This publication was one part of a concerted effort to improve the community response and make our service more accessible and responsive to lesbians who are victims of violence in intimate relationships. Existing policies and practices needed to be adapted to be fully inclusive. Several areas of our work developed as a result of increasing our response to lesbians in the London community. At the Intake stage, every woman is asked about her abuser in gender neutral terms. As well, group work in a small, close-knit community might be problematic.
Lesbian clients have the option of attending a group with heterosexually identified women.
The group co-facilitators make a point of providing examples that include lesbian battering in all groups. We have also adapted The Wheel of Power and Control and the Wheel of Equality , which we use with clients, to include tactics used in lesbian battering relationships. One outcome is a more comprehensive assessment of abuse. We try to look at who is the one who is fearful and who alters her behaviour. Usually we are able to determine that one partner is afraid and alters her behaviour and one does not.