Therapy with a Family Violence Specialist | What to expect in therapy after surviving Family Violence:

I work with trauma survivors who have experienced a wide range of traumatic events, with a particular focus on supporting those who have survived family violence. For the past four years, I’ve specialised in this area, walking alongside individual as they rebuild safety, trust, and self-worth. In this post, I’ll explore what you can expect from therapy with a family violence specialist, and how this approach may differ from working with a generalist therapist.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics’s Personal Safety Survey (2021-22) found that 8 million Australians (41%) have experienced physical and/or sexual violence since the age of 15.

According to Safe and Equal, almost 1 in 4 women in Australia have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) since the age of 15.

What you can expect in our therapy sessions after you’ve survived family violence?

• Safety & stabilisation.

• Validation of your experience & the huge impact that violence has had on you.

• I will share information on the impacts of trauma, & together we will make sense of your body, mind & nervous system.

• Then we might move into processing what has happened and help your nervous system learn safety.

• After that, we work towards reclaiming your sense of self, your choices, and your voice

What can you expect from a Family Violence Specialist:

• Trained to recognise patterns of coercion, control, and manipulation that may not always be obvious, and to ensure therapy never inadvertently puts a client at further risk.

• A robust knowledge of power dynamics, drivers of gendered violence, control and safety.

• Holding recognition of the social, cultural and systemic factors that influence people's experience of family violence and the ways that a person can use violence against another.

• Understanding of, and continued review and reflection, on how systems can perpetuate, escalate and perpetrate violence.

• Hold a deep recognition into the nuanced ways that family violence shapes behaviour, sense of self and sense of safety in the world.

• Gentle pacing and awareness of trauma processing.

• An understanding of how therapy fits into the broader recovery and safety framework.