About Your Speaker
Chris Dolman is a social worker who has been engaging with narrative ideas and practices for the past 20 years. He lives and works in Adelaide, South Australia, and values and enjoys working with individuals, couples, and families who are responding to a broad range of concerns in their lives and relationships. Chris currently works as a narrative therapist in a government mental health service, and also with the National Workforce Centre for Child Mental Health, developing resources to support practitioners’ skill development. He holds a Master of Narrative Therapy and Community Work and since 2009 he has been a member of the Dulwich Centre Teaching Faculty with teaching assignments in Beijing, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Kigali, Singapore, and Australia.
Course Brief
Given the prevalence of family violence many practitioners who work with families across a broad range of concerns will invariably encounter issues of violence and abuse in families. This three-day online workshop is designed for practitioners who are interested in exploring the contribution narrative therapy can make to their work with men who engage in intimate partner violence. This workshop will equip participants with the following:
• An understanding of the ways narrative practices supports principles of safety, responsibility, accountability, respect and fairness when working with men who use intimate partner violence;
• Knowledge of how the narrative metaphor and the intentions of rich story development can be applied to working with men who hurt people they care about;
• Considerations of the power relations of men’s use of violence and abuse and the power relations of therapy;
• The opportunity to further develop therapeutic skills in conversations that invite men to explore:
1. What is important to him in his relationships with his partner and children
2. His experiences of shame in relation to his use of violence and abuse
3. Naming and explanations for his use of violence that support the safety of his family
4. Increasingly detailed and accountable understandings of the effects of his violence
5. His personal agency in developing family relationships of safety and respect
Examples will be used to demonstrate these ideas and practices, and opportunities will be provided for participants to engage in skill development exercises as well as consider how these practices might complement their existing skills, knowledge and Certificate in Management of Family Violence training.