Researchers have identified some of the benefits and challenges working mothers experience. This phenomenological study extends this line of research to school counselor mothers. Themes highlighted include benefits of combining school counselor and motherhood roles, instances of role incompatibility, and strategies for managing multiple roles. We also provide suggestions for advocacy efforts to further support working mothers and to address the challenges specific to school counselor mothers.

Much research now indicates significant long-term effects for individuals who have experienced various forms of abuse in childhood. Recent research also has examined the role of women as perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV), including potential factors that contribute to their use of violence. One trend revealed in the research is that many of the women who engaged in acts of IPV also had a history of experiencing one or more types of childhood abuse (e.g., physical or sexual abuse, or witnessing family violence). This article discusses the specific framework of complex trauma as a theoretical model to understand how unresolved triggers of childhood trauma may potentially serve as ongoing catalysts for women's IPV. Using the lens of complex trauma illuminates the critical interpersonal factor yet to be studied thus far, which suggests that many women's IPV experiences may be rooted in having childhood traumas triggered by their intimate partner. Suggestions for treatment are recommended as exploring the intersection between past trauma and present violence, which seems to be the key for unlocking important answers in treating violent women and decreasing IPV.

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