Narratives of violence: The change process in battered women

In this paper the authors explore the construction of the self in two groups of battered women. In the first group the subjects have already started the process of change (e.g., presentation of charges to the police, intention of leaving the relationship) and in the second one the woman maintain the relationship and have no clear intentions of leaving it. The authors used a semi-structured interview based on White and Epston (1990) model of narrative therapy to explore the identity construction and also the process of change in the first group. The authors have made the qualitative analysis of the interviews from the theoretical topics of the narrative model: the problem construction and its effects, identity or self-specifications, cultural and social influences on the problem construction, and, finally, unique outcomes to the problem saturated story. In this research the narrative model is used both as a form of recollection of stories and as way to empower battered woman.