What is Recovery ToolKit Group?
This is a programme for those who have experienced domestic abuse and are not currently living with their abuser.
The programme runs for 12 weeks and each session is 2 hours long.
The programme is designed to support women by finding and understanding ways to develop positive lifestyle coping strategies. Living with domestic abuse forces women to develop coping strategies that keep them and their children safe within the context of unequal power division and coercive and controlling behaviour by the abuser.
Those that have experienced and lived with domestic abuse have said:
“The hardest part to recover from is the psychological distress caused by such abuse”.
Psychological distress affects a person’s self-perception (self-esteem, self-image). It can affect:
- how they interact with others (passively or angrily);
- how they cope with the emotional pain (depression and other mental ill-health, anxiety, alcohol or drug use)
- how they may parent their children
It can also create confusion around who to trust, healthy boundaries, and respectful relationships (both with other adults and children). Any woman experiencing the isolation, exhaustion, humiliation, degradation and threats that are part of the abusive behaviour will encounter these difficulties.
The aims of the group are not to hold the participants responsible for what happened to them, nor to blame them for those actions or decisions taken at the time of the abuse that may in retrospect be found not to be safe, but to recognise the tremendous effort they have made in keeping themselves and their families as safe as possible whilst helping to acknowledge that coping strategies used under duress may not be helpful in their recovery and development of a new life free of abuse.
Here is some feedback we received from clients who recently completed the programme:
“I am able to express my opinions confidently."
“I have learnt to put my boundaries in place and to respect myself ."
“ I have gone from somebody who was depressed and didn’t think life was worth living to believing in myself and living the life I want."
Please call the Helpline on 01582 391856 for further information or to make an appointment.