Psychology

Violence at home or domestic violence is an act of violence that is gender based that is likely to result in psychological, physical, sexual harm to a partner in a relationship. This violence includes threats like arbitrary denial of freedom in private or public life (Schelisngner  Buzawa, 2003). A family should be a safe sanctuary that is, a place where the family members seek safety, love and shelter. However, domestic violence hampers all of this. In most cases, the men perpetrate domestic violence for instance boyfriends, husbands and fathers. Domestic violence against women is in most cases, a cycle of abuse that is manifested in many forms in their lives. For instance in courtship and dating violence, there are reported cases of partner violence 

The case study is of a client who is a victim of domestic violence and who is looking for help in this matter. However, the client is of the view that the children living in the house are not in any danger since most of the fighting happens after the children have gone to bed. The client seems to be in denial about the magnitude of the problem. On the fourth session with the client, she had a black eye and when I prompted her for the cause of the black eye, she insisted that it was just an accident. After further exploration, I concluded that the black eye was a result of a fight between the client and her partner. This kind of violence presents some social, legal and ethical issues that arise from this kind of domestic violence.

DISCUSSION
Following a lengthy discussion with my client, I am of the view that the clients children are at risk due to the domestic violence. Children who have witnesses domestic violence may display behavioral and health problems (Vincent  Jouriles, 2000). For example, the clients children are of the view that it is an accident when people throw things and fight each other. This clearly shows the extent to which domestic violence can have an impact on children who witness it. This raises the social, legal and ethical issues that are involved in this case.

Ethical issues
As a counselor, I should adopt a non-judgmental approach concerning this clients problem. The main purpose of ethical counseling is to allow the client to conclude what is right for her, instead of giving her a solution, which is inappropriate. It will be therefore vital for me as the counselor to be responsive of personal values and morals.

During the conservation with the client, the client further confessed that she sometimes fears for her life as her partner has a very bad temper and that he is easily gets annoyed with simple things. She further added that she is alarmed how this situation sometimes affects her immediate family but mostly her children. I get a sense of relief after the client says this because at the beginning of our discussion, she was kind of adamant about all this as she was of the view that her children could not be affected since her partner mostly fights with her after they have gone to sleep. As her psychologists, I try to make her see the point that there is a way out but she stubbornly does not see the importance of an immediate solution to this problem. I insist that she should immediately get out of this relationship but the client says that her partner has threatened her repeatedly if she walks out on him. I begin to wander how I can handle this case since I start fearing that the clients and her childrens lives may be in jeopardy.

In this case, the main issue is protecting the parties that are involved which are the client and her children from abuse. The children can be in serious danger as well as the abuser who is the clients partner, but he counseling may be beneficial to him if he realizes when it is not too late that there is a positive way he can change his abusive behavior. One of the first things I as a psychologist needs to do is evaluate my own personal predisposition concerning this case of domestic violence. Additionally, I have to embark on and try to understand the scope of the domestic violence in which the client somewhat blames herself and defends her abusive partner. As a psychologist responsible for this case, my ethical responsibility would be to make sure that all the victims involved in this case are safe from any more violence. In relation to this, I must comprehend my personal bias as well as the ethnic and cultural background of this client and I must discuss with the client about issues like informed consent, confidentiality and the limits to this confidentiality considering that the client is not about to partake a solution to this problem fast enough (Shipway, 2004). The relevant authorities will have to be alerted about this case because of the magnitude of the case since there are children who might be victims.

Social issues involved in violence at home
One social issue that may arise from domestic violence is the major effect it can have on children. Childrens experience to this kind of violence falls into three categories being a direct witness to a domestic violence event, hearing a domestic violence event and experiencing the outcome of a domestic violence event (Nicolson, 2008). Domestic violence can have adverse effects on children such as the danger of neglect, danger of exposure to a traumatic event and danger of losing one parent to domestic violence. In addition to this, children are often accidentally harmed during a violent attack on a victim. Children who are exposed to domestic violence tend to have social, behavioral and emotional problems, cognitive and attitudinal problems and may even experience long-term problems like resulting to violence in their future relationships (Mullender, 2002).

