Advocacy Consultation for Victims of Sexual and Domestic Violence

Advocacy is itself a form of consultation and is a role consultants take on when they believe a certain course of action should be taken.  Advocacy consultation is an expansion of that view, in which the role of the consultant is entirely devoted to some course of action.  Considering these two definitions, one would be considered an Advocate consultant for victims of sexual and domestic violence, if that person believes very strongly that the empowerment of victims is what needs to happen to help victims overcome the abusive situation and further them in their healing process.  As an advocate, the consultant for victims of sexual and domestic violence attempts to persuade the consultee-client to do something the consultant believes to be a highly desirable course of action, which is to primarily put themselves in a place of safety first and then to embark on a journey of healing. 

By definition, to advocate literally means “to act as the voice of”.  In the last twenty years or so, the advocacy role has been described more as advocating for the rights of those who are unable to help themselves, nor speak for themselves.  According to the National Violence Against Women Survey almost 25% of American women are physically or sexually assaulted by a current or former spouse, cohabiting partner, or a date at some time in their life. According to this survey, approximately 1.5 million American women are physically or sexually assaulted by an intimate partner each year. In addition to this, rates of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among battered women are much higher than in the general population.  The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders purports that PTSD among victims of domestic violence are similar to those of prisoners of war who have been repeatedly tortured.  The promotion of available services to this population has been a primary goal of outreach in the last few years. 

Counselors have enlarged the use of outreach, advocacy and consultation in order to assist those populations who are in danger of becoming victimized.  Outreach is an inclusive term for all services that do not use traditional counseling methods. Both advocacy and consultation are included under the term outreach.  Outreach has grown from the need to find alternatives to services which primarily attempt to help after the fact, so that a larger part of the general population can benefit from a more preventive way. Outreach attempts to broaden the traditional counseling methods, since most counselors tend to spend more time applying individual and small group interventions and often have less time for specific populations of people in need.