A Mind-Body Bridging Treatment Program for Domestic Violence Offenders: Program Overview and Evaluation Results

According to recent meta-analyses, conventional group interventions with domestic violence offenders are marginally effective. Given these results, researchers and practitioners are beginning to explore ways to improve domestic violence treatment outcomes. This article describes a 16-week domestic violence offender group treatment program for abusive men that is grounded in the Mind-Body therapeutic tradition. Results from an evaluation of this program, known as Mind-Body Bridging (MBB), are reported. These results indicate that MBB participants experienced better outcomes than the comparison group. Nine percent of MBB participants failed to complete treatment compared to 29 % of comparison group participants. Recidivism rates for the MBB group were also lower (4 % vs. 9 %) at follow-up (post-treatment average = 428 days). Mind-Body Bridging participants experienced significant pre/post treatment improvement on measures of mindfulness and physical and mental health.