Three specific protection strategies should be exercised by therapists to enhance the safety and empowerment of battered women and children whose abusers receive therapeutic and educational intervention services: assessment of the lethality of batterers, information dissemination to the battered woman, and intervention against male bonding activities. At present, the duty to warn is a legal and ethical standard, but the mere warning of victims upon determining that a batterer represents a serious danger fails to suffice in achieving the balance between victim protection and batterer rehabilitation. To safeguard battered women, duty to protect must become the new standard. 10 notes and 4 references