2. An individual's unwillingness to commit to safety is more easily assessed.

3. A victim/perpetrator model may be politically useful but does not support therapeutic change. In fact, such a model and its language blames and labels clients (both men and women). Furthermore, a culture of hoplessness is often implied.

4. Victim/perpetrator models create resistance; constructivist/solution-focused models utilize resistance.

5.A victim/perpetrator model is rigid and does not reflect the diversity among couples distressed by violence. Some small percentage of women are abusive; some couples are mutually combative; some couples use verbal abuse with equal (dis)ability. Couples therapy normalizes safety and establishes mutually agreed-upon definitions of safety.

6.Couples therapy provides an environment where corrective experiences are provided and emphasized.

7. Couples treatment respects clients' ability to define their own goals which may be other that abuse and which may be perceived by them as more immediate.

8. Couples therapy can generate trust and honesty; secrets are discouraged.

9. Clients often request couples or family therapy. Effective therapy and ethics (supporting clients rights to self-determination) demand that their requests be honored.

10. Denying a client's choice may recapitulate him/her a sense of powerlessness and humiliation.

11. Refusal to meet with couples may increase the risk of violence. This is especially true if the abusive person refuses individual or group treatment.

12. Individual treatment for marital issues results in marriage failure twice as frequently as couples therapy.

13. Couples therapy often helps one member resolve more quickly his/her ambivalence about staying in the relationship than does indivdual treatment.

14. Couples therapy can maintain a focus on safety as couples separate and divorce.

15. A couple's therapist who develops rapport and co-creates an atmosphere of safety with both partners is in a better position to accurately assess relapse. Additionally, the therapist can better intervene to maintain safety by establishing "peace agreements," time-out contracts, agreements to call the police if further violence occurs, and mutual acknowledgements of the importance of safety for children.

16. Couples therapists are more able to avoid "taking sides" and blaming. They are in a better position to help partners "attack the problem," not one another. Individual therapists are more easily compromised by advocating for one spouse (their client) against the other.

17. Abuse among gay and lesbian couples give lie to a simplistic gender/patriarchy explanation of abuse. Couples therapy is able to focus on destructive interactional patters and roles in any relationship.

18. Research (The PREP Program in Denver) shows a high correlation between the tactics of withdrawl and abuse among spouses. Couples treatment supports both partners to change opening gambits on behalf of safety.

19. Research from the same program indicates that many couples who report their marriages as satisfying also report abuse. Couples therapy can more effectively provide the reeducation for both partners.

20. Violence occurs within a context. Although only the abusive person is ultimately responsible for his/her actions, all family members can influence context.

21. Couples therapy is effective at appreciating and understanding cultural and family diversity.

22.Couples therapy assumes that each partner affects and influences one another more than the therapist affects and influences.