Legal issues involved in domestic violence
Areas that a psychologist may encounter ethical and legal decisions when dealing with a client who is a victim of domestic violence especially a court-mandated client is privilege and confidentiality, informed consent and other problems that are related to the safety of the client, scope of license and competence (Helfrich, 2001). For instance, confidentiality is an ethical and legal concept that serves to protect the client. Additionally, psychologists must know their officially permitted responsibilities and rights and once a psychologist enters into a working relationship with a client, he or she has ethical and legal responsibilities to abide by the various laws governing a psychologists work. Moreover, he or she should rightfully exercise their nature of work in accordance with the standards that have been adopted by the psychologist profession and the workplace.

Moreover, a psychologist should have a contract with the client that stipulates issues like
The frequency and duration of the counseling sessions
The canceling and keeping of appointments with clients
Confidentiality of clients records and any limitations
Client access to counseling notes, records and diagnosis
Payment for counseling services
The treatment procedures, risks, methods, expected outcomes and benefits.
Competency and qualifications of the counselor or the practitioner
The criteria for the termination of counseling services
The goals of the treatment
The physical setting where counseling will take place
Challenges when working with the client

One of the utmost challenges I had when working with this client is that the client proved to be quite a difficult one in the sense that she tried to defend her violent relationship with her husband. I as a psychologist had a hard time trying to reveal to her the negative outcomes of been in a violence relationship. Additionally, this case with this client was emotional draining because I became worried about how her violent relationship could have a negative effect on her children since she portrayed a view that physical fights are normal in a relationship. 

Plan for working with the client
In this case, one of the most important things that I as a counselor should do is provide a safety plan to the client. The aim of this safety plan is to provide a safe haven for all the parties that are involved in this domestic violence case (Geffner, Jaffe  Suderman, 2002). This will be accomplished providing this safety plan as well as making the client aware of the numerous resources that are available to solve this problem. First, I will evaluate the necessary needs of the client and try to involve her in the strategy for intervention to this problem since there are children who are involved and are exposed to the negative side of domestic violence even if as the client assert that most of the fighting is done when they are asleep.

Part of the safety plan is that the client should seek the services of a domestic violence lawyer. The functions of this lawyer are offer child protection services against domestic violence and assist victims in resolving the proper action for the family, which may include offering legal help (Boland, 2007). Additionally, the lawyer will support victims of gender violence such as my client by escorting them to court proceedings as well as evaluating the clients needs and referring them to the relevant people where necessary. Another significant step is giving the client a domestic violence handbook by (Barnett, Perin  Robin, 2005), that describes the complexity of domestic violence and what one can do if the client decides to leave the abusive relationship and getting the necessary help from bodies like social services.

A powerful resource that can be extremely beneficial to the client will be getting an order of protection. An order of protection that is usually issued by a court of law normally provides a safe haven to victims of domestic violence as the abuser will be necessitated to
To stay away from the client that is the home, place of employment and the childrens school.
To desist from an act of commission that can lead to risk to the safety and health of the client and her children.

To provide through medical and health insurance for the expenses that have occurred because of medical treatment that was a result of physical abuse of the client.

CONCLUSION
The case study is of a client who is a victim of domestic violence and who is looking for help in this matter. However, the client is of the view that the children living in the house are not in any danger since most of the fighting happens after the children have gone to bed. The client seems to be in denial about the magnitude of the problem. On the fourth session with the client, she had a black eye and when I prompted her for the cause of the black eye, she insisted that it was just an accident. A legal issue that may arise in a domestic violence is if the victim of the domestic violence reports the abuser to the authority. Additionally, if there are children that are involved in a domestic violent event, social services may be alerted and in such a case, there is a risk where the children might be taken away from the couple due to the nature of the violence that is involved.

One of the utmost challenges I had when working with this client is that the client proved to be quite a difficult one in the sense that she tried to defend her violent relationship with her husband. I as a psychologist had a hard time trying to reveal to her the negative outcomes of been in a violence relationship. When working with the client I provided a safety plan whose aim was to provide a safe haven for all the parties that were involved in the domestic violence case. This will be accomplished providing this safety plan as well as making the client aware of the numerous resources that are available to solve this problem. Part of the safety plan is that the client should seek the services of a domestic violence lawyer.