7 Young Adulthood 193and to focus on work and other tasks during the day. As time went on,
more symptoms of depression appeared. According to Bonomi et al. (2006),
“Compared to women with no IPV, women with recent physical and/or
sexual IPV were 4 times as likely to report severe depressive symptoms and
2.6 times as likely to report minor depressive symptoms” (p. 462). Jane also
experienced symptoms of dissociation, a common adaptation to trauma,
which is defined as the “partial or total separation of aspects of the traumatic
experience,” including the facts about what happened and also the physical
and psychological reactions (Rothschild, 2000, p. 65). Thoughts, images, and
sensations that would normally be connected are stored separately, in frag-
mentary forms (Saakvitne, Gamble, Pearlman, & Lev, 2000). Jane reported
feeling numb and disconnected from her emotions and body sensations at
times, and was worried about how often she “felt like a robot.” Sometimes
dissociated aspects of her experiences, for example, a distressing image or a
body sensation, returned at night in the form of flashbacks that contributed
to insomnia. She felt tremendous guilt at times about the abuse, stating that
the first thought she had after every assault was that she “must have done
something very wrong to deserve it.” Her difficulty trusting others was sadly
reinforced by the failure of the legal system to protect her, for example, by
charging her husband with only a misdemeanor after his near-fatal assault of
her. Finally, she experienced somatic difficulties such as a vulnerability to ill-
ness and accidents, and somatic memories of the abuse when she discussed
the details of her traumatic experiences, particularly pain in her abdomen
where she suffered the worst blows during the abuse.
Interventions
IPV impacts adult development in multiple ways and, therefore, the inter-
ventions must address each of the consequences just discussed: the social/
relational, physical, and psychological. Because IPV inflicts serious harm
on a survivor’s ability to trust others, the most important and challenging
“intervention” is the development of a safe and strong therapeutic rela-
tionship (Pearlman & Courtois, 2005). Saakvitne et al. (2000) describe four
elements of attachment-based healing that should be incorporated into a
relationship with a trauma survivor: respect, information, connection, and
hope (RICH) (pp. 13–15). One of the therapeutic qualities essential to devel-
oping a “RICH” relationship with a victim of IPV is that of being nonjudg-
mental. In the words of Jane, “I needed to walk through my options without
being judged and without hearing, ‘Are you crazy?’” In 2000, Shamai con-
ducted a study “intended to examine the subjective experience and subse-
quent meaning given by battered women to their treatment” (p. 88). The
findings were organized into themes including the value that the female
survivors placed on having a worker who “listened without judging”
(p. 91). Other themes that were identified as central in their treatment were:
the discovery of “the right to be someone with legitimate feelings, thoughts
and desires,” feeling less guilty about the abuse they suffered, and being
helped by the worker to create and experience a “new self” (pp. 90–91). Jane
too cited each of these themes as meaningful to her recovery.