Description

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This mandatory licensure course presents critical information for mental health professionals about domestic violence in an unusual and exciting learning format. The award-winning instructors (Matt McMillan, a former police officer, prosecutor and judge and Susan McMillan, a licensed mental health counselor and jury trial consultant), will engage the viewing audience by sharing their personal and professional experiences in a dynamic fashion, mixing didactic instruction, story-telling and interactive learning, in such a manner that the audience will come away with a new-found understanding regarding the myths and realities of domestic violence and how it affects us all.  You have never seen a presentation like this one before.

The content does not shy away from controversial questions such as:

• What type of woman falls for a batterer?
• What is she doing that is doing that is making him batter and what can she do to make him stop?
• Why doesn’t she just leave?
• Why doesn’t he just stop?
• Aren’t women just as violence as men these days?
• If the kids don’t see it, are they really domestic violence victims?
• Won’t he change if he just quits drinking?
• Red Flags for the Healthcare Provider
• Are there really more dog shelters than battered women shelters?
• What should I say to a battered woman?

See why students return again and again to hear Matt and Susan teach this fascinating course.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: By the end of the seminar, participants will:

• Understand the belief systems and thought processes of men who batter which enable them to rationalize abusive or destructive behavior.
• Identify warning signs or red flags of domestic violence in a family where all members deny its existence
• Identify the characteristics of men who are likely to batter.
• Identify common tactics of men who batter.
• Describe the various treatment approaches for men who batter, and understand which forms of treatment are most effective, which are least  effective, and why.
• Recognize the effects of domestic violence on children.
• Conduct an interview with a victim of domestic violence that will encourage her to reveal whether or not she is abused, and inform her of the resources available in the community that can help.
• Recognize when a referral to batterers intervention would be helpful to the family.
• Understand the relationship between substance abuse, mental health issues and domestic violence.