Motivational Interviewing in working with family violence (Online)

Ever had participants in your program doing time rather than behaviour change? 

Ever had participants still ambivalent about whether violence is a serious issue in their families? 

Ever felt that someone had just not done the work of creating family safety?

Finding the desire, reason or need to change is critical for engaged work. Doing time in programs does not reduce risk. On the other hand, it may increase risk if participants perceive attendance as a punitive experience. The result can be lateral violence back into the relationship.

Many participants come to the experience of intervention programs with feelings of ambivalence and it is the role of the worker to support the person to resolve this ambivalence in order to work in a direction that promotes family wellbeing. 

Program retention has been associated with better outcomes. This makes sense. Once a participant is engaged in understanding the drivers for behaviour, they become invested and interested in the outcomes. They will then use the program experience more effectively.

This is a 15 hour program run over three sessions in a virtual/live interactive workshop format.  

Learning Outcomes:

What will you take away?  

• Understand how to work with ambivalence in people who are mandated to programs.
• Knowledge & tools to implement different strategies to enhance engagement & retention - and why this is important from a risk perspective. 
• An ability to identify concrete change goals that relate to family wellbeing & family safety. 
• Understand how to respond to discord when it emerges. 
• Learn how to turn the volume up on change talk that is applicable to family violence. 
• Agenda map so that victim informed views are brought into the work.

Event Details:

Session 1: Monday, 17 June 2024
Session 2: Monday, 24 June 2024
Session 3: Thursday, 27 June 2024

All sessions: 9:00am – 2.00pm AEST (Queensland Time)
Location: Online

Please note: This is a three part series. Participants should attend all sessions.

Who should attend this series?

This series is for practitioners who are working with those who perpetrate family violence and want to increase their engagement skills.

About the presenters

Ken McMaster

Ken has over thirty years’ experience working at the cutting edge of intervention work with men who are violent and who sexually abuse. He is known for his innovative practice ideas and the ability to translate theory into practice. He has worked as a part-time lecturer in Social Work at Canterbury University and is now involved full-time with HMA as manager, writer of materials and principal trainer. Ken has an extensive publishing record and regularly undertakes conference presentations. In addition to significant contribution to the Australian Correctional field, Ken has successfully managed and/or contributed to a number of pieces of work across the social services sector within New Zealand/Aotearoa.