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You have reached the professional family violence services page of our website. Current services include various educational materials, a free newsletter, psychoeducational programs for court ordered or volunteer participants and skills support services performed by experienced trainers. Please see below for more detail on these services.
IS THERE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IN MY FAMILY?
Domestic Violence is an insidious problem that exists in all classes of our society. Some studies in the US have shown results such as 50% of all intentional homicides of females are committed by a past or present intimate partner or 63% of all boys age 11-20 who are arrested for murder have killed the man who was assaulting their mother or 20% of all murders are domestic violence related or battering is the single major cause of injury to women, more frequent than auto accidents, muggings and rapes combined.
Domestic Violence is an intergenerational problem because it is a learned behavior. This is how it happens. If a child grows up in an abusive environment some of the emotional effects can be low self-esteem, shame, distrust, co-dependency, difficulty in being accountable for their problems in life, and difficulty in setting healthy boundaries in their relationships. In addition they often learn to use the behavior of violence when they are stressed, angry or otherwise emotionally triggered. They have learned these things from their role-model, usually the parent. They have never learned to meet their own emotional needs because they have been abused. Therefore they enter an adult relationship with the same emotional difficulties. When certain feelings are triggered they will often use the same behavior patterns in response to those triggers that they learned as a child, namely abusive or violent behaviors. Thus the problem of domestic violence gets passed on from generation to generation.
WHAT IS ABUSE? Abuse can be either verbal, physical or emotional. Abuse can be defined as any attempt to hurt or impose our will (in a destructive way) on another. Verbal or emotional abuse is often not thought of as domestic violence but it is because it is extremely destructive in relationships and is meant to control another person on an emotional level. Examples of verbal abuse can be yelling, cursing or put downs. Examples of emotional abuse can be staring at someone to intimidate them or doing something to punish them.
HOW DO WE FIX IT? Undo the co-dependency. Learn to be accountable for ourselves emotionally and behaviorally. Learn to set healthy boundaries for ourselves. Learn appropriate ways to express our anger. There is no quick fix. It took us a long time to learn our current behaviors. It will take time to learn new ones. With courage to look at ourselves and conviction, it can be done. I have seen it time and time again. This program can help you and will provide the information needed for change.
SERVICES
NEWSLETTER (free) - Click here to register for our free non-violence newsletter covering all areas of interpersonal violence.
FAMILY VIOLENCE PROGRAM (court ordered or volunteer) You can purchase our Family Violence workbook for $45.00, which you can complete on your own. It is full of information and exercises which will methodically build your awareness, understanding and skills. Or you can purchase a full program (various hours (sessions) and prices). Each program includes the workbook, online testing (required for court ordered participants), answers to any questions you have about the material via e-mail while you are completing the program, one 30 minute progress interview and one 30 minute completion interview with an experienced family violence clinician (required for court ordered participants), and free progress reports or completion reports as needed. Completion of a full program (minimum 8 hours) qualifies you for our counseling services. See below. Click here to view detailed information on the programs, to view the complete contents of the program workbook and to make your purchase if desired.
SKILLS SUPPORT - Skills support services with an experienced trainer can be purchased at very reasonable rates and time frames. These services are not meant as a substitute for psychotherapy. They will be psychoeducational in nature and will in general focus on applying what you have learned to current situations. This service can be very supportive and can help to reinforce and fine tune your newly learned skills. It will be necessary for you to complete a program (minimum 8 hours) (anger management, family violence, parenting, etc.) to receive this service. Please click here to sign up and view rates.
