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4 J. Fam. Violence 1 (1989)

handle is hein.journals/jfamv4 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1989 Spouse Abuse: An Integrative-Interactional Model George J. Steinfeld' Although spouse abuse is a psychosocial problem and needs to be addressed from an ecological perspective, many clinicians confront this family issue daily. Outlined are some practical suggestions on how to deal with the abuser and the couple when one or both are clients. This work emphasizes the im- portance of contracts that are related to the level of work being done. Sug- gestions are made regarding the important considerations in the first few meetings when working with groups of men in the community. Interventions are derived from a broadly conceived cognitive-behavioral-systems per- spective. KEY WORDS: spouse abuse; couple therapy; theory integration; contacts; cognitive behavioral systems. INTRODUCTION Belsky's (1980) integrative ecological model has been used to do a mul- tilevel comparison of child abusers with non-abusers (Hamilton et al., 1987). In this paper, we discuss spouse abuse, where Belsky's model is a useful frame- work within which to work. Although conceptualized with this systems model, our focus will be on integrative clinical approaches to the treatment of spouse abuse. Formally, the model is conceptualized as a cognitive- behavioral systems approach. It integrates the clinical theories of transac- tional analysis, and rational emotive therapies (along with related cognitive therapies), social learning theory (behaviorally oriented therapies), and fa- mily systems theories [primarily the interactional framework of the Mental Research Institute as described by Watzlawick et al. (1974), Fisch et al.(1984); 'Director, MASC (Men and Stress Control), YMCA, Coordinator of Consultation, Education, and Family Therapy, Greater Bridgeport Children's Service Center, 1450 Barnum Avenue, Bridgeport, Connecticut 06601. 0885-7482/89/300-0001l06.00/0 © 1989 Plenum Publishing Corporation