Health Care
Numerous people all over the world are troubled by homes where violence happens. Abused women and girls who are abused at home can experience a lot of stress that changes their whole lives. This blog’s purpose is to give people a full guide on how to deal with the stress that comes from ongoing domestic violence by giving them steps they can take, tools they can use, and ways to get help as they heal and recover.
Understanding Trauma from Domestic Violence
It can be especially hard to deal with the trauma of long-term domestic abuse because it generally gets worse over time. When people are abused in their own homes over and over again, they always feel scared, not useful, and insecure. When you’re under a lot of stress and fear, bad things can happen that hurt your mental and physical health and your quality of life as a whole.
Emotional Distress: Stress includes things like worry, sadness, and a feeling that you’re not worth anything.
Physical Symptoms: Pain that lasts for a long time, being tired, and mental illnesses that have body-based effects are these kinds of physical signs.
Cognitive Impairments: Some cognitive problems make it hard to concentrate, remember things, or choose what to do.
Relationship Struggles: not being able to trust, get close, or make friends.
Seek Immediate Safety
Now is the first and most important time to get safe. This will help you deal with the stress of being abused at home. To get help right away, call 911 or 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) for abused children and adults. In your safety plan, write down the following:
Safe Places: Make a list of safe places to go, like a shelter or a friend’s house.
Important Documents: Put drugs, money, and important papers somewhere that is simple to get to.
Emergency Contacts: Plan ahead to call these people when you need to get in touch with someone fast.
Resources:
- National Domestic Violence Hotline (U.S.): The U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline number is 1-800-799-SAFE.
- Domestic Violence Shelters: You can find homes near you on the page for the National Network to End Domestic Violence (NNEDV).
Reach Out for Professional Support
It is very important to get help from a professional if you are going through the pain of ongoing domestic abuse. Talking to people who have been trained to help people who have been through trouble at home or stress can be very helpful. Check out:
Trauma-Focused Therapy: One type of therapy that can help people deal with and handle stress is TF-CBT. Another type is EMDR.
Domestic Violence Counseling: Specialized counseling services focus on how domestic violence works and offer ways to deal with it and get better.
Resources:
- Therapist Directories: Good therapists are listed on websites like Psychology Today and Zencare.co. Use these resources to look for a therapist that meets your criteria.
- Support Groups: If your partner has hurt you, look for support groups in your area or online.
Build a Support Network
For trauma healing, it’s important to build a strong network of support. Talk to trusted friends, family, or support groups. They can offer both emotional and practical help. The people who help you can:
Provide Emotional Support: Listen, encourage, and validate the person as you show mental support.
Assist with Safety Planning: Help make and use safety plans.
Encourage Self-Care: Remind yourself to treat your body and mind well.
Resources:
- Local Domestic Violence Organizations: Several of these groups offer support groups for women and other useful services.
- Online forums: Support groups for victims of domestic abuse can be found on sites like Reddit and Facebook.
Prioritize Self-Care
Care for yourself when you’re feeling stressed. Do worthwhile things for your mind, body, and friends:
Physical Health: To stay fit, you should eat well, work out every day, and get enough sleep.
Emotional Well-being: Getting some rest and awareness, meditation, or other forms of rest can help you feel better if you’re stressed.
Mental Health: Perform activities that make you pleased and satisfied to keep your mind healthy.
Self-Care Tips:
- Journaling: Write in a book. You can deal with your ideas and feelings better if you write them down. It can also help you see things in a new way.
- Art Therapy: You can talk about and learn more about your thoughts by making art as part of art therapy.
- Mindfulness Practices: Practices that help you be more aware: guided images and deep breathing are two ways to rest and deal with stress.
Understand Your Legal Rights
Knowing your legal rights and choices can give you more power and protect you more. Getting legal help can help with:
Protective Orders: Someone who hurts you shouldn’t be able to touch you or get close to you if you have a safety order. You should get a police order to keep yourself safe.
Custody and Divorce: If you need to, talk to a lawyer about how to get a divorce, how to split the property, or who gets to keep the kids.
Legal Aid: Two groups that help people get lawyers for free or very little money are Legal Aid and the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV).
Resources:
- Legal Aid Organizations: If you need help, go to a neighborhood law firm or a group that helps people who have been abused at home.
- National Coalition Against Domestic Violence (NCADV): This group helps people find lawyers by giving them information and links.
