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Preventing Abuse in the Home

Dedicated to the elimination of domestic violence.

PATH ran its first batterers treatment group in 1989. PATH was developed and is operated by faculty and doctoral students of the Wright State University School of Professional Psychology. PATH is an intervention program for individuals who have been involved in intimate partner violence.  The purpose of PATH is to serve victims/survivors of domestic violence by providing them with individual treatment and by providing group or individual treatment to batterers to stop their abusive behavior. In this spirit, we enjoy a collaborative relationship with a local agency that provides victim advocacy and monitoring of our programs for batterers.

PATH accepts referrals from courts and agencies, as well as self-referrals, with over 90% of PATH clients being court ordered. All prospective clients participate in an individual interview to determine which services would be most beneficial. They are then staffed by the PATH team and treatment assignments are made.  All services except the Women Who Resort to Violence Group are provided at the Ellis Human Development Institute, 9 N. Edwin C. Moses Blvd., Dayton, Ohio 45402.

Treatment Goals for Batterer:

• Elimination of abusive behavior
• Batterer takes responsibility for own behavior
• Understand role of power and control in battering
• Define domestic violence as including physical abuse, intimidation, emotional abuse, property damage, threats, and sexual abuse.
• Understand impact of rigid stereotypic gender role beliefs
• Learn anger management techniques
• Improve ability to relate to partners in non-abusive ways

Services Offered:

Victim/Survivor Services                                                                                                                                               

Individual therapy is provided to victims/survivors of intimate partner violence.  Length of services is determined by the needs of each individual client.  Treatment goals tend to focus on but are not limited to understanding the role of power and control in battering, impact of abuse on individual and children, healthy coping strategies, safety, parenting, healthy versus unhealthy relationships, deciding whether to stay or leave, and life after abuse.                    

Spanish Speaking Program                                                                                                                       

Minimum 16 week program

Services are provided in Spanish and are specifically tailored to address how domestic violence is experienced within this culture. 

Male Batterers Groups
Minimum 26 Week Program

Groups are a combination of three psycho-educational groups (Phase I) and at least 23 process-oriented groups (Phase II). Three types of Phase II groups are available: first time offenders, repeat offenders or first time offenders who have used weapons or caused severe injury, and offenders with substance abuse issues.  The goal is to educate clients, have them critically evaluate their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, identify how their abusive behaviors and the impact their behaviors have had on their families, and implement healthy nonviolent ways of interacting with their partners.   

All male, heterosexual, English-speaking clients attend the educational group. It consists of three sessions each three hours in length. The goal of that group is to assure that clients are exposed to a variety of information about domestic violence, its dynamics, and how to decrease its occurrence. After completing the psycho-educational groups, individuals are assigned to a Phase II Process Group for at least 23 additional weeks.

Montgomery County Jail Program
Montgomery County Jail Program Educational workshops presented in the county jail. The program consists of a series of three three-hour sessions that are presented monthly to jail inmates. These groups are education only, and NOT equivalent to batterers treatment. There are separate programs designed specifically for male and female inmates.

Individual Batterer’s Treatment
Individual treatment is offered for clients who would not meet the requirements for participation in the batterer’s groups or who might need more specialized treatment to address their needs.  Examples of clients who may benefit more from individual treatment are clients with a major mental illness or clients with lower cognitive abilities. Other clients who receive individual treatment are female primary aggressors, gay males, and lesbians. These individuals are seen in individual therapy due the small number of these clients referred for services at any given time.

Women Who Resort to Violence
Minimum 12 Week Program

This group is offered in conjunction with a local victim services agency. It is designed to address the needs of women who have been arrested for domestic violence but who have been assessed as being primarily victims. Generally, such women have been violent toward partners who have a history of battering them either as an attempt at self-defense or in retaliation. The group integrates components of victim and batterer treatment.

Training:

The vast majority of services offered are provided by individuals at various levels of training in the School of Professional Psychology. Students generally fall into the following categories:

Psychology Trainees.
Some students do a two-day per week clinical traineeship within PATH. Trainees are responsible for co-facilitating two groups, seeing individual clients, performing some intakes, and participating in our team meetings and in their own individual and group supervision. Trainees are generally in their second, third, or fourth year of doctoral training.

Intake Workers
The majority of intakes are performed by students at various levels of training within SOPP. Students each year are employed by PATH for eight hours per week to perform intake assessments. They are also responsible for attending team meetings and supervision.

Task Assigned Students
Some students contract with PATH to perform specific duties, such as facilitating one group or presenting workshops in the jails.

Predoctoral Interns
SOPP has an APA accredited internship program. Interns involved in that program frequently work within PATH. Their involvement varies from facilitating one group to learning to conduct consultative supervision with the doctoral students.

Postdoctoral Fellows
Post-doctoral fellows working in PATH are involved on all levels of service, training, and scholarship. They may provide both group and individual treatment. As they feel ready they provide supervision to doctoral students in an "umbrella" supervisory relationship with a licensed psychologist. They are part of the research team, and are involved in research design, data collection, writing up findings, and disseminating information at conferences and in print. They are also involved in the administration and management of the program.

Supervision:

Clinical Supervision
All services provided have two goals: client service and training. Thus, all services provided by students are designed to maximize training. Groups conducted at the Ellis Institute (all except the jail programs and Women Who Resort to Violence) can be monitored as they occur. Live supervision is used to give students immediate feedback and suggestions for interventions. In addition, more traditional didactic supervision is used to allow a forum for more in-depth supervision and administrative supervision. All services can also be video or audio taped for use in supervision.

Training in Supervision
More advanced doctoral students, predoctoral interns, and postdoctoral residents can receive training in conducting supervision. They are involved in providing live supervision, first with a supervisor present and eventually independently. They are supervised by licensed psychologists. Videotapes are used during supervision of the "supervisor-in-training".

Team Meeting
Students at all levels are active participants in team meetings. Each week supervisors and students meet to staff new cases and determine their treatment needs, address any clinical issues that are relevant and address administrative issues.

Scholarship:

Over the past several years an active program of scholarship has been built into PATH. We are in the process of using quantitative procedures to analyze data collected on batterers involved in treatment and victims who present for services at a victim services agency. Qualitative studies are in the planning stage. Each year several students have worked with faculty to present either empirical research or theoretical papers at various national conferences, including meetings of the American Psychological Association and the Association of Women in Psychology and at an annual International Conference on Family Violence. All students have the opportunity to be involved in scholarship. Students also have the opportunity to be involved in grant writing. Postdoctoral fellows are expected to be actively involved in scholarship and grant preparation.

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