Women survivors' accounts of seeing psychologists: harm or benefit?

Abstract

Many women who experience intimate partner violence are left with significant and long-lasting mental health effects resulting in survivors seeking help from psychologists. However, the voices of women who have sought such help are mostly absent in research. To address this gap, we interviewed 20 women survivors of intimate partner violence about their experiences when seeing psychologists. We analysed this data thematically and developed two main themes relating to women’s experiences of psychologists after intimate partner violence. These themes were: mirroring abuse or being supportive and it did me quite a bit of damage. Our research suggests that these women experienced suboptimal menta..