Healing the scars of domestic violence: Group curriculum that helps increase awareness in Latina immigrant women and adolescent children

Includes bibliographical references (pages 78-84)The purpose of this project was to develop a group counseling curriculum that educates Latino families, mothers and adolescent children, about domestic violence. Latina immigrant mothers who have recently arrived to the U.S. have difficulty with language and economic barriers that prevent them from receiving assistance they need. Many times immigrant Latina women are fearful of asking for help when they are undocumented which silences the family more on the domestic violence happening in the home. Children frequently are exposed to the domestic violence at home that can have many side effects affecting their physical, emotional, and social development. A group curriculum has been developed to help mothers and children become more aware of what is domestic violence and teaching them skills to help them have healthier emotional relationships by encouraging communication between mothers and children about the domestic violence, increasing healthy coping skills and providing the support and space to feel safe to talk about their experiences with domestic violence