Applying a Trauma-Focused lens with Men Using Family Violence
Challenging men’s narratives for meaningful and sustained behaviour change
There is no denying that we need to engage differently in our work with men if we want to break the cycle of men’s violence against women.
The recently released Respect Victoria Man Box 2024 research highlighted that:
- 1 in 5 men agreed that domestic violence is a family matter that should be handled by the family
- 1 in 4 men held attitudes that minimise violence against women
- 25% of participants in the research agreed with the statement that ‘sometimes a woman can make a man so angry that he hits her when he didn’t mean to’
This masterclass will support practitioners to challenge men’s narratives and create opportunities for men to understand their choices, triggers, and behaviour by utilising empathic, humanistic engagement techniques.
In this masterclass, Tony will share the psychotherapeutic technique of meeting these men ‘where they are at’ to support practitioners in challenging men’s narratives and engaging men in their responsibility to change.
Tony will guide participants through a trauma-capable and informed lens to enhance their practice when working with men, help them feel confident in their capacity to do so, and build their emotional regulation, metacognitive awareness, and personal responsibility.
Tony Johannsen
Executive Manager, Clinical Practice and Quality
Family Life
Tony is the Executive Manager of Clinical Practice and Quality at Family Life. A psychotherapist, behaviour change facilitator, and clinical supervisor, Tony has ten years of experience delivering trauma-informed leadership and resilience training to corporate and non-profit organisations.
Spurred by his passion for innovation, Tony realised gaps, deficiencies, and opportunities for improvement within the mainstream approaches to working with men using FV. He then developed bespoke interventions aimed at working more effectively with men who use FV to help combat these shortfalls. Tony believes that the integration of psychotherapeutic philosophies and interventions is an essential component of working more effectively with men who use family violence.
Tony Johannsen
Tony is the Executive Manager of Clinical Practice and Quality at Family Life.
A psychotherapist, behaviour change facilitator and clinical supervisor, Tony has 10 years’ experience delivering trauma-informed leadership and resilience training to corporate and non-profit organisations.
He started his clinical career in the Alcohol and other Drugs (AOD) sector, working as an AOD forensic clinician, clinical supervisor and program manager. After upskilling as a Men’s Behaviour Change Facilitator, Tony broadened his clinical expertise beyond AOD to include working with men who use Family Violence (FV).
Spurred by his passion for innovation, Tony realised there were gaps, deficiencies and opportunities for improvement within the mainstream approaches to working with men using FV. He then went on to develop bespoke interventions aimed at working more effectively with men who use FV to help combat these shortfalls. Tony believes that the integration of psychotherapeutic philosophies and interventions is an essential component to working more effectively with men who use family violence.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Counselling (Australian College of Professional Psychology)
Graduate Certificate – Male Family Violence (Swinburne University)
Certificate – Clinical Supervision (LaTrobe University)
Graduate Diploma – Psychology (Monash University)
Benefits of attending
Learn how to appropriately challenge men around how they think not what they think
Use empathy to create trust, vulnerability, and honest disclosure
Explore the complex relationship between thoughts and actions, trauma and shame
Utilise the power of the therapeutic alliance as a vehicle for change
Lean into the discussion regarding collusion versus empathy
Work effectively with coercive control incorporating additional psychotherapeutic lenses and frameworks
Who will attend
This Masterclass is ideal for practitioners who are currently working with those who perpetrate family violence and coercive control and want to increase their engagement skills, including:
- Men’s Behaviour Change Group Facilitators
- Social Workers
- Private Practice Therapists and Psychologists
- Marriage and Family Therapists
- Substance Abuse Professionals
- Health Care and Allied Professionals
- Criminal Justice Workers
- Educators & Peer Counselors
- Refuge staff and Housing Officers
- Frontline practitioners, including emergency staff
- Family and domestic violence Agencies
- Women’s Services
- Rehabilitation, counseling, and recovery services
Agenda
All times are shown in AEST
Acknowledgement of Country & opening remarks
Tony Johannsen
Psychotherapist, AOD clinician & accredited MBCP facilitator and Executive Manager Clinical Practice & Quality
Family Life
Tony Johannsen
Tony is the Executive Manager of Clinical Practice and Quality at Family Life.
