Causes of Domestic Violence and How You Can Help Prevent Domestic Violence

What are the causes of domestic violence and what can help prevent domestic violence? The best way to understand domestic violence is to think of it as an Acting Out: this means that it is a substitute for remembering and thinking through. Instead of remembering something very painful, the person goes into action; instead of thinking through to a resolution, the person destroys the object or symbols of the object. Violence is the end state or result of this all too common process.

The main point to illustrate is that very few people with mental illness are violent. Many of the mentally ill are non-violent. Many people who perpetrate domestic violence are NOT mentally ill. A minority of violent offenders are mentally ill. This is what we as a society can to try and prevent mass violence: We need to outlaw general public access to assault rifles, military weapons, and any rapid-fire weapons. This is not too much to ask!

From: The American Psychological Association.:
Violence is an extreme form of aggression, such as assault, rape or murder. Violence has many causes, including frustration, exposure to violent media, violence in the home or neighborhood and a tendency to see other people’s actions as hostile even when they’re not. Certain situations also increase the risk of aggression, such as drinking, insults and other provocations and environmental factors like heat and overcrowding.

What You Can Do

• Gun Violence Prevention

See research on gun violence and learn how to help people in an emotional crisis.

• Abuse of Women with Disabilities

Women with disabilities may experience unique forms of abuse that are difficult to recognize — making it even harder to get the kind of help they need.

• Abuso de Mujeres con Discapacidad

Las mujeres con discapacidad pueden experimentar formas únicas de abuso que son difíciles de reconocer.

• Warning signs of youth violence

Learn how to recognize danger signs and keep anger from escalating out of control.

• Raising children to resist violence: What you can do

Children learn aggressive behavior early in life. Several strategies can help parents and others teach kids to manage their emotions without using violence.

• Partner Violence: What Can You Do?

This brochure briefly describes violence in the home and provides advice for victims, abusers, and family and friends.

• What makes kids care? Teaching gentleness in a violent world

In a world where violence and cruelty seem to be common and almost acceptable, many parents wonder what they can do to help their children to become kinder and gentler — to develop a sense of caring and compassion for others.

• Understanding and Preventing Violence Directed Against Teachers

Information to help K-12 teachers to cope with and prevent the occurrence and threat of violent incidents in their classrooms.

Getting Help

• Talking to your children about the recent spate of school shootings

Every child will respond to trauma differently. Some will have no ill effects; others may suffer an immediate and acute effect. Still others may not show signs of stress until sometime after the event.

• How to find help through seeing a psychologist

This brief question-and-answer guide provides some basic information to help individuals take advantage of outpatient (non-hospital) psychotherapy.

• Managing your distress in the aftermath of a shooting

You may be struggling to understand how a shooting rampage could take place in a community, even a workplace or military base, and why such a terrible thing would happen.

• Intimate Partner Violence

Nearly half of all women in the United States have experienced at least one form of psychological aggression by an intimate partner.

• Violencia en Contra de la Pareja

Mujeres con discapacidades tienen 40 por ciento mayor riesgo de sufrir violencia por parte de la pareja, principalmente violencia severa, en comparación con mujeres sin discapacidades.

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Felix Salomon, Ph.D., Psy.D. Clinical Psychologist – Psychoanalyst Director and Primary Supervisor, PIP-MHC;  www.pip-mhc.com Certified Child and Family Forensic Issues, Wm. James College, Newton, MA Training and Supervising Analyst, ICPLA Arizona Board Psychologist Examiners License # 0597 California Board of Psychology License # 24181 National Register Health Service Providers in Psychology Certification # 20064

The Psychoanalytic Approach

Psychoanalysis is a form of psychotherapy which tries to help the person develop insight into the causes of their problems and symptoms. By helping the person gain insight into the causes of their difficulties, psychoanalysis creates new conscious choices that the person is free to make. Psychoanalysis utilizes several methods and techniques to accomplish these goals.The most important technique is Free Association. In Free Association the patient is instructed to say whatever comes to their mind while they are in session, without editing anything and without censoring anything. A second technique that psychoanalysis utilizes is Dream Interpretation which is an elaborate systematic study of the person’s associations to each element in the dream. It is critical also to identify what the Day Residue was. The Day Residue is something that happened in the real life of the person, usually the day preceding the night’s dream, which serves as a trigger and gives context for the major interpretations of the dream.

The patient’s relationship to the Analyst and to the therapy itself are the most important methods of Psychoanalysis. The Co-Transference Relationship describes how the patient and analyst relate to one another in terms of Unconscious representations of past significant relationships and situations. The Co-Resistance Relationship describes of both patient and analyst suffer from unconscious attempts to defeat/sabotage the very goals that each one very much and very consciously are trying to accomplish.

