First Steps: Engaging with men who abuse their partners.

Tuesday, 6th December at 11 CET

We are delighted to have Dave Morran (Men-TOR) facilitate this webinar.

Webinar details:

This webinar will explore some of the challenges we face in the beginning stages of working with men. It will examine issues such as men’s denial, lack of motivation to engage, and fear (presenting often as anger). Drawing on some brief examples from practice the webinar will aim to help us to find “hooks” that is to say entry points to engage and connect with men so that they will see the value (for themselves as well as others) in accepting responsibility for their actions. Using a case study we will consider what early processes of change might mean, and then apply this to examples from our own practice.

The webinar will be aimed at workers who themselves are comparatively new to the field of working with men who are abusive.

David Morran was directly involved in setting up the CHANGE Programme, the first court-mandated group-work programme for male domestic violence perpetrators in the UK. He developed and delivered the men’s programme for a period of several years and co-wrote the manual (Men Who Are Violent to Women, Russell House, 1997) which was subsequently widely adopted by many practitioners throughout the UK and Ireland.

David presently teaches Social Work at the University of Stirling, Scotland. He has published widely on aspects of practice with abusive men. His paper ‘Re-education or recovery? Re-thinking aspects of domestic violence perpetrator programmes’ won the 2012 Probation Journal Annual Prize and his contribution to practice in this field was acknowledged in the guidelines for the ‘Better Relationships Programme’ developed by the National Offender Management Service in England. He edited From Fear to Freedom (BASW Venture Press 2009), a workbook written by several UK practitioners with expertise in domestic violence perpetrator work. He continues to provide training and consultancy on desistance-focused practices with abusive and violent men.

His PhD thesis explores issues and processes of desistance among formerly abusive / violent men.