Workshop Description:
“Everyone has a right to have a present and future that are not completely dominated and dictated by the past.” - Karen Saakvitne
Relationship issues bring many individuals into therapy. Clients may come to us because they are confused about their relationships. They may report they that they feel like they are “walking on eggshells”; they can’t seem to “get it right”; their partner is frustrated with them. They may share that their children are either “overly clinging” or “overly distant and disrespectful”.
As therapists, we listen to people discuss their relationships and the dynamics within them. Patterns may begin to emerge that heighten the therapist’s awareness around the dynamics of the relationship and the safety of it. Initially, the individual may not identify the relationship as controlling, unsafe or abusive.
This workshop will define coercive control and how coercive control is a multi-faceted form of abuse that includes many different types of abuse (e.g., encompasses many forms of harm to adults and many acts of child abuse and neglect towards children). We will focus on increasing the therapist’s awareness of the reverberating effects of coercive control, domestic violence, and emotionally abusive relationships on individuals and their children and the process of healing through a trauma-informed approach.
Survivors of abuse and coercive control often adopt patterns of behavior that are adaptive as survival skills and are the best choices they can make in a controlling, dangerous environment. However, these skills may be maladaptive in healing from the control and abuse and reclaiming their rights to be safe and healthy. This workshop will provide therapists with skills and techniques to support individuals as they begin to understand what has happened to them and how they have coped. We will focus on de-pathologizing and reducing the stigma and shame associated with being a survivor of coercive control and abuse and supporting individuals in reclaiming their rights to safety and choice.
Learning Objectives:
1. Define coercive control. Describe how women and children are affected by coercive control (that may or may not include physical violence).
2. Increase skills in assessing for empowering characteristics and cognitions in women and their children.
3. Teach clients strategies to uncover their potential for personal growth, positive change and connecting with their inner strengths.
4. Identify and implement specific trauma-informed strategies to support women and children to heal from controlling, abusive relationships.
5. Describe how coercive control manifests in both pre and post separation.
6. Identify interventions and strategies for recovery for women and children who have experienced coercive control.
7. Identify the components of a safety plan that acknowledges the risks and barriers associated with ending/leaving a coercively controlling relationship.