Adolescents' experiences of receiving therapeutic support as a result of witnessing domestic violence. has been under-researched. This study aimed to fill a gap in the literature and explore how adolescents' experiences of therapeutic practice could help inform theory regarding the building of resilience. Objective This study aimed to address the following research question: 'How do adolescents, aged 12-16, experience the process of being supported by a charity after being exposed to chronic domestic violence in the family home?' Method A qualitative methodology utilising semi-structured interviews was used. Six adolescents (3 boys and 3 girls) who had been exposed to domestic violence and experienced a supportive intervention at a charitable organisation were interviewed. Interviews were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (Smith, Flowers & Larkin, 2009). Two focus groups, with additional young people, were conducted. These were credibility checks for the development of the semi-structured interview, and the quality assurance of the analysis. Results Four [FA master themes emerged: ( 1) 'the development of personal survival strategies and their ongoing legacy'; (2) ' developing and understanding personal psychological processes that facilitate resilient responding'; (3) ' feeling emotionally safe in relationships'; and (4) 'having a voice'. All themes demonstrated the effects on attachment strategies of having had a secure base at the charitable organisation.

The objective of this research was to explore how therapists understand and Conceptualize women's relationship experiences including those of intimacy and love to abusive partners. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis this research aimed to understand participants' subjective accounts of this phenomenon within their therapeutic practice exploring meanings participant gave to their experiences. Six therapists were recruited and interviewed about their experiences of bow they understood women's relationship experiences with abusive partners. Therapists' understanding related to therapists perceptions of multiple selves of women as responsible, abusive, vulnerable, impact of women's relationship experiences on the therapist's self, their perceptions about love as a phenomena and agency and power and control for self and other amongst others. Further research could be carried out to identify significant events in therapy when women and therapists engage in exploring women's relationship experiences of intimacy and love to their abusive partners.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major social and public health problem affecting people in various cultures and societies. Much research has been undertaken to understand the phenomenon, its determinants, and its consequences in numerous countries around the world. However, there is a paucity of research on IPV in many areas of the world including Pakistan. The present study aimed to develop a theory to explain the meaning of IPV from the perspective of Pakistani men and women. The study utilised a qualitative approach with constructivist grounded theory methods and analysis. Data were collected from Karachi, Pakistan and Pakistani diaspora in Sheffield, UK between February 2009 and February 2011. Forty one participants, including 20 from Pakistan and 21 from the UK took part in the study. Twenty six interviews were undertaken in Urdu and this required detailed attention to translation. Findings of the study helped in the development of a theory that not managing expectations is the cause of IPV from the perspective of Pakistani people. Findings revealed that IPV is thought to escalate from conflict between husband and wife over various daily life issues and unmet expectations. It results from a continuous and complex interplay of many different factors and processes. Central to these processes is the ability of the husband and wife to meet the expectations of not only each other but of other family members. A failure to meet expectations contributes to the development of conflict that may escalate into IPV due to various factors such as personal attributes, conflict management abilities, attitudes towards IPV, negative role of family, socioeconomic and cultural factors. This has implications for any policy aimed at reducing the occurrence of IPV in Pakistani people. Policies would need to focus on helping people to manage expectations, or recognise that this belief is at play for any other prevention strategies.

This study' is an exploration Into young people's social negative experiences, specifically, exposure to conflict, aggression and violence within the family, school and community. It pursues collective examination of these three arenas occupied by young people while purporting to further this socially Imperative but barely Investigated field of research. The nature of young people's relationships with parents, siblings and friend's was also studied to establish the support networks therein.

