore, the development of a guidance document is described. This guidance document helps therapists to decide on the order of trauma therapy for parents, trauma therapy for young children and attachment-based intervention, specifically for IPV exposed families. Results are described and implications and future directions are discussed.