Develop Coping Strategies
When you know how to deal with the mental effects of worry, it can be easier to handle them. Take a look at these strategies:
Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques: Question and change the negative ways of thinking that come from stress.
Emotional Expression: Deal with and talk about your feelings in a healthy way, like through therapy or artistic activities.
Stress Management: Come up with ways to deal with stress, like learning how to relax, keeping track of time, and making limits.
Coping Strategies:
- Grounding techniques: To stay in the present and feel less anxious, use grounding methods.
- Supportive Relationships: Take it easy on people who care about you and understand what you’re going through.
- Healthy Routines: Make habits a part of your life so that it is stable and predictable.
Plan for Long-Term Recovery
It takes a long time to get over the trauma of ongoing domestic abuse. Make a plan to keep improving and getting better:
Set Realistic Goals: Write down both short- and long-term plans for your healing and growth as a person.
Maintain Therapy: Keep going to therapy and counseling to deal with ongoing problems and help your healing process.
Celebrate Progress: Take a moment to recognize and enjoy the small steps and successes you’ve made in your recovery.
Resources:
- Recovery Programs: Look into programs and classes that help people recover from trauma and grow as people.
- Educational Resources: Reading books or going to workshops on trauma recovery and self-help are good ways to learn.
Conclusion
Lots of different things can help you deal with the stress that comes from being abused at home. Place safety first, get help from a professional, make friends, and take care of yourself. This will help you start to heal and get your life back. Don’t forget that getting better takes time. Be kind and patient with yourself as you walk this path.
Instantly get help if you or someone you know is being hurt at home. This will protect you and help you get better. There are tools and people who can help you. Use them and do something to deal with the stress and start over with a safe and healthy life.
Health Care
A tense event can make a person change in lots of ways. It can hurt your mind and heart for a long time to be sad about something for a long time or about a single event. Many methods are available to assist people in getting better and regaining control over their lives. Supporting someone who’s been hurt comes in many forms. Some of them can help you get better.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
An effective and well-known treatment for anxiety is brain-based therapy (CBT). One form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that can be helpful to people who have experienced trauma is called trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). Hurt people might alter a variety of behaviors and thoughts that are connected to their suffering.
Key Benefits:
- Helps people change their unhelpful ideas and thoughts about the trauma and question them.
- Gives useful tools for dealing with symptoms like depression and worry.
- helps people become less sensitive to painful memories by exposing them slowly.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
Both parts of the brain need to be used for EMDR to work to help people deal with and accept bad memories. Most of the time, this is done by having them follow a set of eye moves. Francine Shapiro thought that EMDR could help people work through painful memories again so that they would hurt less when they thought about them.
Key Benefits:
- Helps lessen the mental pain that comes from remembering traumatic events.
- helps people deal with trauma more quickly than standard talk therapies.
- helps people heal for a long time by getting to the root of the trauma.
Psychodynamic Therapy
Psychodynamic treatment looks at how unresolved problems from the past affect how people act and feel now. In the case of trauma, this method looks into mental processes and past events to find the causes of problems related to trauma. People can work through their pain in a supportive and self-reflective way if they understand these underlying dynamics.
Key Benefits:
- In-depth look at how past events affect how people react to stress now.
- Helps people understand how their inner thoughts and feelings affect how they act and behave.
- Helps with long-term mental growth and getting to know yourself.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Trauma-Informed Therapy focuses on making a safe and helpful space that recognizes how common trauma is and how it affects people. This method focuses on comprehending, identifying, and reacting to the results of trauma while incorporating safety, trustworthiness, and empowerment into the healing process.
Key Benefits:
- Makes the therapeutic connection stronger by putting trust and safety first.
- Gives people the tools they need to be involved in their own healing.
- validates clients’ experiences and skills, which makes them stronger and more sure of their own abilities.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Differential behavior therapy (DBT) is a type of cognitive-behavioral treatment that deals with emotional dysregulation. Brain-based and behavior-based methods are used together with skills like acceptance and understanding. Borderline personality disorder and people who have been through a lot of stress do very well with DBT.
Key Benefits:
- Mindfulness is used to help people stay centered and in the present moment.
- teaches useful skills for handling strong feelings and disagreements with other people.
- helps people build a life worth living despite the problems that come with stress.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people embrace their thoughts and feelings instead of avoiding or fighting them. You can choose to do good and helpful things with ACT, even if you don’t feel like it.
Key Benefits:
- Encourages mental flexibility and the acceptance of strong feelings.
- urges people to live a morally sound life with meaning.
