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11/29/08 3:elling without Talking: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Violence | Psychology Today Blogs

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Telling without Talking: Breaking theSilence of Domestic ViolenceBy Cathy Malchiodi on September 26, 2008 in The Healing Arts

Speaking the truth about domestic

violence is a step toward healing for all

survivors. But when talking about violence

brings shame, ambivalence, and fear, art

therapy gives survivors not only a voice,

but also is a way to raise consciousnessabout the profound effects of battering and

all forms of abuse between partners.

While I have no explanation for the

psychology behind the current financial

crisis, as a therapist I am certain of one

psychological effect of an economic turndown -- an increase in domestic

violence. In this time of economic uncertainty, job loss, home foreclosures,

and increased costs of living, pressures mount in families and frayed

tempers inevitably will give way to an increase in battering and abuse.

According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, domestic violence is

a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain

power and control over an intimate partner. Physical, sexual, emotional,

economic or psychological actions or threats of actions that influence

another person may all be part of the dynamics, including any behaviorsthat frighten, intimidate, terrorize, manipulate, hurt, humiliate, blame, injure

or wound another individual.

While domestic violence can happen to anyone of any race, age, sexual

orientation, religion, socioeconomic status, or gender, for the past 25

years I have worked with adult women and child survivors and mostly

those who have found refuge in shelters and safe houses. I suspect that

with the continuing economic rollercoaster, we

will see a rise in not only reports of domestic

violence, but also a strain on these

community-based programs that help women

and children leave abusive relationships.

Although personal safety and a violence-free

life are the first and foremost issues for

anyone who is the victim of domesticviolence, the long term healing process

involves recovery from cumulative trauma,

often posttraumatic stress reactions, and

almost always personal shame and loss of

self. Art therapy, which formally began as a

field and treatment shortly after World War II,

continues to be widely adopted to help

battered women and children deal with their physical and emotional scars.

Art as a healing force does not come easy for those whose lives have

been controlled, are accustomed to betrayal and punishment, and have

learned self-hatred. But inevitably when it does, creativity and imagination

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Cathy Malchiodi is an arttherapist, visual artist,independent scholar, andauthor of 13 books on artstherapies, including The ArtTherapy Sourcebookand thebestselling UnderstandingChildren's Drawings.

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11/29/08 3:elling without Talking: Breaking the Silence of Domestic Violence | Psychology Today Blogs

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restore a sense of possibility, identity, and reconnection with parts of the

self that were silenced in order to survive the violence. While survivors

often feel shame in talking about abuse, talking about their artworks is an

experience of finally coming home.

The tradition of art as a voice for domestic violence survivors has

spawned a number of well-known programs, including the Clothesline

Project, a project to address violence against women. In 1990, visual

artist Rachel Carey-Harper, inspired by the AIDS quilt, presented the

concept of using shirts hanging on a clothesline as a way to raise

consciousness. Since doing the laundry was always considered women's

work and women often exchanged information over backyard fences whilehanging their clothes out to dry,

the concept of the clothesline

became the vehicle. Each year

thousands of women now tell

their stories of survivaland

commemorate victims who died

from domestic violenceby

using words and/or artwork to

decorate a t-shirt to be exhibited

on a clothesline. And programs

such as A Window Between

Worlds in Venice, CA, serve as

models for how art helps both

women and children develop a sense of hope, possibility, and safety.

In her seminal volume, Trauma and Recovery, Judith Herman echoes the

very reason that violence must be transformed in some way in order for

recovery to begin: Certain violations are too terrible to utter out loud: this

is the meaning of the word unspeakable Atrocities, however, refuse to

be buried. Domestic violence is one of those atrocities that continues to

plague lives and for its survivors, is often too horrific to verbalize.

Unfortunately, it may increase and intensify in these weeks and months if

the expected financial crises continue. And while art is not the panacea for

abuse, it is certainly a way through it and one that not only transforms the

atrocities of violence, but also sends a powerful message that ultimately

breaks the silence.

If you need help, please contact National Domestic Violence Hotline at

http://www.ndvh.org/ or phone 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). October is

Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

2008 Cathy Malchiodi

www.cathymalchiodi.com

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