Domestic Abuse Counselling training

Who is this course for?

The course is suitable for both qualified practitioners and students who are either in, or about to go into practice. Many of our delegates have observed that the training not only supports domestic abuse work, but also enhances their work with other client groups as well. 

How will I learn?

The course is run as a cohort of up to 12 delegates. We find that teaching a group that stays together for the course helps to expand learning, build confidence, and create a community for delegates after the training. For this reason, please do check that you can make each of the training days as non-attendance not only affects your learning, but also the learning of the group. This course will run over 4 full days, face to face on campus.

This course will be delivered in our Communities Centre based on our York campus. The Communities Centre offers counselling, mental health services, free support groups, and community projects for communities outside the University, further information can be found on our Communities Centre page.

What will I learn?

This course is designed to cover theory and practice (including case studies, role play and skills) to help you to understand what domestic abuse is and how prevalent it is across society. You will look at the clients experience, the needs of the client and the areas of practice that you need to be most aware of when working with people who have experienced abuse. This is not just learning about the theory, but learning how to apply the theory in a real world scenario. Throughout these workshops, you will learn the importance of confidentiality, boundaries and disclosure in complex situations as you develop your understanding of court processes and the importance of counsellors self-care.

Key topics covered on the course include:

• What the DAC model is and how to use it
• Why clients can experience significant mental health difficulties after domestic abuse
• What effect domestic abuse can have on other relationships
• What clients need initially in therapy
• The skills required to help the client to settle down to process their experiences
• How to repair any relational ruptures that may occur in within counselling
• How to pick up on unconscious processes that can happen during therapy and work with them
• Self protection during abuse and why that can be unhelpful if continued post-abuse
• Ways to challenge clients in a constructive, positive and helpful way
• What complex trauma is and how it can be worked with during counselling, safely and creatively
• How domestic abuse affects people in different ways and the influence of this on our responses

Dr Jeannette Roddy

Jeannette is an experienced counsellor/psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer who has spent over 15 years working in domestic abuse counselling as a practitioner, supervisor, and researcher. Jeannette developed the Domestic Abuse Counselling model (DAC) as part of her PhD at York St John, before developing this training programme which is based on the DAC model. The training model has been tested at the University of Salford, where over 50 trainee and qualified counsellors completed the training and then worked within the domestic abuse counselling service at the University. Client outcome data, presented by Jeannette at the BACP Research Conference in 2023, showed excellent outcomes for clients. Recent delegates of the Dactari training programme rated the course as 5*-excellent.

Jeannette is the author of “Counselling and Psychotherapy after Domestic Violence: A client view of what helps recovery” published in 2015 by Palgrave Macmillan, and the editor and main author of “Working with client experiences of domestic abuse: a handbook for counsellors, psychotherapists and other mental health professionals” published in 2023 by Routledge. She has presented her work on domestic abuse counselling at conferences within the UK and internationally. She started Dactari, a specialist domestic abuse counselling organisation, in August 2022 to provide online counselling for people who could not access specialist domestic abuse counselling locally, and training in DAC for counsellors, psychotherapists and other mental health professionals. Jeannette and other colleagues in Dactari are also involved in research projects in the field, including client experiences in online counselling and post traumatic growth through counselling.