The only reason why group 'therapy' (and I use the term advisedly) might not work for male perpetrators of domestic and family violence is that such courses and groups are either drastically under resourced, if they exist at all, or are not designed specifically for the intended target group. Most men in Australia who want to change their behaviour must endure long waiting lists or travel. For example, services in southern Australian cities are usually unable to meet demand, and there are no established behaviour change courses for men - or any other similar groups - in area such as Darwin, from where I write. Furthermore, standard 'group sessions' will invariably fail when dealing with male perpetrators unless facilitators have a clear understanding of what is needed to engage men in such a program, in terms of the programs design, promotion and implementation.
Men who engage with such services more often than not 'spread the word' at a social level, and engage - and challenge - other men's opinions, attitudes and behaviours in relation to gender, aggression and violence. It is rather extraordinary to suggest that the burgeoning field of working with men is a complete failure when government support is minimal and social awareness of the real issues behind gender-based violence is even less. As noted the British Association of Counselling, the country's largest professional body for therapists, 'It all depends on what kind of counselling they have been measuring the success of.' Working with men is a fast evolving sector that requires vastly different approaches than standard counselling, especially when challenging long standing opinions and attitudes to masculinity, gender stereotypes and relations, and domestic violence. It is impossible to accurately evaluate the success of working with male offenders without defining the design and methods of the courses. It is also dangerous to tar all programs with the same brush. I would suggest that group work specifically designed to challenge such issues is hugely successful, if designed and implemented appropriately. At present, we 're still working this out. There are some well-meaning but rather dodgy services in any community, but there are great ones too. We need to be smarter and more creative to break the cycle of violence. Imprisonment, 'tagging' and even shelters do not do this in the long term. ____________________________________________ Danny Blay Co-ordinator YWCA Palmerston Parenting Support Service Shop G6, Satepak Building 11 Palmerston Circuit Palmerston GPO Box 2586 Darwin NT 0801 Australia ph: 61 8 8932 6866 fx: 61 8 8941 3943 mobile: 043 88 55 357 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ***End-violence is sponsored by UNIFEM and receives generous support from ICAP*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe end-violence OR type: unsubscribe end-violence Archives of previous End-violence messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/end-violence/hypermail/
