Networking the grassroots domestic violence movement from across Canada.

The Canadian Domestic Violence Conference 6 is a national showcase of ground-breaking grassroots initiatives that address intimate partner violence. This vital conference, held every two years, will feature influential presenters who are bringing about change in community-based groups, academics and government agencies. An extensive array of participating organizations include women’s shelters, women’s centres, Partner Assault Response (PAR) programs, men’s treatment programs, family therapists, restorative justice facilitators, probation offices, police, crown prosecutors, judges, victim services officers, children mental health workers, child protection workers, addiction counselors, health care workers, clergy, educators and others engaged in direct service. The ultimate goal of this progressive and formative conference is to strengthen and enrich those individuals who confront domestic violence and to challenge the current social determinants of domestic violence.

The CDVC6 has been specifically designed to foster knowledge in bringing about effective interventions and conversations with women, men and children dealing with domestic violence in various professional contexts. While primarily emphasizing men’s violence against women, this Conference will also focus conversations on the margins of the field, such as violence in same-sex relationships; violence with people with disabilities; in aboriginal relationships; first generation immigrant relationships; and straight women’s perpetration of abuse. To address the diversity among women, the conference will explore conversations with women who want to leave, women who are ambivalent about their relationships and women who know they want to stay. This broad range of discussions will include interventions that involve individual, couple, family and group conversations.

This year, the CDVC6 will highlight trailblazing community initiatives designed to challenge social determinants of domestic violence. While primarily challenging sexism, the Conference will also focus on how the field is challenging key issues such as racism, poverty, homophobia, and ableism.

The CDVC6 committee is feminist, welcomes sharing diverse ideas, and selects presentations on the basis of the quality of the presentation proposal.

The mandate of the Conference is to move the field forward, and therefore encourages participants and presenters to highlight and share innovative approaches that are developing in the various communities across Canada.

Pre-conference Workshops

March 3-4, 2020

Advanced Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with women who experience IPV

Dr. Dayna Lee-Baggley

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an empirically supported therapy for a number of disorders and interpersonal problems including trauma, addictions, depression, anxiety, and anger. This approach is used effectively with both victims of IPV. Attendees will learn concrete, applicable skills that can be used directly with victims of domestic violence as well as skills related to professional self-care. This two-day pre-conference workshop will cover the fundamentals of ACT as well as advanced topics in the application of ACT in a clinical setting relevant to intimate partner violence. The workshop is designed for shelter workers, counsellors, therapist and other providers who work with individuals experiencing domestic violence.

The presenter, Dr. Dayna Lee-Baggley, is an international expert on ACT and is the past president of the Atlantic Canada chapter for the international organization for ACT (the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science). She is a peer-reviewed trainer in ACT. She has the distinction of being 1 of the 100 people world wide who has the highest designated for teaching ACT. There are five people with this designation in Canada.

March 3-4, 2020

Advanced Restorative Justice Practice with IPV Cases: Trauma, Shame & Justice

Alan Edwards

In the aftermath of intimate partner violence, people have historically been steered away from pursuing any kind of restorative justice (RJ). The IPV community has, with few exceptions, been at least skeptical and, at most, openly hostile to the idea that victim-survivors and their offenders could have productive, honest, and safe communication. While there have often been many good reasons for this stance, this has left victim-survivors and offenders alike without any opportunity to have support for conversations about harm (i.e. the impacts on the victim-survivor’s life of the violence and abuse), accountability, and reparation. Still, many RJ programs that have carefully built processes and sought appropriate training in order to be able to offer their services to those victim-survivors and offenders who might need them.

This advanced training will focus on:

• How might we responsively and responsibly construct an RJ process, given the realities of IPV victimization and perpetration?

• In RJ, we have an obligation to address the needs of all participants. Yet, RJ is a victim-centred philosophy of justice. What does it mean to be victim-centred when we are working with the offender?

• What skills and practitioner qualities are essential in RJ work with IPV victim-survivors and offenders?

• What justice needs do victim-survivors tend to have in IPV cases? What might motivate honest, authentic participation on the part of IPV offenders? How is RJ different from therapy or treatment?

• What role does shame play both in perpetration/victimization and in recovery? What role might adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) play in IPV perpetration?

This training is premised on the idea that some cases of domestic violence can be effectively responded to with restorative justice. This workshop will use video, role play and small group work to develop advanced skills to work in a restorative manner with IPV cases.

March 3-4, 2020

Complex Trauma, survivors and intimate partner violence: Developmental couple Therapy for Couples Trauma

Dr. Heather B. MacIntosh

Developmental Couple Therapy for Complex Trauma (DCTCT) is a novel approach to couple therapy that was developed out of research examining the impacts of trauma on couple relationships and the challenges that trauma survivors experience within the therapy context. DCTCT considers emotion regulation and mentalizing challenges to be at the core of struggles facing trauma survivors in their relationships and in therapy and these issues are also pivotal in couples where conflict escalates and the risk of intimate partner violence becomes a concern. Traditional approaches to therapy in the context of intimate partner violence require that couples be divided and individually focused treatment such as anger management, be undertaken. DCTCT may offer options to assist couples where escalating conflict puts partners at risk of violence. This approach can also be used to help survivors in the process of building new relationships free of violence.

This two-day training will provide participants with comprehensive and practical guidance for integrating DCTCT into their work with traumatized individual survivors or couples. The approach includes an evidence-based framework which emphasizes the importance of containing conflict and helps clients to build emotional regulation and mentalizing skills. The framework is an invaluable asset to all those working with individual survivors or couples dealing with the ravaging impacts of complex trauma, who may not be able to benefit from traditional forms of therapy due to challenges in regulating emotions, mentalizing, and other aspects of the complex trauma response that limit capacity to engage in relationships.

The workshop will guide participants through the four key stages of DCTCT: Psychoeducation, Building Capacity, Dyadic Processing and Consolidation. Each stage has accompanying activities and narratives in which to engage traumatized individuals and couples. The workshop will be helpful for those who help individuals or couples dealing with complex trauma.

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