Empowering Abused Women through Reality Therapy: A Community‑Based Group Counseling Trial to Enhance Psychological Hardiness and Coping

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a Reality Therapy–based group counseling program in strengthening psychological hardiness and coping skills among abused women in a community education setting. Thirty‑two participants from the Women’s Programs Center at Al‑Baqa’a Camp were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 16; 17 sessions, 90 minutes each) or a control group (n = 16; no intervention). Validated measures of marital violence exposure, coping skills, and psychological hardiness were administered pre‑ and post‑intervention. Results showed statistically significant gains for the experimental group in both psychological hardiness and adaptive coping relative to controls, indicating that Reality Therapy is an effective, scalable modality for trauma‑impacted women. Implications for educational and applied humanities contexts include integrating Reality Therapy modules into community learning centers and adult education programs, training paraprofessional facilitators and school/social‑work counselors, embedding psychoeducational life‑skills curricula for violence prevention, and establishing referral and monitoring pathways with NGOs to support sustainability and ethical safeguards.