Beyond Violence and Justice: The Transformative Role of Counselling for Survivors of Domestic Violence

Abstract

Counselling service is essential for healing the emotional and psychological trauma of survivors of domestic violence (SDV). For this reason, the study explored the views of participants of the study on the transformative role of counselling for SDV. The instrumental case study was adopted. A theoretical sample was used to purposively select 23 participants which were made up of three officials of the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU), two counsellors and 18 SDVs. An interview guide was used to collect the data. The data was analysed using Open and selective coding and thematic content analysis. The findings indicated that counselling plays a transformative role for SDV through the use of counselling skills and techniques to heal psychological and emotional pain. Based on the findings, it is recommended that a counselling unit should be set up at all regional offices of DOVVSU, to provide counselling services to SDV for psychological and emotional recovery.