“Roses, Bruises, Wholeness” Development and Implementation of a Psychological Healing Program on Depression of Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence

Abstract

The study aimed to develop and implement an intervention program for the psychological healing of depression of women victims of intimate partner violence. To lay the groundwork and come up with the data needed to develop an intervention program, the study used the Sequential Explanatory Design. This mixed method suggests gathering and evaluating the quantitative data and qualitative data in two consecutive phases. The data-gathering tools used in the study included the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) to measure the depression level of the participants; a Semi-structured interview and a focus group discussion were conducted to provide the data needed for the qualitative phase. A pretest of the BDI-II was administered to the participants. Results showed that the participants were found to have depression during the time of the administration of the test. The BDI’s results provided the formation of the experimental and the control groups while the individual  interview and focus group discussion provided the themes used in the development of the intervention program. These themes were categorized based on Physical Violence, Psychological Violence, Sexual Violence, and Neglect according to the Diagnostic Manual for Mental Disorders 5 (DSM5-TR). The experimental group participated in the eight-session intervention program and the control group did not participate in the sessions. Subsequently, a posttest was administered to the experimental and the control groups. Results showed that the six experimental group participants decreased their depression level significantly, except for one participant who got a four-point increase in her posttest score. There was no significant difference in the pretest and post-test scores of the control group.