Support Groups

In addition to the one-to-one support that ADAPT provides, we also run support groups for women. Support groups allow women to share their experiences with other women in similar situations and to gain support from each other. The groups are facilitated by two trained facilitators who support the women to understand and process the traumatic impact that domestic abuse has had on them.

Reaching Out

This is an 8 week programme that provides women with an understanding of the impact of domestic abuse/coercive control and how trauma affects the body. Topics covered included: what is domestic abuse/coercive control; what is trauma and how it affects our bodies/brain/thinking; self-care in the context of domestic abuse; appropriate supports; breaking free; emotional regulation; regaining a sense of self.

Let’s Talk

The Let’s Talk programme is a follow-on programme from Reaching Out and has a blend of education and process work to allow participants to explore a range of issues and emotions. The aim of the Programme is to restore the woman’s understanding of her experience and enable her to become aware of her strengths and coping abilities.

Themes: The themes explored in Let’s Talk were identified through a process of consultation with women service users and include the following:

Shame
Guilt
Boundaries
Anger
Attachment
Self-Care
Rescuer/Victim/Perpetrator
Family of origin/Family Values
Positive & Negative Coping Strategies
Parenting Strategies post-abuse

Duration: Let’s Talk runs continuously but each session stands alone. Participants can attend continuously or sporadically but must attend a minimum of 12 sessions, (with some themes/sessions being core) before moving on to the Road to Recovery Support Group where they might look at more complex trauma issues.

Completion of Let’s Talk: When a participant has completed 12 sessions (including core sessions on specific themes such as shame, guilt, boundaries), she will be met on a 1-2-1 basis to assess the progress she has made and whether she is interested and ready to move to a more long term support group.

Road to Recovery

Once a woman has successfully completed the 12 session Let’s Talk Programme, she is offered a place on the Road to Recovery programme. This is a long term after care support group where there is the opportunity to explore issues and experiences in more depth. While the Let’s Talk Group is an open group and woman can join at any time, the Road to Recovery Group is a closed group and new participants can only join at set times. It is important for the participants that this group is closed because they are exploring issues in more depth and having a closed group provides a safe space to do this.

Themes: The focus in these groups is to facilitate participants to explore more complex aspects of trauma and the impact on their lives. The Road to Recovery allows women to begin the healing process and to reconnect to their self. As reconnection to self occurs women can begin to reconnect to others. This Programme explores ways of working with relational aspects of domestic abuse and focusses on re-building or re-establishing relationships with a stronger sense of self and healthy boundaries. An essential part of healing from the trauma of domestic abuse is to rebuild a support network and being able to reconnect to others.

Duration: The Road to Recovery programme runs on a term by term basis, each term being 12-16 weeks. A woman can join at the beginning of any term and can continue for as long as she feels she is benefitting from the group.

Completion of Road to Recovery: At the end of each term each participant is encouraged to review where she is at and the specific benefits she feels she will get from continuation in the group. The reason for this is to ensure that we do not create a level of dependency on the group that is unhealthy for the participants.

For the duration of a woman’s participation in the support group process, she is also offered 1-2-1 support to compliment the group support and provide her with space to explore issues that she may not feel comfortable to explore in the group. The 1-2-1 also provide more readily available support if she is going through a particularly difficult period.