Breaking the Cycle: Reversing the Impacts of Exposing Your Child to Domestic Violence

This is a three-day course for survivors of domestic violence that addresses psycho-education on domestic violence, psycho-education on the impact of domestic violence on children, and parenting techniques to work with children who have experienced domestic violence and other traumas.  The psycho-education component of this course was shown to increase client knowledge of the effects of domestic violence on children by 26%.  One Parent stated she learned “How smart and how much children know. And that it is not too late to break the cycle and be the best parent possible.” Another stated that "I always thought that they were so little they would never remember any of this...now I know that they are going to be affected too".  This course also includes three hours of group support, to work through coping skills, create a personal change plan, and work on parenting skills so that survivors can use what they learn in class in practical ways to break the cycle. 

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Many people who experience domestic abuse have to get through insurmountable challenges in order to break free of these relationships.  In order to protect themselves, some survivors are in denial about the effects of domestic violence on their children.  I hear far too often that "they didn't see it", "they are too young to remember", or "they were never hurt".  This course makes sure that survivors are aware that domestic violence has significant consequences on the future of their children.  This knowledge is then followed by psycho-education on how to reduce the effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).  This is meant to give survivors a purpose and a foundation on which they can begin to work towards the betterment of their children's lives.   This course also covers parenting skills in order to help survivors appropriately parent their children who have experienced trauma.  We have small class sizes so that when we are working through skills, survivors have time to get one-on-one help when needed.  This class alone will not solve domestic violence, but it is our hope that through psycho-education and skill building survivors will start to feel hope and gain the tools needed so that reunification can become a reality.