|
This page is for psychotherapist colleagues who are interested in an
Experiential group treatment approach for domestically violent men. RWV is a
Phase 2 treatment for offenders who:
- take responsibility for their violent behavior, having stopped
externalizing blame onto their victims; and
- are interested in going beyond anger management to process what is fueling
their rage.
RWV integrates the therapeutic approaches described in the earlier pages
― Focusing, EMDR, and Imago Relationship Therapy ― in a time
limited, structured two-module program, providing:
- Therapy for Emotional Change
- Therapy for Relationship Change
- Anger, hostility and coercive power and control are reduced
- Defensiveness diminishes
- Internalized shame decreases
- PTSD symptoms improve
- Recidivism indicators point to a substantial and significant reduction in violent crime 3-years after domestically violent men completed Relating Without Violence treatment groups at the Ontario Correctional Institute. This result is very encouraging, possibly presenting a breakthrough in effective treatment of domestic violence.
<Back to top>
Some documents which are linked below are in Portable Document Format (PDF)
requiring the Acrobat Reader for viewing. If you do not have a copy of Acrobat
Reader on your computer, click on the link below and download "Reader" — it's free.
Please click here for an RWV Program Manual focusing primarily on the Therapy for Emotional Change module. The document has 127 pages and is self extracting.
Please
click here for RWV in Changing Abusive Fighting to Constructive Dialoguing, the core procedure in the Therapy for Relationship Change module. This is in PDF format.
Please
click here for the RWV Program Outline & Results, a graphic presentation which is in PDF format.
For more information
Purchase the CD on "Relating Without Violence"
 
In addition to the documents linked above, the CD contains:
- copies of RWV professional journal articles
- key exercises
- key participant handouts
- session plans
Send your request with $20 to:
Dr. Ralph Bierman, 55 Harbour Square, Suite 1612, Toronto, Ontario M5J 2L1,
CANADA
<Back to top>
While I am no longer leading RWV groups at OCI, the program is still running! It is being replicated at the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI) by Dr. Ken Scapinello He ran and assessed two groups in 2005-2006. Statistical analysis of his pre-post changes show comparable effects to those I obtained. So, we have shown that RWV is replicable, it doesn't depend on me. Ken is running another two RWV groups this 2006-2007 year, .
<Back to top>
Recidivism data are particularly encouraging. Violent re-offending and re-offense severity significantly decreased three-years after release for the RWV group. RWV vs. a no treatment comparison group of Ontario offenders shows better 3 year changes for the RWV participants most at risk for repeated violence compared with the at risk no-treatment group. That the at risk subgroup shows the greatest benefits at follow up strengthens the evidence that RWV addresses the issues fuelling violent behavior and not general criminality. These data suggest that in RWV we have a possible breakthrough in domestic violence treatment since none of the prevalent programs are better than no treatment.
Both these findings, on replication and recidivism,were reported at the Society for the Exploration of Psychotherapy Integration (SEPI) Conference held in May 2006 in Los Angeles.
A journal article is planned as is a submission to present at theSociety for Psyhotherapy Research (SPR) Conference in June 2007. This further work is being done in association wih Dr. Antonio Pascual-Leone from the University of Windsor, Ontario and Dr. Gene Stasiak from the Ontario Correctional Institute (OCI)..
Click here for the slide presentation to SEPI in May 2006 which includes program outline, pre-post chnge data, replication data, and recidivism data
The slides are in Portable Document Format (PDF) requiring the Acrobat Reader for viewing. If you do not have a copy of Acrobat Reader on your computer, click on the link below and download "Reader" — it's free.
Dr. Antonio Pascual-Leone, Assistant Professor at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario is joining with me and Dr. Stasiak in publishing the recidivism findings. Here is his proposal for a [pster presentation submisted to the SPR conference:.
"Title: Experiential treatment for domestic violence: Recidivism rates at 3 year follow-up
Abstract: Aim: The purpose of this study is to examine the long term follow-up of a treatment outcome study. The treatment was an experientially-based integrative psychotherapy for incarcerated men who had a history of domestic violence. This paper examines the recidivism rates following the Relating Without Violence (RWV) program, the only known manualized experiential treatment for incarcerated batterers. Methods: 74 men were drawn from the database of all men who completed the RWV program, at the Ontario Correctional Institute. All men in the sample had been released from the correctional facility at least 3 years before recidivism data were collected. Government and correctional service records of convictions were reviewed for all 74 men. Using the Offence Severity Scale, scores on the most serious charge which brought the men to the correctional facility were compared with scores for the most serious offence post release. Results: At least 3 years post treatment and a minimum of 3 year after their release, the recidivism rate for the 74 men was 66%. Offence severity scores also declined. The top two most frequently occurring serious offences prior to entering the correctional institute and treatment were sexual assault and aggravated assault (35%). These dropped to a rate of 5.5%, 3 years after treatment and release. Discussion: The indicators of recidivism point to a substantial and significant reduction in violent crime after violent men completed the RWV treatment program. Research currently in preparation will compare these findings to a matched control group".
Furthwr Discussion (by RB): That 2/3 of RWV participants had further charges within 3 years of RWV indicates that RWV is ineffective for general criminality. RWV specifically and effcitvely targets interpersonal violence as indicated by the decline in offense severity after 3 years.
<Back to top>
Dr. Pascual-Leione's review of the literature found that:
"Some strong systematic reviews have been done in the last five years in the area of treatment for domestic abusers (i.e. Babcock et al. in 2004, Sartin et al. in 2006). The current consensus is that most interventions have minimal impact in reducing re-offence beyond being arrested. There are no differences in effect sizes between CBT and Duluth intervention models. Experiential treatments are virtually unrepresented in the literature and generally fall under the rubric of 'other'."
Dr. Pascual-Leione's suggestions for further rsearch Include:
"COMPARING TO THE LITERATURE: What is the rate of first time recidivism for the RWV group at 12 months?
a. Although a 3 year study is very impressive, also reporting the 12 month rate would make it easier to compare RWV’s success rate to the existing literature. (The longest follow-up that I have seen in the literature on treatment for domestically violence men is 24 months, so it is hard to know what amounts to a low recidivism rate at 36 months)"
"COMPARING TO TREATMENT SUB-GROUPS TO EACH OTHER: Some of the 74 client in the RWV recidivism study must have had better post-treatment outcomes than others (even though all may have had some kind of improvement). By using residual change scores we could determine which clients had relatively good vs. relatively poor outcomes (despite absolute level of improvement). This allows us to bifurcate the treatment group (N = 74) into sub-groups for comparison.
a. If the RWV treatment is effective, good post-treatment outcomes should be predictive of lower rates of recidivism as compared to poor (i.e. less good) post-treatment outcomes. While a no treatment control provides a first point of comparison, the poor outcome group will provide an intermediate point of comparison.
b. A survival analysis could be done comparing either the two sub-groups or by comparing all three groups (the two sub-groups and the control).".
<Back to top>
<Back to top>
| 
Toronto Psychologist
