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“What Fresh Hell Is This?” Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Describe Their Experiences of Abuse, Pain, and Depression

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Abstract

Traditionally, professionals working with intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors view a victim through a disciplinary lens, examining health and safety in isolation. Using focus groups with survivors, this study explored the need to address IPV consequences with an integrated model and begin to understand the interconnectedness between violence, health, and safety. Focus group findings revealed that the inscription of pain on the body serves as a reminder of abuse, in turn triggering emotional and psychological pain and disrupting social relationships. In many cases, the physical abuse had stopped but the abuser was relentless by reminding and retraumatizing the victim repeatedly through shared parenting, prolonged court cases, etc. This increased participants’ exhaustion and frustration, making the act of daily living overwhelming.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by NIMH K01MH75965-01 (Cerulli), K23MH079347-02 (Poleshuck), and a University of Rochester Mind Body Center Grant. The authors wish to thank the survivors who were willing to share their stories with us. To create effective interventions, it is important to have the client’s voice included in the early stages of planning. The quote in the title is attributed to author Dorothy Parker in response to phone calls that interrupted her train of thought while writing. We thought it appropriate to the lives of the women in this study as their attempts to move forward with their life and work were often interrupted by continued harassment from their abusers and/or the lingering trauma of the relationship.

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Correspondence to Catherine Cerulli.

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Cerulli, C., Poleshuck, E., Raimondi, C. et al. “What Fresh Hell Is This?” Victims of Intimate Partner Violence Describe Their Experiences of Abuse, Pain, and Depression. J Fam Viol 27, 773–781 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-012-9469-6

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