- makes it easier to go about daily life after having thoughts and feelings linked to trauma.
Narrative Therapy
The idea behind tale therapy is that everyone makes up their own stories about their lives. It changes the way people think about and tell their stories in a way that helps them get better and gain strength. A person can change how they feel about their trauma by looking at the stories they tell about themselves and their events.
Key Benefits:
- Gives people the power to change how they understand and react to stress.
- helps people come up with new, good stories about themselves.
- offers a way for people to work together to look into and rebuild personal stories.
Somatic Experiencing
Peter Levine came up with the way called Somatic Experiencing (SE), which is all about the body. Feelings and acts in the body are used to show how the body helps the mind deal with trauma. SE helps people let go of stress that’s been building up in their bodies and feel safe and in charge again.
Key Benefits:
- focusses on the physical effects of stress, helping people let go of their feelings and bodies.
- Self-regulation and body awareness are improved.
- Helps the body heal by regaining its natural balance and strength.
Art Therapy
People can talk about and deal with their worries better when they do creative things like painting, drawing, and sculpting. People who have trouble putting their feelings into words may find this way especially helpful.
Key Benefits:
- Offers a way to express feelings without using words.
- helps people find out more about themselves and share their feelings through art.
- Encourages healing by giving people a way to talk about and process traumatic events.
Play Therapy
Kids who have been through a hard time often get help through play therapy. There is a way for kids to work through their feelings and thoughts that is right for their age and stage of growth. That way is through play.
Key Benefits:
- Offers a way for kids to talk about and process stress that is developmentally appropriate.
- Playful exploration helps with mental and behavioral growth.
- This helps kids heal by giving them a safe and fun way to work through stress.
Conclusion
Which type of trauma therapy works best for each person depends on the stress they’ve been through and the treatment goals. Each way helps people get better and heal in its own way. Anybody you know who is going through stress should talk to a mental health worker. They can help you find the best therapy to help you get better.
If someone knows about the different types of trauma care, they may be more likely to get the help they need and start getting better. People who have been through a traumatic event can get help from therapy, whether it’s through art, body focus, or thinking methods.
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Meaghan Rice
Meaghan Rice, PsyD, LPC, is a licensed psychologist and nationally board-certified counselor specializing in relationships, personal empowerment, and wellness. She is known for her work as a clinician, supervisor, and contributor to digital mental health platforms, including Talkspace.
Key facts
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Degree: Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)
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Licensure: Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC), Approved Clinical Supervisor (ACS)
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Specialties: Relationships, communication, self-awareness, and boundary-setting
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Education: PsyD, University of Arizona Global Campus; BA, University of Denver
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Affiliations: National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), Talkspace
Career and approach
Dr. Rice has worked in diverse mental health settings since 2009, beginning with behavioral assessment and treatment planning in correctional environments. She later advanced into leadership roles managing community mental health teams supported by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration grants. Her approach integrates evidence-based therapy with a strong emphasis on relational dynamics—helping clients develop communication, intimacy, and conflict-resolution skills that reinforce overall emotional health.
Telehealth and supervision
Following her relocation abroad as a military spouse, Rice expanded into telemental health, earning her Board Certified Telemental Health (BC-TMH) credential in 2017. She provides therapy across multiple U.S. states and mentors other clinicians as an Approved Clinical Supervisor, reflecting her commitment to ethical, accessible, and high-quality remote care.
Contributions to digital therapy
At Talkspace, Rice serves as both a therapist and subject-matter expert, contributing to articles and educational resources on relationship health, empowerment, and mental wellness. Her editorial and training work helps shape digital therapy standards and educates a wide audience about emotional resilience and communication.
Personal perspective
Drawing on her experiences as a parent and military spouse, Dr. Rice underscores empathy and adaptability in her practice. She describes her mission as guiding individuals to recognize their inner strengths and create more fulfilling, connected lives through self-understanding and intentional relationships.
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Tara is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the state of AZ. She has had over 7 years of experience working with individuals, couples, and families. She works primarily with adults during any of their life phases as her approach is client centered, strength-based and solutions-focused. Tara works with primarily anxiety and depression, but especially focuses on how these mental health issues present themselves in relationships. Life challenges are inevitable, but Tara believes that having a safe, validating, nurturing therapeutic environment can be the catalyst to the best outcome. Tara works hard to build self-confidence in her clients so they feel empowered and motivated to accomplish their goals. Between helping her clients feel safe, and working hard to increase client’s perspective of themselves, treatment goals and objectives are significantly easier to accomplish.
