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. 2024 Jan 5;14(1):37.
doi: 10.3390/bs14010037.

Is It Safe Enough? An IPA Study of How Couple Therapists Make Sense of Their Decision to Either Stop or Continue with Couple Therapy When Violence Becomes the Issue

Jan Frode Snellingen  1 , Pål Erik Carlin  1 , Arlene Vetere  2
Affiliations

Is It Safe Enough? An IPA Study of How Couple Therapists Make Sense of Their Decision to Either Stop or Continue with Couple Therapy When Violence Becomes the Issue

Jan Frode Snellingen et al. Behav Sci (Basel). .

Abstract

Background: Couple therapists will encounter couple violence in their practice at some point. In this context, one of the main questions they must address is whether to continue with conjoint sessions. This study explores how couple therapists make sense of their decision whether or not to continue with conjoint sessions when violence has become an issue.

Methods: This qualitative study used four semi-structured focus groups and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) to analyse the data from the twelve experienced couple therapist participants.

Results: Our IPA analysis led to three main group experiential themes across the focus groups: (1) Is it safe enough? (2) Do we have a joint and regenerative project? (3) Three key sources for sense making.

Conclusion: Partner violence challenges the realm of couple therapy. This article explored how the couple therapists orient themselves and grapple with decision making when violence becomes an issue. The article offers unique insights regarding what the therapists orient themselves towards and how they try to form an impression of whether to continue conjoint sessions. We outline immediate clinical implications and propose measures for building individual and organisational capacity regarding "clinical sense making". Suggestions for further research are also addressed.

Keywords: IPA; clinical sense making; conjoint sessions; couple therapy; couple violence; domestic violence; partner violence; qualitative method; therapist experience.

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Conflict of interest statement

The first and second authors wish to be transparent regarding that they work in the organisation where the research was conducted. Reflexive, supervisory and administrative measures were taken throughout the research process to mitigate these possible conflicting issues. Neither the organisation nor the funder had any role in the study’s design, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in writing the manuscript, and in the decision to publish the results. The first and second authors declare no other conflicts of interest. The third author declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Group experiential theme 1: is it safe enough?
Figure 2
Figure 2
Group experiential theme 2: do we have a joint and regenerative project?
Figure 3
Figure 3
Group experiential theme 3: three key sources for sense making.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Visualising the interconnection of group experiential themes 1, 2 and 3 with the main research question.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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