Hannah Leonard
North 12
March 31, 2015
March Extra Blog Post
When it came to my research process, I found that my mentorship, and mentors themselves, were amazing sources of information. I did a mentorship at a domestic violence organization called, The House of Ruth, my mentors being Marina Wood and Ashley Solis. Both Marina and Ashley majored in women and gender studies so their knowledge far extends just domestic violence. They are educated in gender roles, transgender situations, rape culture, and sexual orientation identification. Any and all questions I had were welcomed and answered in great depth and detail. At my mentorship, not only was there a wide rage of large amount of information easily accessible but it was also reliable information. I had trouble finding books that were specific to my topic and I was skeptical about online sources because I had no way of knowing if the "facts" presented to me were accurate. I was always excited to go to mentorship because I was constantly learning something new, even when I thought that there was nothing left to learn. However my topic was Clinical Psychology not domestic violence, so I had to be careful to not let all of the domestic violence information overpower the clinical psychology part. I had to make sure they went together and that the connection was clear and concise. When I came up with my essential question, it made it much easier to include and connect clinical psychology. Ms. Ortega and Ms. Yelverton helped me dedicate to an essential question. I had originally thought that my essential question would "What is the best way to prevent domestic violence?". However this question seemed to have only one answer and didn't really beg for depth of research. After I decided on my essential question, making the connection between domestic violence and clinical psychology didn't seem so forced after that. From this I learned that you just have to make it work. There is always a way, you just have to find the right angle and amplify it. Also, outsourcing is very helpful. There is nothing wrong with getting the opinion of a few different trusted sources. Getting different views on one subject can be very telling, of what works and what doesn't. The essential question is "How best can a person overcome the effects of domestic violence?" In this I mean all aspects of the impact domestic violence has on someone's life. Including triggers, PTSD, anxiety, and depression. This would be the clinical side to the effects the violence has on the mind. The body itself can also react. It has been heard of for domestic violence victims to get ulcers due to the large amount of stress they undergo on a daily basis. They could suffer from arthritis because of broken bones they suffered in the past that healed incorrectly. Physical abuse is the most commonly known form of domestic violence, however even in those situations, the victims say that it was the mental/emotional abuse that stays with them.