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Kevin is a Licensed Associate Counselor (LAC) in the state of AZ. Kevin completed his undergraduate psychological studies in 2018 and completed his masters degree in professional counseling in 2022. Kevin immigrated from Mexico to the United States when he was 11 and is proud to consider himself a first generation college graduate. Kevin is bilingual and open to clients with a diverse background. He considers himself to be a LGBTQIA+ ally. Kevin has experience with children, adolescents, and adults either in an individual setting or within the bounds of a couple or family structure. He is eclectic in that he uses the modality that is most suitable to his clients. Solutions-focused, trauma-informed, and strengths-based stand out as the most heavily used modalities. Kevin is committed to getting clients to the best versions of themselves.
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Helen is a Nationally Board Certified Counselor (NBCC). She has an undergraduate degree in communications from Stanford and a MEd in human development counseling from Vanderbilt. Helen has 30 years of experience within the private and community sectors of mental health, while also having expertise in the telehealth world. Helen is certified both as a trauma therapist and a specialist in ADHD. Helen enjoys working working with diverse populations where she can tailor treatment to match her client’s needs. Helen brings a wealth of information to her clients as she has authored a memoir on Alzheimer’s, written a column for the American Counseling Association, and presently writes an advice column for the Stanford Daily. Helen enjoys weaving a little bit of humor amidst her knowledge and expertise.
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Tara is a Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate (LPCC) in the state of CO. She completed her undergraduate psychological studies in 2018 and completed her masters in contemplative psychology and Buddhist psychology in 2022. During her academic endeavors, Tara worked as a mentor, role model, and a facilitator for youth. She was able to facilitate guided meditations, yoga, creative arts, gardening, and help cultivate a passion for music. Her work with adults has largely focused on trauma, not only how to approach the trauma itself, but also how to navigate the side effects of trauma. Tara’s therapeutic modality is trauma-informed, client-focused, and strengths-based. Tara considers herself to be a LGBTQIA+ ally and welcomes clients of a diverse background
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Samuel Bierbrauer is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the State of Colorado. Samuel graduated from Colorado Mesa University in 2012 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and went on to complete his master’s degree in in mental health counseling at Arizona State University. In 2017, he received his Ph.D. in counselor education from the University of Central Florida. Samuel has a diverse range of clinical experience in working with individuals, couples, and families who struggle with various mental health issues, such as depression, anxiety, personality disorders, and addictions. Samuel takes a client-centered approach to counseling in that he collaboratively works with clients to not only better understand themselves but assist clients on their journey towards a more fulfilling, values-driven life. By utilizing mindfulness-based techniques, Samuel invites his clients to actively engage in the counseling process to achieve their goals of living a life filled with purpose and passion.
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Patti is a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) in the State of CO. She received her Bachelor of Arts from the University of Illinois and later went on to earn a Master of Arts in counseling from Adam’s State University in 2018. For the last five years, Patti has worked in the academic setting, providing mental health support to students, staff and families. Prior to her time in education, Patti worked in community mental health, helping clients transition between different levels of care for varying symptoms of depression and/or anxiety, resulting from traumatic experiences (as a child or more recently), addiction, abuse, or regular relational conflict. Patti places a large emphasis on the community that we surround ourselves by. Patti utilizes multiple modalities for providing therapy, depending on the needs of the client. She provides a trauma-informed space that is safe, non-judgmental, and accepting to explore deep thoughts and emotions. Patti believes that life will always provide us with difficult times, things to get through, and struggles from which to grow. These are experiences we get simply for being human. However, just because pain is to be expected does not mean we have to suffer alone. Patti works to find the source of the issue, create new skills and ways of thinking, and find healing and personal growth in the struggle.
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Kiana Dearborn is a Licensed Professional Counselor Candidate (LPCC) in the state of CO. She has 6 years of experience helping people navigate complicated life challenges that make them feel stuck, disconnected, or misunderstood. Whether people are navigating conflict, communication struggles, major life transitions, or a desire to deepen their connection, Kiana is here to help. Kiana likes to create a safe and supportive space where both individuals and couples can feel heard, understood, and valued. Her approach is relational and collaborative—focusing on strengthening communication, rebuilding trust, and fostering deeper emotional connection. She integrates holistic and evidence-based methods tailored to specific relationship and individual needs. She believes every relationship has inherent strengths, and she also believes that everyone can work toward growth, healing, and lasting change.
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