Another important method in Psychoanalysis is the Working Through Process. In Working Through the patient brings back to his/her next session how they tried to apply their newly gained insight, which is usually a trial and error process. The analyst and patient then try to develop new insights and examine how to more successfully apply the new insights.

Unconscious processes and early childhood experience are regarded as very important in forming the personality and influencing the development of the person into adulthood. The family system is important to understand as well as all significant others, such as special teachers, friends, etc. from childhood.

Psychoanalysis usually requires multiple sessions per week over a period of several years. No one can know or predict exactly how long the psychoanalytic process will take. Our philosophy at PIP-MHC is to be Open-ended, which means the process will take as long as it needs to take without assigning an artificial time limit on it.

What is the difference among the terms Psychology, Psychoanalysis, Psychotherapist, Therapist, and Counselor?

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind. It usually concerns itself with three broad areas: thoughts, emotions, and behavior. A Psychologist is a doctoral level mental health professional who has typically graduated from a doctoral program in psychology from an accredited university. The graduate level of study in psychology usually entails 3 years of full-time course work, one year of internship, and usually one year of researching and writing a doctoral dissertation. Clinical Psychology entails the study of development, personality formation, personality structure, psychopathology, family dynamics, and the qualities of many types of relationship. A clinical psychology program introduces the aspiring psychologist to a wide variety of theories and types of therapies. Each psychologist integrates and synthesizes her own or his own style according to what fits with their own identity.

A Psychoanalyst is a mental health professional who has graduated from an accredited training institute in Psychoanalysis. This results in a doctor’s degree in Psychoanalysis. Psychoanalysis entails the study of the Unconscious, Transference, Resistance, the importance of early childhood experiences, and the meaning of dreams. Psychoanalysis is an intensive type of psychotherapy that aims at reaching the causes of a person’s problems and resolving unresolved conflicts. The course of study requires 3 years of coursework, a personal psychoanalysis of several years, several supervised “control” cases, and the writing of a publishable graduate paper. This is additional learning and training on top of prior training in, for example, psychology, psychiatry, or social work.

A Counselor in mental health is usually professional who has a Master’s Degree from a counseling program at a university. An example degree would be an MC, a Master’s in Counseling. An MFT, on the other hand, is a Master’s in Family Therapy.

A psychologist may legally refer to himself or herself as a psychotherapist. A psychotherapist utilizes scientific research, theory, and intuition to help a person with psychological problems/issues and with relationship problems/issues.

A Social Worker is usually someone who has a Master’s Degree in Social Work with some specialized training in therapy. An LCSW is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. This professional usually goes through a two-year program of course work and field work, and to obtain the LCSW, goes through another two years of supervised clinical work.

Anyone may call themselves a “therapist.” This is not a legally protected term. A person may be a mental health therapist, a physical therapist, or even a food therapist. One is wise to check into the credentials, education, years of experience, and licensure/certification of a “therapist.”

Interview of Dr. Felix Salomon: Special Characteristics of The Phoenix Institute for Psychotherapy and Dr. Felix Salomon

Intv: I am here this morning interviewing Dr. Felix Salomon.
Good morning Dr. Salomon, how are you today?

Dr S: Fine. Thank you.

Intv: Dr. Salomon, can you briefly tell us what your credentials are and a little about your background?

Dr S: Sure. I have a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Long Island University in New York and a Psy.D. in Contemporary Psychoanalysis from the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles.

Intv: But you live and practice in North Central Phoenix, Arizona?

Dr S: Yes, I moved here with my wife, Sharon Bonita, and my 2 daughters, Elise and Bianca, in 1977 from Queens, New York.

Intv: Are you originally from New York?

Dr S: Well, I was born in Montevideo, Uruguay. My parents were fleeing Hitler and the Nazis and there was a quota system then for how many Jews were allowed to come into the U.S., so they went to South America. In 1947, we were able to emigrate to the U.S. under the sponsorship of my Uncles who lived in New Jersey. I grew up in Elizabeth, New Jersey, until I was 16 years old, and then we moved to Queens, New York. After earning my doctor’s degree in Clinical Psychology, my wife and I decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona where it was quite a bit warmer than in New York City during the winter. In 2004, I began to commute to Los Angeles for my doctorate in Contemporary Psychoanalysis, which I completed in 2010.

Intv: When did you get interested in Psychoanalysis?

Dr S: Well, as a kid, my friends would come to me and trust me with their problems. Then, in college, I got interested in Psychology. Queens College of City University of New York, was offering a class, “Introduction to Psychoanalysis.” I took it and never wavered from seeing how this kind of depth-psychology could really help people long-term.

Intv: So, what is it that you really do or how can you describe your practice. I know you provide several different kinds of services.

