In 1989 I developed a program called PATH (Peaceful Alternatives in the Home) as an alternative to the limited treatment options for perpetrators of domestic violence. In particular, it was my intention through PATH to provide couples and family treatment to clients who would benefit from those treatment options.
For over 20 years PATH helped clients distressed by family violence. PATH was a unique program that offered expertise in helping couples and families achieve a variety of goals. These included adjustments to separation, divorce, and blended families, enhanced intimacy and effective conflict resolution, improved parenting skills and communication, and competence with or recovery from chemical dependency and other addictions.
PATH was featured in February of 1994 on the CBS News program “48 Hours” successfully treating a family distressed by violence and substance abuse.
It was our philospophy was to provide a solution-focused approach for every client that began treatment. What this meant was that PATH understood that clients’ solutions to a problem are unpredictable and may have nothing to do with therapists’ constructions about what he/she thinks the client needs to do to solve the problem. This is especially true when working with clients whose goal is to create safety in the home. (See Publications: “Taking Safety Home.”)
Rather than accepting the traditional assumptions about treatment length based on problem definition, PATH recognized that the length of treatment correlates more directly to clients’ motivation. That’s why PATH utilized a Solution-Focused treatment approach that leveraged and enhanced clients’ interest in change.
You notice that I describe PATH in the past tense. For a variety of reasons, many political and having to do with the well intentioned but misinformed “Standards for the Treatment of Domestic Violence Perpetrators,” PATH no longer exists as a stand alone program. However, I continue to apply my professional experience and enthusiasm in helping couples and families distressed by domestic violence.
Many people (primarily men) who seek treatment for domestic violence do so as a result of an arrest and as a condition of their sentencing and/or probation. Unfortunately, because neither I nor PATH was or is a state certified domestic violence program (for all the reasons described above in the description of PATH’s philosophy), clients who are seeking treatment to fulfill a court requirement are referred to a state certified program.
However, I continue to work with many clients who are addressing this problem before it has resulted in legal action and caused even greater harm to their partner, their family, and their future .