Dominance and Dialogue in Couple Therapy for Psychological Intimate Partner Violence

Results of the Jyväskylä research project on couple therapy for intimate partner violence: topics and strategies in successful therapy processes

“…The findings on interactional dominance differed across the studies reviewed: Vall and colleagues () reported equally low interactional dominance for both partners, as opposed to Keltikangas and colleagues (), who found that the male client showed more interactional dominance than the female client. These differences could be explained by the fact that in the study by Keltikangas et al ., () there were more cases analysed, whereas Vall et al .…”

“…Dominance, in turn, could be detected by analysing the dialogue in the conjoint sessions. The findings of such analysis showed that the male client dominated the sessions by talking more often and for longer periods (Keltikangas et al ., ; Kulta et al ., ; Vall, Seikkula, Laitila and Holma, ). Moreover, the findings indicated that the female client showed more semantic dominance (Keltikangas et al ., ; Vall et al ., ), thereby regulating the topics under discussion, for example by changing the focus of the conversation.…”

“…The findings of such analysis showed that the male client dominated the sessions by talking more often and for longer periods (Keltikangas et al ., ; Kulta et al ., ; Vall, Seikkula, Laitila and Holma, ). Moreover, the findings indicated that the female client showed more semantic dominance (Keltikangas et al ., ; Vall et al ., ), thereby regulating the topics under discussion, for example by changing the focus of the conversation. It might be that semantic dominance presented by female clients is a strategy for making their voice heard and for returning to the issue they were originally talking about.…”

“…These differences could be explained by the fact that in the study by Keltikangas et al ., () there were more cases analysed, whereas Vall et al . () was a case study, in which the couple presented some special characteristics (i.e. bidirectional violence).…”

“…() and Vall et al . () found that the session in which the male client showed more quantitative dominance was the one that he gave a lower assessment of on the SRS; this referred in particular to the item on ‘feeling heard during the session’ (Vall et al ., ). One might hypothesize that the man was using more quantitative dominance in the session in order to make his voice heard.…”