Dr S: In my role as a Clinical Psychologist I do primarily Individual Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. I also do marital, couples, and family psychotherapy. I am also involved in Forensic Psychology, cases where the legal system and court is involved. In Forensic, I serve primarily as a Supervisor to my staff of psychologists. In my role as Director of The Phoenix institute for Psychotherapy, Ltd., I direct, mentor, and supervise a staff of psychologists and mental health professionals.

Intv: What is Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy?

Dr S: It is a method of treating psychological problems by getting to the root causes using the method of free association (the patient needs to express whatever comes to mind while they are in session without editing and without censoring anything). The patient is encouraged to express the feelings, thoughts, and whatever is going on inside of them during the session to the Psychotherapist.
This might include dreams they remember, things they imagine or think about, situations that they find themselves in, or just about anything that they have an inner experience with. The Psychotherapist tries to help them discover the basic causes, not just the symptoms, of their distress and problems, which often means going back to early childhood. Even the relationship between the patient and the Psychotherapist is explored and understood in terms of possible repetitions of early patterns of relating. This is referred to as Transference Analysis in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. A fundamental skill that the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist has is how to help the patient uncover unconscious meanings so that they use these deep understandings to help themselves in new ways. Another important skill that the Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist has is to help the patient discover the ways that they avoid or interfere with their progress. This is referred to as Resistance Analysis in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Unless we discover the Unconscious dynamics at work and do the job of Resistance Analysis, we usually wind up chasing our tail, or repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

Intv: What is involved in the Forensic work you do?

Dr S: There are several different Forensic areas PIP (The Phoenix Institute for Psychotherapy) is involved in. Firstly, we do a lot of work in Extreme and Exceptional Hardship Immigration cases. We do our best to illuminate for the court how deporting the undocumented member of a family may have devastating psychological effects on the children, on the documented spouse, and on the family as a whole. Secondly, we work in the area of Custody Litigation. While divorce is sometimes a crucial option, it also can have devastating psychological effects on the children. This is especially true in cases where the children are used as pawns against the other parent. When children are involved, there needs to be a civil and cooperative bond between the divorcing parents for the children’s sake. Our evaluations try to bring this out and to point to best options under the circumstances. Thirdly, we work in the area of Sentence Mitigation, when there are psychologically extenuating circumstances that a Judge can consider in sentencing.
Fourthly, we perform evaluations in Sexual Risk Offending. Fifth, we evaluate Violence Risk potential.
These evaluations require a great deal of training, selecting and administering the right psychological standardized tests, and performing various in-depth interviews, as well as writing detailed reports.

Intv: I know Marital Therapy must be very complex, but can you give us one principle that you use when you are doing Marital Therapy?

Dr S: One of the most important principles of marriage and Marital Therapy is reaching for a satisfying and sustainable compromise.

Intv: How is that done?

Dr S: That is a whole science by itself. I will only mention that each partner needs to hold on to their sense of Core Self while the giving and taking process proceeds.

Intv: In terms of Child Therapy, what can you say about that?

Dr S: I believe it is critical to recognize that children are still developing their verbal abilities, that is, their abilities to put into words what they feel and think. They do have, however, this marvelous ability to express their inner selves through the medium of play. So, Play Therapy often becomes the medium to learn about the child and to help the child resolve conflicts.

Intv: Well, thank you Dr. Salomon for spending this time with me and letting us know a little about yourself, your practice, and The Phoenix Institute for Psychotherapy.

Dr S: Thank you for your interest.

Intv: If you would like to get in touch with Dr. Salomon, call (602) 870-0991.
PIP is located in North Central Phoenix at 7111 North 7th Street, Phoenix, AZ 85020.

In Honor of World Mental Health Day

What is “mental health?” We at PIP-MHC believe that this is an ideal that we all aspire to, but can never reach because none of us are perfectly healthy, balanced, and forever stable. Life can always suddenly surprise us with a challenge that we were unprepared for. Some of us do better at achieving stability and balance than others, but we all try and we all want and need basically the same things. We all share the same emotions, although what might trigger a certain emotion, such as anger, in one may be different for another. We need to respect our differences, while at the same time asserting our closely held values and basic human needs.

Psychological assessment, especially psychodiagnostic testing, attempts to delineate and identify what the basic issues are and makes recommendations on what kind of interventions might best resolve these issues. Psychotherapy, especially psychoanalytic psychotherapy, tries to help a person get to the roots of his or her problems and helps the person work through possible solutions.

People who go for psychotherapy are not only taking constructive action to help themselves, but they are also making the world a better place to live.

-Felix Salomon, Ph.D., Psy.D.

For more information about World Mental Health Day, visit the World Health Organization (WHO)’s WMHD page. This year’s theme is “Dignity in #Mental Health“. #IAmStigmaFree #WMHD