Battered Women: Stages of Change and Other Treatment Models That Instigate and Sustain Leaving

This article incorporates a cognitive problem-solving intervention model in a case report of a chronically abused woman from Roberts’ continuum of the extent and chronicity level of women battering. It depicts Prochaska and DiClemente’s stages of change and Roberts’ crisis intervention model in the progressive movement from living in a battering situation to leaving the relationship and becoming independent. By attempting to understand the nature of the battering experience and how women cope on a daily basis, insights can be illuminated into their survival skills and the strengths that are utilized to make the decision to leave, act upon, and sustain that goal. In addition, the application of the cognitive problem-solving intervention model to the battering experience of clients can assist practitioners in developing treatment assessments and strategies that intend to motivate their clients to move towards freedom of choice, disengagement, and empowerment. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 3:83–98 (2003)]