Gender-based violence is invisible and underreported in most countries. In Italy, service providers indicate that, with a spreading rate of 78%, violence in intimate relationships is the most widespread form of violence that continues to affect women across the country. The pervasiveness of this phenomenon is reflected in the growing number of victims of femicide. To contrast this situation, feminist groups and organizations for many years have provided legal assistance, and medical, psychological, and social support to the victims. In a first moment, interventions centered on the individual are privileged, while group interventions are generally provided in more advanced stages. These groups are generally support groups where the women, in the presence of a professional facilitator, can exchange and collectively elaborate their experiences. Self-help groups are seldom used and evaluated in their effectiveness. Self-help groups may be useful contexts to allow women who have experienced violence to break the social isolation to which have been reduced and rebuild their social network, to contextualize their experience in a wider socio-political and cultural dimension, to reduce their self-perception as ―victims‖ and promote the development of an identity of ―survivors‖. Self-help provides them with an opportunity to share, with other women with the same experience, personal stories and strategies to deal with different critical situations. It is also a context that allows the exchange of various forms of social support and promote an active role of the members as mutual helpers. This contribution presents a self-help experience developed since January 2011 in an anti-violence service of Rome. The effects of the self-help in terms of quality of life are analyzed through members‘ narratives. A reflection on the limits and the potential of the promotion of self-help contexts among women survivors of violence in intimate relationships will be launched.
The Phoenicians who fly to Ithaca: discovering the potential of self-help through sourvivors’ narratives / Esposito, Francesca; Tomai, Manuela. - ELETTRONICO. - (2013), pp. 78-.... (Intervento presentato al convegno 9th European Congress of Community Psychology. Beyond the Crisis. Building Community and critical visions to achieve justice, fairness and well-being tenutosi a Naples, Italy. nel 6-9 November 2013).
The Phoenicians who fly to Ithaca: discovering the potential of self-help through sourvivors’ narratives
ESPOSITO, FRANCESCA;TOMAI, MANUELA
2013
Abstract
Gender-based violence is invisible and underreported in most countries. In Italy, service providers indicate that, with a spreading rate of 78%, violence in intimate relationships is the most widespread form of violence that continues to affect women across the country. The pervasiveness of this phenomenon is reflected in the growing number of victims of femicide. To contrast this situation, feminist groups and organizations for many years have provided legal assistance, and medical, psychological, and social support to the victims. In a first moment, interventions centered on the individual are privileged, while group interventions are generally provided in more advanced stages. These groups are generally support groups where the women, in the presence of a professional facilitator, can exchange and collectively elaborate their experiences. Self-help groups are seldom used and evaluated in their effectiveness. Self-help groups may be useful contexts to allow women who have experienced violence to break the social isolation to which have been reduced and rebuild their social network, to contextualize their experience in a wider socio-political and cultural dimension, to reduce their self-perception as ―victims‖ and promote the development of an identity of ―survivors‖. Self-help provides them with an opportunity to share, with other women with the same experience, personal stories and strategies to deal with different critical situations. It is also a context that allows the exchange of various forms of social support and promote an active role of the members as mutual helpers. This contribution presents a self-help experience developed since January 2011 in an anti-violence service of Rome. The effects of the self-help in terms of quality of life are analyzed through members‘ narratives. A reflection on the limits and the potential of the promotion of self-help contexts among women survivors of violence in intimate relationships will be launched.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
