Program for Alleviating Relationship Trauma and Stress for Intimate Partner Violence - Randomized Control Trial

Summary

This research study investigates the feasibility of a randomized control trial of a group-based treatment program for reducing stress, trauma, substance use, and use of violence among individuals who were court-mandated to attend a program after committing an act(s) of domestic violence. The study is in a 2-arm design with an intervention group and a control group.

Conditions

• Individuals Who Use Violence
• Interpersonal Violence

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Program For Alleviating Relationship Trauma and Stress through New Behaviors

The experiential protocol includes 15 minutes of themed curriculum and 45 minutes of experiential exercises, e.g., going inside meditation, centering practice, witnessing their own parts, psychodrama, speaking for parts exercises, finding parts in the body, etc. In addition, participants will have 30 minutes to speak in the group about their experience and review the manual focused on new coping strategies and behaviors. We will ask participants to keep a journal to write down observations and parts they notice during the week and ask them to bring the journal and manual we send to them to the group so they can record information they remember after exercises. All participants also will be scheduled to have approximately six to nine standard clinical one-hour sessions with an individual IFS trained counselor (at least Level 1 IFS trained) during their time in the program, with an average of one-two sessions per month (6-9 total individual sessions).

BEHAVIORAL

DVIT Treatment As Usual (TAU)

Treatment As Usual (TAU) for people who use violence in interpersonal and domestic relationships. In WA state currently, these treatments are usually a mix of elements from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Duluth Model, and/or Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT). Participants in this group will not be exposed to IFS during TAU, to preserve the integrity of the study design. The number of individual counseling sessions during TAU will be tracked, but it can vary based on need in the treatment as usual modalities.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Waterland Counseling Services

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Washington State Department of Commerce Office of Crime Victims Advocacy

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Cambridge Health Alliance

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Zev Schuman-Olivier, MD · Center for Mindfulness & Compassion - Cambridge Health Alliance

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-08-01

Primary Completion

2027-07-31

Completion

2027-07-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations