Case Illustration · Applied Exercise
The Connection Not Made
She was referred for relationship distress. One behavioural question changed what the work was about.
The presentation
A client (AFAB, 27) is referred to you for counselling by her family physician, with a referral note citing relationship distress and low mood. In the first session she reports that sex has become painful over the past two years and that she now avoids it. She mentions in passing that she has had three unintended pregnancies in four years and that a long-acting contraceptive was placed a few months ago. She describes her current partner as controlling but does not use the word abuse.
Taking a sexual history, you ask behaviourally whether a partner has ever interfered with contraception. She pauses. She discloses that her partner hates condoms, and that on two occasions she found her birth control pills had been disposed of. She had not connected this to the sexual pain or to the unintended pregnancies.
Estimated time to complete this exercise: 12 minutes
Part 1 of 5
Which findings bear on the assessment of reproductive coercion?
Select all that do. Three of the six. You get one submission.
References
- Grace, K. T., & Anderson, J. C. (2018). Reproductive coercion: A systematic review. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 19(4), 371–390. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524838016663935
- Miller, E., Decker, M. R., McCauley, H. L., Tancredi, D. J., Levenson, R. R., Waldman, J., Schoenwald, P., & Silverman, J. G. (2010). Pregnancy coercion, intimate partner violence and unintended pregnancy. Contraception, 81(4), 316–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.contraception.2009.12.004