Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree DPhil (Community Psychology) in the Faculty of Arts, in the Department of Psychology at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2011. / Domestic violence is a huge social, moral and spiritual problem in society today and many traditional methods of healing such as psychodynamic, solution-focused and cognitive behavioural therapies have left a vacuum when addressing the needs of the abused woman. This study aimed to determine whether there is a place for integrative therapies, particularly Philophonetics and Reiki which are both considered to be “body-based” therapies in the treatment of survivors of Domestic Violence. The sample was drawn from patients that sought treatment from the Community Care Centre and consisted of eight case studies of women who have been abused. A phenomenological approach was used in order to find the meaning the women attached to their experience of being abused. The findings of the study revealed a reduction in both depressive and anxiety symptoms. Depression and anxiety are common diagnosis for those who have suffered abuse and prior to the study all participants showed signs of depression and anxiety. The findings further showed that with Reiki therapy significant changes occurred physically as well as psychologically. With Philophonetics therapy changes occurred at a deeper layer as individuals were able to access the abuse in a nonverbal manner, without intellectualizing the problem. Both therapies proved to be effective due to the fact that individual’s had to “feel” rather than “think”. A further finding was that all participants felt comfortable enough to access their spirituality, thus showing that mind-body connection is vital in treating abuse. Finally it was revealed that no therapy can work in isolation, therefore the combination of traditional and CAM therapies had shown merit for the twenty first century therapist.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uzulu/oai:uzspace.unizulu.ac.za:10530/1106 |
| Date | January 2011 |
| Creators | Maharaj, Akashni |
| Contributors | Thwala, J.D. |
| Publisher | University of Zululand |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
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