Targeted trauma and parenting therapies show promise for mothers in domestic violence shelters in the Netherlands

New Dutch research highlights the effectiveness of combined trauma and parenting therapies in helping mothers recover and reconnect with their children after intimate partner violence, amid persistent domestic abuse figures.

Children and parents escaping intimate partner violence need more than a safe bed: they often need targeted support for trauma and parenting, too. New research from the Netherlands suggests that the right combination of therapies can help mothers in domestic violence shelters regain confidence in caring for young children while also easing post-traumatic stress symptoms. The findings arrive against a wider backdrop of persistent domestic abuse in the country, where official figures show that around 1.3 million people aged 16 and over reported domestic violence in 2024.

The study, led by Willemien van den Dorpel of the Institute of Education and Child Studies, followed 52 women and their children, who were all aged six or younger, during a 13-week stay in shelter accommodation. The families were living in a setting that is still commonly called a women’s shelter in the Netherlands, although men and children can also be housed there. Van den Dorpel’s team wanted to know what kind of intervention could work for this group, given that there are still few proven treatments specifically designed for parents who enter shelter after intimate partner violence.

That need is substantial. Statistics Netherlands said in late 2024 that nearly 1.3 million people experienced domestic violence in the previous year, while about 990,000 were affected on a structural basis, meaning repeatedly over the course of the year. The same office reported in 2025 that an average of 22 women a year were killed by a partner or ex-partner between 2020 and 2024, with that figure unchanged for 15 years. Government information also shows that the Netherlands has a formal system for responding to domestic abuse, including protection orders and mandatory professional reporting protocols.

Van den Dorpel’s research found that many of the mothers in the study were dealing with more than one form of harm. Their PTSD symptoms were elevated, and the analyses also showed marked problems in parenting behaviour, including reduced sensitivity to a child’s signals and, in some cases, disrupted responses that could unsettle or frighten a young child. The study also found that 80% of the mothers had experienced some form of abuse during their own childhood, underlining how violence can echo across generations.

The treatment approach used in the study had two parts. First came NIKA, a short Dutch intervention focused on atypical parenting behaviour, in which parents were filmed playing with their child, then reviewed the footage with a therapist and received feedback. According to Van den Dorpel, mothers’ sensitivity scores improved from an average of four out of nine to five, which crossed the threshold into the sensitive range, and disruptive behaviour also declined. The second stage was EMDR, or Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing, a recognised trauma therapy. After that treatment, the mothers’ average PTSD scores fell from around 50 to 24, below the clinical cut-off of 31. Van den Dorpel said the results point to the value of offering both forms of help in shelter settings, even if practical barriers, from legal disputes to insurance limits and the need for consent from an abusive co-parent, can make that difficult.