A psychotherapist, behaviour change facilitator and clinical supervisor, Tony has 10 years’ experience delivering trauma-informed leadership and resilience training to corporate and non-profit organisations.
He started his clinical career in the Alcohol and other Drugs (AOD) sector, working as an AOD forensic clinician, clinical supervisor and program manager. After upskilling as a Men’s Behaviour Change Facilitator, Tony broadened his clinical expertise beyond AOD to include working with men who use Family Violence (FV).
Spurred by his passion for innovation, Tony realised there were gaps, deficiencies and opportunities for improvement within the mainstream approaches to working with men using FV. He then went on to develop bespoke interventions aimed at working more effectively with men who use FV to help combat these shortfalls. Tony believes that the integration of psychotherapeutic philosophies and interventions is an essential component to working more effectively with men who use family violence.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Counselling (Australian College of Professional Psychology)
Graduate Certificate – Male Family Violence (Swinburne University)
Certificate – Clinical Supervision (LaTrobe University)
Graduate Diploma – Psychology (Monash University)
Introductions & framing of masterclass
Empathy – the foundation for behaviour change
- Putting the fear of collusion to rest: working in a therapeutic alliance
- Using empathy as a platform for ‘respectful challenging’
- Empathy as a conduit for change; the importance of understanding his worldview
- Working within a ‘boundaried’ therapeutic alliance
Working with trauma, shame & co-occurring complexities
- Constructively bring shame into the room without shaming
- Toxic shame versus healthy shame and how the constructs of shame impact behaviour
- Inviting vulnerability and trust
- Unpacking the co-occurring complexities of AOD misuse and violence
Dialectics & respectful challenging
- A dialectical approach to mutual goal setting
- Not getting stuck in the narrative
- Using dialectics to disrupt dysregulation and denial
Morning break
Setting the scene for successful behaviour change
- The neurology & psychology of behaviour change
- Challenging men around how they think, not what they think
- Creating opportunities to change their narrative
- Working with ambivalence and mandation
Emotional regulation & meta-cognitive awareness
- Exploring the relationship between metacognitive capacity and domestic and family violence
- Using a trauma-informed, humanistic lens to support men with regulation of their inner experience
- Helping men who use violence to correlate their inner experience with behavioural patterns to effect change
Extended question time and reflections from day one
Close of day one
Acknowledgement of Country & Opening remarks
Reflections and observations from day one
The psychology of coercive control
- Examining how and why men use coercive tactics
- The correlation of gender norms, toxic gender identities, and controlling behaviour
- Considering attachment theory when working with coercion and control
Working with gaslighting & coercive control
- Taking a multivariate approach to working with coercive control
- Incorporating additional psychotherapeutic lenses and frameworks
- Finding opportunities to disrupt harmful coercive and controlling behaviours that may have been previously unavailable
A psychodynamic understanding of family violence
- Attachment theory, psychodynamics, and the perpetuation of violence
- Exploring how violence and addiction ‘travel’ in families and the role of past trauma in current behaviour for those using violence
- Needs, drives and emotions, and the motivations of human behaviour
Morning break
Working with impression management
- Pride, impression management, and denial..where to from here?
- Understanding engagement in and motivations for impression management
- Unpacking intrinsic versus extrinsic motives
The resilient practitioner
- The essential ingredients to the resilient practitioner
- Strategies to manage vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue
- Unpack and explore what you can do differently every day to reduce the emotional toll and secondary trauma
Extended question time and reflections from day two
Close of day two and end of masterclass
Acknowledgement of Country & opening remarks
Tony Johannsen
Psychotherapist, AOD clinician & accredited MBCP facilitator and Executive Manager Clinical Practice & Quality
Family Life
Tony Johannsen
Tony is the Executive Manager of Clinical Practice and Quality at Family Life.
A psychotherapist, behaviour change facilitator and clinical supervisor, Tony has 10 years’ experience delivering trauma-informed leadership and resilience training to corporate and non-profit organisations.
He started his clinical career in the Alcohol and other Drugs (AOD) sector, working as an AOD forensic clinician, clinical supervisor and program manager. After upskilling as a Men’s Behaviour Change Facilitator, Tony broadened his clinical expertise beyond AOD to include working with men who use Family Violence (FV).
