DARVO Worksheet
Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender
DARVO — Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender — is the predictable sequence that follows being held to account. Naming it in advance keeps the client from spending the conversation defending themselves against the reversal.
The event is refused outright, or reframed as something that could not reasonably be objected to.
The focus moves to the person raising it: their tone, timing, memory, motives or history.
Roles swap. The person who raised the harm becomes the one who caused it, and an apology is now owed to them.
The original issue is never discussed. That is the function, not a side effect.
Clinician note
Rehearse the return sentence out loud in session. Clients can name DARVO accurately and still lose the thread in the moment; only the rehearsed line survives the reversal.