Neuroscience Directed Treatment for Domestic Violence Cases

Webinar

This training will be conducted via live webinar for six two-hour sessions. Participants will be able to ask questions, converse with trainers and other participants, and get their required DV training from their own computers.

REGISTER

Mod 1 - Nov 4th 9 - 11 am EST

Mod 2 - Nov 4th 11:15 am - 1:15 pm EST

Mod 3 - Nov 11th 9 - 11 am EST

Mod 4 - Nov 11th 11:15 am - 1:15 pm EST

Mod 5 - Nov 18th 9 - 11 am EST

Mod 6 - Nov 18th 11:15 am - 1:15 pm EST

You may choose to participate in any or all of the trainings.

Please note, to avoid having participants pay the handling charges of six separate tickets, we have set the first training date as the date of the training. After registering for the number of trainings you wish to attend, you will be asked which ones you are choosing (Modules 1 - 6). Modules 5 & 6 also qualify for Ethics.

If you prefer to pay by check, please send it to NASW ME, PO Box 5065, Augusta ME 04332. Please let us know if you are an NASW Member and which modules you will be attending. You will receive confirmation through Eventbrite once we register you.

About the Presenters:

Charlie Safford, LCSW

Charles Safford, LCSW is the President and owner of yourceus.com, Inc., since 2001 a national company based in Atlanta, GA that develops and provides web-based and live continuing education training for mental health clinicians. Mr. Safford has been providing counseling services since he received his graduate degree from Boston University in 1981. In private practice since 1985, he has been helping individuals, families and couples to create better and happier lives for almost forty years. Since moving to Atlanta in 1988, he has also been engaged in the development and delivery of innovative training programs and consulting services to enrich the personal and work life of the employees and managers of numerous corporate and governmental organizations. In 2001, he merged his training and therapy skills to create yourceus.com, Inc., a company that teaches and trains mental health clinicians on a nationwide basis, offering both live and web-based programs encompassing the best and most recent knowledge and skills in the field of mental health. Mr. Safford grew up in Falmouth, Maine.

Celia Grand, LCSW

Celia is a psychotherapist in private practice specializing in healing trauma for over 30 years. Celia’s quest to create a safe environment for psycho-spiritual healing has led her to combine eastern philosophy with cutting edge neuroscience and state of the art psychotherapy treatments. Celia has also taught advanced psychotherapy methods, EMDR and Sensorimotor Psychotherapy. She currently promotes health and wellness offering the REPLENISH Healing Retreat series and the REPLENISH Healing Circle which combines eastern philosophy practices with psych-emotional healing practices.

Neuroscience Directed Treatment for Domestic Violence Cases

Module 1: Self-management, Self-control and the Polyvagal Theory in DV Cases

Current research indicates the most important factor in positive clinical outcomes for clients is the characteristics of the clinician themselves, rather than treatment modality used. Domestic violence cases present particular challenges for mental health clinicians and their ability to use the self as an effective vehicle for change, as the therapeutic context can be suffused with over-arousal, contagion, issues of transference and countertransference, and operational values antithetical (and sometimes anathema) to those held by the clinician in his/her private life. This combination makes it difficult for the clinician to maintain a focused, energized and empathic therapeutic environment for the therapy to proceed forward. This module will draw upon current research in neuroscience, combined with long-held and relied upon theories, to assist practitioners in expanding the capacity to engage and sustain better self-management and self-regulation in the face of the emotional difficulties presented by domestic violence victims and perpetrators.

Module 2: The Neuroscience of Learned Helplessness for DV Victims

Victims of domestic violence respond to their domestic environments with varying degrees of maladaptive coping approaches, partially driven by the excessive levels of arousal generated by the abuse. The presence of ongoing autonomic nervous system over-arousal interferes with the capacity to engage higher order cognitive skills and adaptive strategies. Ongoing periods of over-arousal from domestic violence incidents and the persistent threat of DV incidents can lead to increasing difficulties in energizing any adaptive efforts, terminating in numbness, behavioral paralysis and learned helplessness, a combination that poses challenges to therapeutic efforts at creating positive change. This module will draw upon current research in neuroscience, combined with long-held and relied upon theories, to assist practitioners in assessing and understanding this aspect of domestic violence, and in devising therapeutic strategies for breaking the cycle of submission and learned helplessness.

Module 3: Neuroscience and the DV Perpetrator

Perpetrators of domestic violence respond to internal negative affective states with varying degrees of maladaptive externalized behaviors, in many cases seeking to establish control over the negative internal states by changing the affective feedback being received from their partners. Among the factors interfering with more adaptive feedback loops is the excessive levels of arousal generated by the negative affective states experienced by the perpetrator. As with the DV victim, the presence of ongoing autonomic nervous system over-arousal interferes with the capacity to engage higher order cognitive skills and adaptive strategies. Behavioral strategies driven by more primitive affective action tendencies become more dominant, reinforced by repetition, shame avoidance and learned helplessness driven feedback loops. This module will draw upon current research in neuroscience, combined with long-held and relied upon theories, to assist practitioners in assessing and understanding this aspect of domestic violence, and in devising therapeutic strategies for breaking the cycle of self-regulation breakdown and improved .

Module 4: Neuroscience and Breaking Negative Interactional Cycles

Victims and perpetrators of domestic violence often enter into negative internal states based upon the affective feedback being received from their partners as negative feedback loops commence in the relationship, triggering attachment worries, internal distress, and fear of escalation and the cascade of emotions for both parties if the interactions become abusive and/or violent. The excessive levels of arousal generated by the negative affective states can quickly lead to autonomic nervous system over-arousal and a reduced capacity to engage higher order cognitive skills and adaptive strategies. Therapeutic strategies to slow down the process of escalation are often discarded or unable to be implemented when a threshold of over-arousal is reached. This module will draw upon current research in neuroscience, combined with long-held and relied upon theories, to assist practitioners in assessing and understanding this aspect of domestic violence, and in devising therapeutic strategies for creating a space to prevent the engagement of negative interactional feedback loops.

Module 5: Core Ethical Considerations for Domestic Violence Treatment

Domestic violence cases present special risks and challenges for mental health clinicians as they attempt to balance safety considerations with privacy and confidentiality rights while also seeking to maximize clinical effectiveness. This module will explore best practices processes for finding the optimal balancing of these intersecting factors while operating in a legal, ethical and professional manner. Clinicians will explore a variety of challenging clinical scenarios employing a structured ethical decision-making tool and best practices models of ethical decision making from experts in the field.

Module 6: Advanced Ethical Considerations for Domestic Violence Treatment

Domestic violence cases present special risks and challenges for mental health clinicians as they communicate with clients over electronic modes of communication, direct client to online resources to support the therapeutic work between sessions, and consider how to employ telemental health as a service delivery model in an ethical way. This course will address state and federal laws related to distance modes of communication in clinical cases and look at some of the particular challenges posed by these new technologies when addressing Domestic Violence.