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Domestic Violence and Custody - Child Abuse and the Replay Button

By Dr Jeanne King PhD

Republish: EasyPublish™ Published: 04Jan2011 Word count: 439 Viewed: 101 time(s) Get Free Content For Your Site

The next worst thing to being abused is retelling the story over and over, again and again in the context of a custody dispute. Of course, the operative words here are "over and over" "again and again."

If you think you are doing your child a service by letting his/her voice be heard in your custody battle, think again. Not about their voice factored into the equation, but about the impact of telling his/her story, over and over again.

Hearing Your Abused Child's Voice

It's one thing to hear your child's voice and another to let one's voice be heard. Each time your child re-tells his/her story of family violence, the memory enlivens the experience again.

Now with repeated exposure—that is, repeatedly enlivening the trauma of domestic violence—with multiple people over an extended period time, disaster sets in. And the child can wear down psychologically from the inside out.

Is it the repetition of the trauma without therapeutic intervention? Or, is it the polarization of the child? Or, is it both?

The Memory Is in the Muscle

You've heard the expression, 'the memory is in the muscle.' It suggests that the experience is stored in the tissue. What actually is happening psychophysiologically is the cognitive imagery elicits the affective experiential counterpart. And your little one's nightmare comes rushing in...uncontrollably.

Now, let's make this even worse... Imagine that you are a young child and your nightmare comes rushing in and you go to your abusive parent's home and are punished for letting your nightmare leak out.

The Polarized Abused Child

This child longs to tell and longs not to tell…for he/she knows the price to be paid. This is huge for the abused child, who deals with not only picking a parent, but also exposing the family violence dragons.

And moreover, this child encounters his/her internal traumatic flood each time he/she is expected to go through this with another helping professional. Years into protracted divorce litigation, we find the fractured child or adolescent.

Voice Solutions for You and Your Abused Child

If you are in a custody dispute that requires your child to disclose family violence, consider the help you can obtain through organizations that become your child's voice. There are entities that serve to take your child's message to the places it needs to be heard without your child having to relive his/her nightmare over and over, again and again.

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