The Columbus Dispatch

Futile effort, or worth a try?

Group counseling seldom effective in stemming domestic violence

September 17, 2006

Mark Ellis

As the only woman in a room full of batterers, Lisa Montgomery expects to see attitude. Role-playing, often as the spouse of a jealous husband, is part of her job at the Sounding Board Counseling Center on the East Side.

She challenges the men, who attend group sessions mostly by court order.

"If someone has major jealousy issues, I try to push as many buttons as I can," said Montgomery, a clinical counselor.

Such counseling has gained attention with the case of Santonio Holmes, the former Ohio State football player who was charged June 19 with domestic violence and assault.

His accuser, former girlfriend LaShae Boone, says he threw her to the ground and slammed her into a door. If he were to receive counseling, she has told prosecutors, she might drop the charges.

Holmes, playing professional football with the Pittsburgh Steelers, is due in court again on Dec. 4.

At the center, Montgomery and her colleagues have 26 weeks to change the minds and actions of men convicted of domestic violence.

Yet court-ordered group counseling has little effect on recurrence, according to national research.
Counselors in central Ohio echo the frustration, although they think their work helps protect women.

"Studies have been done on different programs, and (they say) it doesn’t work," said Mardi Little, who supervises the domestic-violence unit in the Franklin County Municipal Court Probation Services Department.

"My own belief is that it can work if the person is sincerely involved in it," Little said.

Counseling is sought in an "overwhelming majority" of domestic-violence cases, City Prosecutor Stephen McIntosh said.

Municipal Court records show that 4,487 domesticviolence charges were filed last year. Little’s team of seven probation officers has a caseload of 2,600.

Most beaten women want courts to take action, but they don’t want their partners to go to prison.

Counseling, McIntosh said, is the best alternative.

Sounding Board’s nonprofit program is typical of seven others in Franklin County: Sessions take place once a week for six months for groups of up to 12 men.

The instruction — called "psychoeducation" rather than therapy — employs exercises, videos and workbooks as a way of teaching self-awareness and self-discipline.

An ideal candidate for rehabilitation, though, is both motivated and able to afford private therapy, said psychologist Julia Babcock, who as an associate professor of psychology at the University of Houston researches partner abuse.

Studies on group counseling, she said, show "only a small impact, if any, on reducing intimate-partner violence."

"Nobody knows what type of intervention works best, but we think that we can do better than the standard . . . model psychoeducational group."

Nationally, the improvement rate for men is about 5 percent, said Christopher Eckhardt, an associate professor of psychological sciences at Purdue University.

"Five percent can translate into thousands of women who no longer have to suffer," he said, "but it’s certainly not the magnitude we would like."

Although therapy in a private setting might be more effective, Eckhardt said, group discussion is more affordable.

Most men in group counseling are there because a judge has ordered it.

"I have seen successes," Municipal Judge Michael Brandt said. "But we seem to see a lot of repeat offenders. I question whether they have their head in the game."

Achieving sobriety is often the first step, Little noted.
"Many of them need to have alcohol and drug counseling before domestic-violence counseling.

"We have a certain population . . . that comes through and may end up going back to jail for a while. They’re not ready to do it."

All but a handful of clients at Sounding Board arrive on probation. The few who have volunteered for counseling, usually at the urging of a spouse after a fight, haven’t completed the program in the five years that Montgomery has worked there.

"Once things are patched up, the guy disappears."

Repeating the course can help, she said.
"With the majority of guys, . . . (26 weeks) is not enough time. We’re trying to change a belief system that’s really resistant to change.

"Domestic violence is not about anger; it’s about power and control."

Sounding Board charges an initial $45 fee and $25 a session. Those charges are comparable to other programs.

Southeast Inc. is the only area agency that will accept low-income clients on a sliding-fee basis (with support from the Franklin County Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Board).

A little more than half of Southeast clients successfully complete a 26-week course, program manager David Weinhold said.

"We know it’s not enough," he said. "We’ve all had the experience of the star of the group re-offending a week later."