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Information for Professionals
Overview
Basic principles
Defining Abuse
Intake criteria
Who actually comes to MENERGY
Referral process
Location
Fees
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Overview
MENERGY’S
primary service is the outpatient group treatment and rehabilitation of English-
or Spanish-speaking adult men who abuse their intimate partners. We also
provide services to straight and lesbian women who are abusive in their
relationships (Triangle Space). A client is an
appropriate candidate for MENERGY if he or she exhibits a significant pattern of
physical or emotional abuse in relationship with his or her partner. The
frequency, intensity and the duration of the abuse can be as variable as the
kinds of abusive tactics (see the section on
Defining Abuse
below).
Because
abuse can become so dangerous on the physical level, so destructive on the
emotional level, and such an impediment to the growth of all involved, we view
ongoing abuse as a priority problem that needs to be focused on and dealt with
safely before most other family issues are addressed. Like substance abuse,
intimate partner abuse is a problem that gets in the way of dealing with other things.
MENERGY
focuses on abuse through a process beginning with a thorough assessment
session designed to screen according to certain basic criteria (see
Intake
criteria below). Those clients accepted into the program continue to be
evaluated as they are prepared for group treatment through a limited number
of individual sessions (usually three). During these sessions the
clients will experience a supportive confrontation of their abuse with a contract
for ceasing violent and/or particularly destructive behavior. Careful
assessment is made of a client’s current lethality, substance abuse, history of
partner abuse or child abuse, early history of the client’s own experience of
abuse, character structure, and current mental status. Partners are
independently interviewed, usually by phone, about the relationship and the
abuse, warned about the danger of their situation and the limitations of
treatment. Partners are told that they will be informed if the client terminates
treatment.
MENERGY
is primarily a group treatment program. Clients are screened and
prepared for group treatment whenever appropriate. The group program is 30
weeks long and consists of 10 weeks of psychoeducational treatment followed by
20 weeks of therapy group. Clients can opt to continue on in an advanced group.
The
psychoeducational part of the program quickly confronts the client with his or
her own
particular style and frequency of abuse through the use of weekly self reports ,
and structured exercises, and videos. As they gain greater comprehension of the
issues involved in being abuse-free, group members learn new approaches with which
to deal with conflict, disappointment and meeting their needs.
We try as
much as possible to mix our groups heterogeneously with regard to relational
status, race, socioeconomic status and interactional style. Groups are
constructed homogenously with respect to gender. Due to safety concerns
for gay men, our men's groups are not mixed with respect to sexual orientation.
When deemed safe and appropriate, women's groups may be mixed with straight and
gay women.
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We operate our program under
the following basic principles and constructs:
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Physical assault in the home is
just as criminal as assault in the street. MENERGY is not in the
business of helping anyone avoid legal consequences for criminal behavior. We
are in the business of helping men or women who have a problem with physical or
emotional abuse to stop abusing their partners. We are willing to let the
program be a legal consequence for a client’s behavior if he or she contracts to
complete the program, pays the fees and conforms to program requirements.
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Abuse is wrong. Our
philosophic, ethical and therapeutic position is that nobody makes
anybody abuse him or her. Violence is a choice. We aim to make the choice as
conscious as possible. The norms and values of MENERGY dictate that
choosing violence, abusive control and destructive coercion is wrong. While
we condemn the offense, we try not to condemn the offender.
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Violence is learned; so is
blaming, dominance and a variety of vulnerabilities. In most instances, these
behaviors and predispositions can be unlearned and replaced by other ways of
behaving and being. The therapeutic learning is both cognitive and
emotional. It usually takes time in the context of some interpersonal
fellowship. It also requires a consistent will to change.
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Fundamental ingredients of the
process of change for perpetrators of abuse seem to be accountability to
others and a willingness to have their behavior monitored over
time. Our treatment emphasizes both these factors.
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The abusive person is
responsible for controlling his or her abuse. It is not the abused
partners' job to
“take care of” their partner’s abusiveness.
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Domestic violence is usually
about power and control. The violence is usually part of a larger pattern of
coercion (emotional or financial or sexual) that permeates the relationship.
Often, a dominance pattern is clear. Sometimes, the pattern of control
observed is one of resentful passive surrender followed by explosive
outbursts of revenge or punishment. Learning about entitlements to power,
control and privilege is usually part of the process of learning and choosing
to give up abuse.
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In cases of serious and/or
patterned domestic violence, it is frequently dangerous to the safety of
victims to do conjoint couple or family therapy. We usually recommend
separate treatment of partners until safety is more predictable. If a
client is violence-free for 3 months, is taking responsibility for his or her abuse, and
the partner is interested, couple work can be arranged with MENERGY
staff.
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Violence is damaging to all the
family members. It is physically harmful to victims. It humiliates and
terrorizes the woman and children. It degrades and diminishes the real
integrity of the abusive person. It poisons intimacy and sharing in the family. It
represents a dysfunctional role model for problem solving in close
relationships.
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Safety precedes healing.
Safety for victims is the primary value. Many perpetrators have been
victims. Many perpetrators claim to be violent because they feel victimized.
Harming others because of profound feelings of injury is not
acceptable. We strive to provide abusive men and women with a supportive safe
environment where they will be confronted firmly and directly about what must
stop. Condemning abuse without condemning the abuser is a delicate
therapeutic matter. In our work with perpetrators, support for the client
does not extend to support for their continued abuse. We pledge to provide
them a place to work out their victimization if they stop
victimizing others.
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Defining Abuse
We view
Domestic Abuse as having a number of sub-categories:
Physical Abuse
includes a wide range of behaviors from forced restraint, through slapping and
hitting, to aggravated assault. Sexual Abuse is defined as anything from sexual activity pressed
after a physically abusive incident, to coerced sex acts to forcible
intercourse.
Emotional Abuse includes threats, verbal disparagement, degrading
or contemptuous behavior and yelling.
Economic
Abuse occurs through manipulation or domination of family finances.
Damage to property or pets is a common, yet frequently overlooked, form of
domestic abuse.
Battering can be defined as patterned abuse in
the presence of terror: repetitive abuse that has at least once been
physical and is either repeated or threatened to be repeated in such a way as to
engender ongoing fear in the mind of the victim.
At
MENERGY, we treat a broad spectrum of men and women who abuse in a wide
variety of styles. We often see clients who have never been physically
abusive, but who offend with one or more of the other styles. We also
see clients who have been severely assaultive.
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Intake Criteria
As a
voluntary treatment program, MENERGY only accepts clients who
acknowledge some problem with partner abuse. While some denial and
minimization is typical, our limited resources don’t allow us to accept clients
in complete denial.
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Clients should be 19 years of
age or older.
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Men and women who are exclusively child
abusers are not usually appropriate.
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Substance abusers must be clean
and sober at least 30 days before being accepted into our treatment program.
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Clients must be willing to make
three separate incremental commitments to regular weekly appointments.
The initial commitment is to 3 one-hour evaluation sessions over the
course of three weeks. The next is to a two-hour, once-a-week beginner
group, for 10 weeks. Then, if appropriate, the final commitment
is to a two-hour, once-a-week advanced group, for 20 weeks.
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Clients must be outpatient-group
appropriate. Seriously psychiatrically disabled clients are generally not
able to handle the rigors of high-level group interaction in our program.
(Schizophrenics in remission, paranoid disordered clients and sociopaths are
not good candidates).
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Clients should be amenable to
group therapy. We do not have the staffing, resources, nor inclination to see clients
individually for long periods.
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Clients in deep mourning or
acute depression due to the loss of or separation from a partner may need to
be stabilized before acceptance to our program. |
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Who Actually Comes to
MENERGY
Our clinical population is drawn
from a broad cross section of the Philadelphia and suburban population.
The overwhelming majority of our clients are employed in jobs ranging from blue
collar to executive positions. We see tradespeople, postal employees, university
professors, computer industry workers, health-care providers and social service
workers. Our clientele is racially mixed. They are usually about evenly
distributed between living with and separated from their partners. Most of our
clients have not been to therapy before. A few are in individual or couple
treatment elsewhere and were referred to us for adjunctive work. Often couple
or family therapists send clients when abuse interrupts their work. About a
half of our cases have had criminal or family court procedures (Protection
Orders) filed against them. Our referrals come from other service agencies,
mental health practitioners, battered women’s programs, lawyers, etc.
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Referral Process
The client
must call him or herself. English-speaking men and women should call the main office at
215-242-2235. Spanish-speaking men may call 267-625-6135. He or she
will be
given basic information about the program and assessed a fee for an evaluation
session. After the fee has been paid in advance, the client will be
given an initial appointment. During this intake session he or she
will be asked very specific questions about abuse, current and past
relationship, and about drug and
alcohol history. The client will be informed about MENERGY’S approach
and policies (including our policy of notifying and warning partners) and
asked about his or her level of commitment and willingness to acknowledge having
a problem with abuse. If the client is acceptable to us and accepts the
program he or she will be entered into the appropriate beginner-level group.
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Location for Menergy and Triangle Space
Main
office: 7500 Germantown Avenue, Elders Hall, Suite 5, Philadelphia, PA
19119. (In Mount Airy at the foot of Chestnut Hill, between Mount Pleasant
Avenue and Mount Airy Avenue near Lincoln Drive.)
Directions: Bus
Routes: 23, H. Suburban trains: Chestnut Hill West (R8) to Allens Lane stop,
and Chestnut Hill East (R7) to Mount Airy stop.
Group for Spanish-speaking
men: MENERGY offers a group for Spanish-speaking abusive men at María de
los Santos Health Center, at the corner of 5th Street and Allegheny
Avenue, Philadelphia.
Business Hours: The
main office at MENERGY is open four evenings a week till 9 p.m. and
Monday to Friday during usual business hours. Our staff is small, but we spread
our coverage to meet the needs of most of our working clients. Most of our groups
are in the evenings from 7 to 9 p.m. The group for Spanish speaking men at
María de los Santos Health Center meets on Monday evenings from 6-8 p.m.
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Fees
Clients are
charged on a sliding scale according to income: $0 to $120 for each individual
session; $0 to $50 per group session. All fees are pre-paid. No-shows are charged.
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