Therapy

The Importance of Therapy in Recovery

Therapy is one of Options’ four primary programs and is central to our ability to offer women and children the opportunity to heal from the abuse that they have suffered.  Providing therapy at no cost to survivors of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse promotes mental health and wellness in survivors by giving them the tools to begin to lead healthy, violence-free lives.  Therapy is a true catalyst for change in the lives of survivors of abuse.  Through the impact that therapy has on survivors, we impact our wider community by stopping domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse one woman and one family at a time.

Many people think that domestic violence, rape and sexual assault are women’s issues.  This is a dangerous myth that trivializes the true nature and extent of the social impact made by domestic violence, rape and sexual assault.  The reality is that society will continue to suffer until we commit to improving the lives and prospects of women.  Domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse are deep societal issues affect men and women, children and adults, wealthy and underprivileged.  The footprint made by domestic violence, rape, and sexual assault crosses all races and ethnic backgrounds in the United States, and affects at least one in three American women.  A woman is beaten in the United States every 15 minutes, and one in three American women will become victims of physical or sexual violence at the hands of an intimate partner.  Domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse affect us all.

Therapy helps survivors of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse develop coping skills for flashbacks, nightmares, and anxiety; as well as strategies for managing depression, setting clear boundaries, breaking large goals into manageable ones, parenting skills, and restructuring the family to establish a healthy hierarchy.  Therapy sessions are an appropriate and safe venue for women and children to receive clinical interventions for cutting, substance abuse, personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, or major depressive disorder.  Difficult conditions such as these often accompany or follow violent or sexual abuse.  Without appropriate counseling and support, a victim may remain crippled by her abuse for the rest of her life, or may return to a violent situation.

Therapy contributes to ending the cycle of domestic violence, rape, sexual assault, and child abuse, and to preventing abuse in the future.  Violent and sexual abusers exert control over their victims, and often the victims continue to suffer the effects of this loss of control long after the abuse has ended.  .  Appropriate counseling and therapy can do much to diminish this generational cycle, thereby preventing further abuse or victimization in one woman and one family at a time.