The examination of the experiences of psychologists working with abused women through thematic analysis

Psychological difficulties experienced after violence against women are usually defined by psychopathological diagnostic categories in the psychology literature and interventions are conducted accordingly. These interventions can give rise to practices that can disregard the experience of a woman, free of social dynamics. This can lead to a deep impact on the quality of services that experts in mental health provide to women who are victims of violence. The purpose of this study is to understand psychologists who provide mental health services in the field of violence against women, their professional experience through their perspective and qualitative method. It is aimed at making the experiences of psychologists working in the field visible and identifying their needs. In this respect, 9 psychologists working in the field have been interviewed. Three main themes and nine sub-themes have been identified with the qualitative data obtained. The findings of the study showed that psychologists often experience desperation and exhaustion, and begin to experience difficulties in their social relationships. Compassion fatigue and secondary traumatic stress symptoms are observed in psychologists working with women who are violence victims, but with the effect of protective factors, their well-being can be supported and self-care is extremely important. As a result of the research, for psychologists working in the field, the importance of receiving psychotherapy and supervision support, increasing their social support, supporting them with training and their developing self-care strategies has been understood. On the other hand; while working in the field of violence against women, the importance of working on gender dynamics, the solidarity in the field of violence against women, to address the economic, political, socio-cultural aspects of violence with an interdisciplinary and integrative approach was understood. It was pointed out that these approaches and this critical thinking will also protect psychologists who work in this field. Keywords: compassion fatigue, violence against women, qualitative research