There is help for the child victims of domestic violence
Ten million children in the United States are exposed to domestic violence each year.  Many of these children and their mothers find their way to safety through a shelter.

Children who come to the shelter are often in a state of crisis and confusion because of the effects of domestic violence.  They may be agitated and anxious after having been separated from what is most familiar and routine to them.  Consequently, their security has been disrupted and shaken, and they become uncertain of what the future holds for them.  Many children who arrive at the shelter are traumatized and in the need of crisis intervention.

Domestic Violence Victims’ Support Groups 

Meetings are scheduled every Tuesday, from 10:30 a.m.– 12:00 p.m. and evening sessions are from 6:00 p.m.-8 p.m. Both sessions are conducted in Fort Walton Beach. Shelter House’s support groups are free, all information discussed in groups is confidential and no appointment is necessary. Child Care will be provided on site and refreshments will be served. 

Fort Walton Beach - 102 Buck Drive, 243-1201
Intake: Thursdays, 11:00 - 12:00 pm
Support: Tuesdays, 10:30 - 12:00 pm & 6:30 - 8:00 pm  (childcare provided for evening class)

Crestview - 290 Martin Luther King Blvd., 683-0845
Intake: Monday, 10:00 - 11:00 am
Support: Tuesdays, 1:00 - 2:30 pm & Thursdays, 2:00 - 3:30 pm

DeFuniak Springs - 1st Assembly of God, 461 Van Buren Ave., 622-5411
Intake: Tuesdays, 10:30 - 11:30 am
Support: Tuesdays, 12:30 - 2:00 pm

Santa Rosa Beach -  78 Lynn Drive, 622-5411
Intake: Thursdays, 9:00 - 10:00 am
Support: Thursdays, 12:30 - 2:00 pm


There is no set childcare at either Crestview or DeFuniak Springs locations. 

Important topics to be discussed in the support groups are; staying vs. leaving, the campaign of violence, healthy vs. abusive relationships, dealing with difficult people in the system, recognizing a batterer, safety planning and financial security and community resources.

Counseling Services For Children
The short-term focus of intervention is to reduce the child’s confusion, helplessness, and emotional pain.  The child therapist helps to support and understand the child as well as help to stabilize the child’s experience of the crisis.  The long-term goal of intervention is to prevent the ongoing cycle of domestic violence.  Direct intervention with children who come with the mother s to a battered women’s shelter is important to break this generational pattern of abuse.

Shelter House, Inc. offers counseling services to children who have been abused or subjected to violence in the home.  Residential counseling services are available to children during their stay at the shelter.  The goals of residential counseling are to reduce anxiety, depression, and other feelings that may be interfering with a child’s ability to recover from crisis.  Treatment goals for residential counseling are modest and somewhat limited due to the short length of stay at the shelter for most mothers and their children.   Counseling provided in the shelter is often crisis oriented.  There may not be enough time or resources available to adequately take care of the child’s more serious and ongoing problems.  Therefore, the child therapist may suggest ongoing counseling outside of the shelter.  Shelter House, Inc. also provides outreach counseling for children and parents.  Your child’s therapist can provide you with information for follow up counseling and support services.


Play Therapy
Children from violent homes are often silent in their suffering.  Because it is difficult for children to verbalize their feelings, expressive methods of play can be a way for what is secret or confusing to become real and tangible.  Play therapy can help children relate to the trauma of domestic violence.

Play Therapy is often an appropriate intervention for children ages 4-12.  Play Therapy is a group of interventions that use play as part of the therapeutic process.

Play is important for children.  Play is the language children use until they are able to master the spoken language.  Children are able to express through play therapy what they cannot put into words.

Play Therapy allows children to explore their ideas and feelings with therapeutic toys in a safe, private, and quiet environment with the therapist’s full attention.  Play therapy is most often directed by the child and revolves around specific issues, ideas, and feelings about which the child feels confused and ambivalent.  The play therapist can help the child identify the confusing feelings and offer alternative ways of thinking about and behaving in response to the stress, all using the child’s natural language of play.  Through therapeutic play, children have an opportunity and means by which to express the crisis and trauma.  The therapist also talks with children to help them begin to put words to their feelings.  Most of what occurs in your child’s therapy sessions will only be discussed between the therapist, the child, and parent.

A trained play therapist can help a child play out his or her feelings and concerns by identifying specific themes that are typically seen by children with worries or problems.

The therapist can help the child identify the confusing feelings and can offer alternative ways of thinking about and behaving in response to the stress, all using the child’s natural language of play.


Benefits of Play Therapy
Children’s Counseling and Play Therapy can be extremely beneficial to you and your child.  You may notice some of the following benefits:

Our Children’s Services Include:

• Referrals for children and family counseling can come directly from the shelter, Shelter House, Inc. or through community referrals.
  
• Outreach counseling offers individual, group, or family counseling for children from violent homes.
  
• Shelter House, Inc. also provides weekly support groups for children and their mothers.