Training

Counseling Abusers: An Introductory Training

Emerge conducts a three-day Introductory Training three times per year at the Arlington Unitarian Universalist Church, near the Emerge office.

NOTE: All trainings will be conducted by video via Zoom until further notice.

The next introductory training will be March 10-12, 2021. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, this training will be conducted via Zoom. Register here.

This course is intended for anyone working with families affected by domestic violence. Past participants have included batterer intervention program group leaders, supervisors and administrators, social workers, victim advocates, correctional staff, psychologists, violence prevention educators, substance abuse counselors, healthcare workers, probation and police officers, clergy, military personnel, and program managers.

Participants will learn the Emerge curriculum and how it compares to other models. The training is structured to be highly interactive and includes several participant role plays. This interactive structure allows participants to acquire and practice skills to be used in leading groups. For participants who work with victims and do not intend to lead groups, this training will help to inform them about what happens in abuser education groups. The course meets BIP group leader training requirements in Massachusetts and in many other states. Over the past 6 years, over 1,000 people from 45 states and 15 nations have taken this course.

Topics include:

  • Overview of legal, medical, and psychological responses to battering
  • Intake and assessment procedures
  • Overview of the First Stage Curriculum
  • Abuser tactics of control (interactive exercise)
  • Negative vs. positive self-talk (interactive exercise)
  • Methods and rationale for conducting partner contacts
  • Substance abuse overlaps
  • Assessing for dangerousness and lethality
  • Overview of the Second Stage Curriculum
  • Comparison of different treatment models
  • Illustrative role play of two different treatment models
  • Personal accounts of battered women, as presented by a panel
  • The empowerment model of helping battered women
  • Battering in lesbian relationships
  • Role Play of partner contact scenarios
  • Role Play of Second Stage Group co-leadership
  • Working with under-served populations of abusers
  • Personal accounts of Emerge program participants, as presented by a panel
  • Mental health responses to abusers
  • Program Management and Group Supervision

    • Course tuition is $250 for the first person and $175 for each additional person from the same agency. Tuition includes continental breakfast and refreshments, as well as an Emerge program manual and a compilation of supplemental readings.

    This program has been approved for over 22 hours of continuing education credits for Social Workers, Mental Health Counselors, and Licensed Alcohol & Drug Counselors.

    To register for our next training, see the link at the top of this page.

    If you have questions about this training that are not answered on our website, please call our office at 617-547-9879.