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This thesis examines young people's attitudes to domestic violence in Mumbai, India and explores the under-researched potential of school-based interventions in changing attitudes that justify domestic violence in particular and violence against women in general. While young people's attitudes to violence in intimate relationships and the role of schools in imparting prevention education are currently receiving more attention in countries like Canada, and the UK, school- based preventative work still remains largely unexplored ill India. The empirical research is a mixed methods model using a combination of survey- based and qualitative interview-based methods. A survey was conducted in 14 secondary schools in Mumbai with 2229 school-going young people between the ages of 12 and 15 years (Classes VIII and IX). The quantitative analyses develop multivariate models of individual/household socio-demographic determinants of young peoples' definitions of domestic violence, attitudes to victim blame and attitudes to girls/women provoking violence. Furthermore, these analyses examine the influences of school-related factors, in particular single-sex and coeducational schools, in shaping young people's attitudes to domestic violence. To gain an insight into teachers' awareness/knowledge of domestic violence, and their opinions on the potential preventative role of schools and education both in increasing young people'S awareness of domestic violence and in influencing young people's negative attitudes to domestic violence, the qualitative analyses drew upon data generated by semi-structured iriterviews with 28 school teachers and Principals (head teachers) from the 14 sampled schools. The implications of these findings are discussed in relation to the role of schools in challenging attitudes that condone domestic violence on the one hand and reinforcing gender-stereotypes and reflecting the gender inequalities of wider society on the other. The findings of this study also seek to inform the development of school- based primary prevention programmes in India by identifying factors significantly associated with attitudes that justify domestic violence.

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a substantial public health problem, a serious human rights violation, and a major factor contributing to women's morbidity and mortality worldwide. Little is known about the prevalence and experiences ofIPV among Saudi women. Aim and objectives: the aim is to investigate IPV among Saudi women living in the UK. This aim was fulfilled through by four objectives: 1) The translation of the Composite Abuse Scale (CAS) into Arabic and adaptation of the SF-36 questionnaire, 2) The measurement of different types and severity of IPV, 3) The measurement of any associations between -IPV, women health status, and their socio-demographic profiles, 4) The exploration of worncass subjective experiences of IPV. Methods: Mixed methods were used. The first study involved initial forward translation of the CAS, experts' panel discussion, focus groups discussions, and back translation. The second study was a self-reported survey posted to a stratified random sample of Saudi women in the UK (n=718). Response rate was 45%. The third study included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 20 women to explore their IPV experiences. Results: Prevalence of severe combined abuse was 19%, emotional abuse and/or harassment was 11 %, physical abuse, emotional abuse and/or harassment was 3%, and physical abuse alone was 2%. Logistic regression analysis showed significant associations between severe combined IPV with several items of the SF-36 health survey and a few socio-demographic profiles. Interviews explored diverse experiences, and beliefs of IPV in the contexts of their religion, socio-cultural, economic-political, and health profiles. Conclusion and implications: IPV is prevailing among Saudi women in the UK with impacts on their well-being. This calls for further cohort longitudinal studies to investigate IPV among Saudi with a multi-dimensional approach considering the dynamics and intersections of socio-cultural, religious, economic-political, and health status factors, to measure its impacts and to plan needed resources.

The primary objectives of this thesis are to, circularly, deconstruct contemporary domestic violence policy while developing and evaluating methods for deconstructing policy. Policy is theorised as a discursive practice, which allows a variety of policies to be compared and critiqued by how they position the people they affect. These are known as subject positions, or subjectivities, and throughout this thesis I attempt to critique policy by examining the (re)construction of subjectivity. In addition, because policy is not theorised as functioning through direct causal relations there is an opening for psychoanalytic subjectivities where the subject positioning occurs at the level of the unconscious. Consequently, I have chosen to draw upon Parker's critical transformative psychoanalytic discourse analysis (CTPDA) as a psycho-discursive method where discourse analysis and psychoanalysis are combined in such as way that psychoanalysisis understood to be a culturally produced theory of self. Three separate analyses of two key, contemporary domestic violence policies demonstrate the utility of CTPDA by developing it as a method alongside the topic under consideration the use of 'family' to name concern of policy is considered in Te Rito from Aotearoa/New Zealand (A/NZ), who are world leaders in the domain of domestic violence, and 'consultation' where decisions have already been made and gender through the gender-neutral term 'domestic violence' are considered in Safety and Justice (S&J) from the UK, where much of this thesis was undertaken. In the final chapter, I argue that critique needs to be able to imagine its own policies and ways of realising them and highlight that psychoanalysis has the potential to offer an effective approach.

