In Memory of Marianne SooHoo
TAPP Intake Coordinator, SCCC

A study of low-income preschool aged children showed that nearly half of those studied had experienced mild to severe DV in their home and it is estimated that 3.3 – 10 million children witness domestic violence annually. Though it is often perceived to be a problem of low income families, domestic violence crosses all socioeconomic lines. Another misperception is that children must be victims of the mistreatment themselves to be affected by it.

No one pushes our buttons more effectively than our children. They instinctively know the most annoying, frustrating, downright infuriating ways to get our tempers rising, and do it with panache. I have yet to meet a parent who won’t admit, when pressed, that though they have never abused their child, they understand how it happens. When you see the kind of challenges some parents face, things like extreme youth, lack of good parental role models, economic and cultural marginalization, it is not surprising that child abuse is not uncommon

A key agent for change in the TAPP program is a little sheet of paper we call the “Feeling Finder”. This was one of the tools that helped transform my life. It assumes that when we feel anger, which is a powerful and sometimes empowering emotion, we are also feeling lots of other feelings that feel less powerful. They might be things like shame, fear, out of control, sad, powerless, hopeless – a whole range of feelings that tend to make us curl up and hide rather than get out and do….

My Journey with Domestic Violence

By Carol Potter, M.A., MFT

Many years ago, when I lived in New York and had a different life, I decided I wanted to get involved in some issue. Feminism had made me sensitive to the imbalance of power between men and women, and drew me to the issue of domestic violence; I thought there could be nothing more terrible than being afraid of someone you loved…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. The Abuse Prevention Program (TAPP) is a program of the Southern California Counseling Center. The purpose and goal of TAPP is to help men and women adopt a system of beliefs and values that embrace equality and mutuality within an intimate relationship. Men’s and women’s  groups (for both court mandated [...]

October is Domestic Violence Awareness month. The Abuse Prevention Program (TAPP) is a program of the Southern California Counseling Center. The purpose and goal of TAPP is to help men and women adopt a system of beliefs and values that embrace equality and mutuality within an intimate relationship. Men’s and women’s  groups (for both court mandated [...]