Spurred by his passion for innovation, Tony realised there were gaps, deficiencies and opportunities for improvement within the mainstream approaches to working with men using FV. He then went on to develop bespoke interventions aimed at working more effectively with men who use FV to help combat these shortfalls. Tony believes that the integration of psychotherapeutic philosophies and interventions is an essential component to working more effectively with men who use family violence.
Qualifications:
Bachelor of Counselling (Australian College of Professional Psychology)
Graduate Certificate – Male Family Violence (Swinburne University)
Certificate – Clinical Supervision (LaTrobe University)
Graduate Diploma – Psychology (Monash University)
Introductions & framing of masterclass
Empathy – the foundation for behaviour change
- Putting the fear of collusion to rest: working in a therapeutic alliance
- Using empathy as a platform for ‘respectful challenging’
- Empathy as a conduit for change; the importance of understanding his worldview
- Working within a ‘boundaried’ therapeutic alliance
Working with trauma, shame & co-occurring complexities
- Constructively bring shame into the room without shaming
- Toxic shame versus healthy shame and how the constructs of shame impact behaviour
- Inviting vulnerability and trust
- Unpacking the co-occurring complexities of AOD misuse and violence
Dialectics & respectful challenging
- A dialectical approach to mutual goal setting
- Not getting stuck in the narrative
- Using dialectics to disrupt dysregulation and denial
Morning break
Setting the scene for successful behaviour change
- The neurology & psychology of behaviour change
- Challenging men around how they think, not what they think
- Creating opportunities to change their narrative
- Working with ambivalence and mandation
Emotional regulation & meta-cognitive awareness
- Exploring the relationship between metacognitive capacity and domestic and family violence
- Using a trauma-informed, humanistic lens to support men with regulation of their inner experience
- Helping men who use violence to correlate their inner experience with behavioural patterns to effect change
Extended question time and reflections from day one
Close of day one
Acknowledgement of Country & Opening remarks
Reflections and observations from day one
The psychology of coercive control
- Examining how and why men use coercive tactics
- The correlation of gender norms, toxic gender identities, and controlling behaviour
- Considering attachment theory when working with coercion and control
Working with gaslighting & coercive control
- Taking a multivariate approach to working with coercive control
- Incorporating additional psychotherapeutic lenses and frameworks
- Finding opportunities to disrupt harmful coercive and controlling behaviours that may have been previously unavailable
A psychodynamic understanding of family violence
- Attachment theory, psychodynamics, and the perpetuation of violence
- Exploring how violence and addiction ‘travel’ in families and the role of past trauma in current behaviour for those using violence
- Needs, drives and emotions, and the motivations of human behaviour
Morning break
Working with impression management
- Pride, impression management, and denial..where to from here?
- Understanding engagement in and motivations for impression management
- Unpacking intrinsic versus extrinsic motives
The resilient practitioner
- The essential ingredients to the resilient practitioner
- Strategies to manage vicarious trauma and compassion fatigue
- Unpack and explore what you can do differently every day to reduce the emotional toll and secondary trauma
Extended question time and reflections from day two
Close of day two and end of masterclass
Pricing
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“Fantastic training. It was great to listen to Tony share his reflections on practice in a way that was accessible and tangible. I feel affirmed, too, as he highlighted things that I was already doing but created a space to reflect critically self-reflect on what else there is to learn. I’m delighted with the experience.”
Bianca Hunter
Training Practitioner, No to Violence
“The webinar I attended was incredible. Very rich yet pragmatic.”
Samuel Cameron
Clinical Nurse, Queensland Health
“I have gained a vast amount of knowledge from this webinar. Tony Johannsen is an indisputable source of extensive knowledge that can be used practically.”
Rebecca De Silva
Men & Co Services
“Tony’s work and knowledge about using empathy really help to show that you aren’t colluding when you’re being empathetic. There’s so much thought in this space, and Tony knows how to lay it all out on the table for you.”
Dr Justine Hotten
Senior Researcher, CQ University
“This was one of the most engaging, insightful webinars I have attended in a very long time. It was timely, humanising, and a wonderful blending of evidence-based frameworks with practical implementation, reflecting the incredibly complex experiences of families that we see every day. Thank you!”
Rebecca Duggan
Team Leader, Family Life