There is a particular death of research into heterosexual men's experiences of domestic abuse (DA) and currently no research from a counselling psychology perspective. The investigation examined heterosexual men's experiences of DA. Nine men who selfidentified as having been subject to DA within a prior heterosexual relationship were interviewed regarding their experiences. The gathered data were analysed qualitatively using interpretative phenomenological analysis ([PA). Themes generated suggested that many facets of the abuse experience were comparable to that of female survivors. Accordingly, survivors experienced a range of unpredictable abusive behaviours with control cited as the desired end of abuse perpetration. Male survivors were also observed to develop depression, post-traumatic stress and difficulties with traumatic bonding and affect regulation as a result of DA. Despite these similarities, it was noted that the concept of female perpetrated DA inverted prevailing socio-cultural gender norms and expectations. Consequently, the socio-cultural context in which men experienced DA was cited as largely hostile, persecutory and dismissive. This hostile context differentiated the experience of DA for the male survivor. Firstly, it enabled the perpetrator to abuse with minimal social or legal ramification. Secondly, it created an opportunity for the perpetrator to control and abuse via false allegations of DA. Thirdly. it resulted in survivors experiencing repeated re-victimisation, ridicule, disbelief and humiliation when the abuse was disclosed. Deep-seated feelings of shame, emasculation and isolation were therefore noted to entrench the experience of being a male abused by a female. This shame and isolation was thought to potentially augment experiences of depression and post-traumatic stress. A key implication of the findings is the need for counselling psychologists to be aware that men can be subject to DA and that such abuse can have a severe, traumatic and enduring impact. The findings also help to advance counselling psychologists' understanding of the potential relevance of gender norms and to appreciate how such norms may distinguish the experience of DA for a male survivor, creating an alternate set of vulnerability and mediating factors. The results also suggest that these norms may have an impact on how a male survivor behaves in therapy and responds to the therapeutic relationship. Suggestions are also made for further research in the area.

Domestic Violence has been high on the political agenda, with several policy initiatives aimed at improving the nation's health (e.g. Tackling Domestic Violence, 2004). However, a growing body of literature suggests that men are equally subject to abuse as women. Despite the un-gendered language of many initiatives aimed at tackling this phenomenon, and statements that men can also be abuse victims, the thrust of official policy and of discursive and non-discursive practices that currently predominate in the institution of Health reflect a feminist discourse of domestic violence. This constructs men as overwhelmingly the primary aggressor, little affected by any violence perpetrated upon them by women. Additionally, research suggests that those working in public services, including mental health, are likely to be unaware of the possibility and needs of male victims of domestic abuse, while simultaneously assessing male violence as more egregious than female. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with five family therapists and five clinical psychologists around victimhood in domestic violence, particularly looking at explanations for involvement in domestic violence, and a Foucauldian discourse analysis was utilised to analyse talk. Five main discursive sites were identified: I Abuse as Gendered', 'Abuse as Reaction', Abuse as Damage', I Abuse and the Institution of Mental Health' and 'Constraining Discourses'. In conclusion, while clinicians were aware of the possibility of male victimhood, especially concerning psychological abuse, the predominant 'taken-for-granted' assumption was that men were the . aggressors, because of physical superiority and sense of entitlement embedded in a patriarchal ideology. Greater focus on psychological outcomes than predisposing factors and discomfort with systemic explanations may be related to concerns about 'victim-blaming'. Dominant discourses of IPV may not reflect the complexity of client experience. Limitations of the study are explored and future research and clinical implications addressed. Results may be used to identify practical additions to clinicians' training.