Helping client stay safe and relaxed

In April we started family violence education sessions for clients staying in our crisis accommodation.

Though our clients present with experience of family violence many of them don’t have a clear understanding of what it actually is. For complex reasons victim survivors either return to abusive relationships or find themselves in a similar situation in their next relationship through no fault of their own.

We now offer a 2 hour session for victim survivors staying in our refuge. The aim of this education session is to provide a safe space to talk about family violence and what it can look like. It can be helpful for participants to understand their own experience and build confidence to identify family violence.

The session is facilitated by our specialist family violence practitioners who have developed the session content in response to the needs they have observed in their clients.

The session covers topics like “What is family violence?” “The cycle of violence”,“recognising red flags” and “keeping safe”.

Experiencing family violence can lead to various physical and mental health outcomes and the participants learn methods to assist them on their journey forward. A list of self-care strategies is supplied and the session ends with a short meditation.

“The FV education sessions are valuable to clients in their recovery journey. Learning about the dynamic nature of family violence supports clients to further build their knowledge and confidence to identify concerning behaviours. This can lead to reflection and processing of their own experiences and where healing can begin”.
Facilitators of the FV sessions