10-14 February 2020: Mosaic Symposium: 'Male Trauma and Sexual Abuse Recovery'.

Symposium Facilitator, Rick Goodwin

From 10-14 February 2020 facilitated a New Zealand-unique landmark Symposium at Wellington's Victoria University's Memorial Theatre on 'Male Trauma and Sexual Abuse Recovery'.

​The Symposium was a resounding success. 

You can read some of the testimonials of those who attended the 5-day clinical training here.

​To facilitate the symposium, we flew in the internationally-recognised expert in male trauma and sexual abuse recovery Rick Goodwin, from Ottawa Canada. You'll find Rick's bio below.

This training was ideal for counsellors, psychotherapists, healthcare professionals, case managers, addictions workers, justice workers, as well as other front-line staff who have some clinical engagement with male clients. ​

Rick Goodwin - Symposium Facilitator

Rick is the founder and Clinical Services Director of Men & Healing, as well as the past co-founder/Executive Director of The Men’s Project (1997-2015). He also served as National Manager to 1in6 Canada (2012-2015).
​
Rick conducts trainings across Canada, the USA and internationally for professionals on male sexual trauma, family violence and trauma recovery. He further facilitates both in-person and virtual group trauma treatment programs for men.

Rick is the inaugural recipient of the Attorney General’s Award of Distinction for his work in “developing and implementing innovative victim service programs” (2007).

Rick co-authored the Men & Healing: Theory, Research and Practice with Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (2009).

He was the author for Health Canada in their investigation concerning the correlation between men’s experience of HIV and sexual violence.

Rick has since been published in Healing World Trauma (2013) and Translating Psychological Research into Practice (2013).

Rick talking about male sexual trauma recovery.

So, What Happened at the Symposium?

Day: 1

Video of the start of Day: 1, including some
​ of Rick's presentation.

Day: 1 of the Symposium was facilitated conference style, and was able to be attended as a stand-alone event. 

The topic for the day was 'Truth-Telling: The case Statement for Male-Centred Trauma Therapy'.

Rick explore ​explored both the conceptual and practice implications of a male-centred approach to trauma therapy.

We looked at many of the concepts embedded in the new psychology of masculinity, allowing for a necessary conversation of what constitutes the critical intersection between male socialisation and psychotherapy with men.

Days: 2-5

This was an intense and interactive clinical training event. Due to the emphasis on attendee participation, we limited the number of attendees to 40 participants. Professionals from all around New Zealand were part of this 5-day event.

Many spoke of experiencing not only professional, but also personal transformation during the event, with a number of attendees saying it was the best clinical training experience they ever had.

Here's how Days: 2 - 5 panned out:

​Day: 2 Schedule: 'RE-VISIONING MEN'S VIOLENCE: Working with Men Experiencing Anger, Rage and Violence'

Sometimes, hurt people hurt people. Working with this premise, we had a day of training that addressed men who experience anger, rage and violence.

​Using male-centred approaches and trauma-centred approaches to intervention, the training examined both the cognitive and emotional strategies aimed at engaging men in a respectful process of change.

 Most services around the Western world rely unduly on premises of men’s choice of controlling behaviours – often negating the wounds assaultive men often carry from their childhood. Today's approach was different - emphasis was placed on ego state models of understanding, all the while seeing the critical role of shame in expressions of rage.

​Participants were able to leave Re-Visioning Men’s Violence with techniques that spoke to both individual and group engagement – which may mean our interventions will be more effective to charting a violence-free future.​

Day: 3 Schedule: 'EMOTIONAL INTEGRITY: Frameworks of Healing for Male Survivors'

​Clients of all walks of life want to “be heard.” This core need is expressed in its relationship with ourselves, our relationship with significant others, and our ability to be fully connected as humans.

​Due to the inherent nature of trauma, male survivors have additional challenges to achieve this in life. Awareness and cognition alone won’t achieve this outcome for them. 

They experience a variety of roadblocks: emotional dysregulation, affective numbing, tendencies of avoidance, habitual over-expression and compulsive behaviour can all play a part.
 
Using a variety of learning methods, participants in Emotional Integrity were empowered to incorporate both this awareness and the subsequent skill set into their practice. Psycho-dynamic, experiential, and strengths-based approaches allowed participants to engage more fully with their clients, allowing clients to live more fully in their emotional lives.

Day 4 Schedule: 'ONE FINGER CAN'T PICK UP A STONE: Group Therapy Process & Technique'

As healing cannot occur in isolation, group work is a preferred model of intervention with vulnerable populations of all genders: it lessens the inherent isolation of individual psychotherapy, reduces shame, allows for one’s testimony to be witnessed and creates a supportive learning atmosphere that can benefit all participants.

Group practice can also help facilitate re-connection – Judith Herman’s third stage of recovery for survivors of abuse and trauma. However, practitioners often do not have the skill set to carry out group practice.

​One Finger teaches both the necessary group processes as well as group intervention skills to allow for dynamic yet safe engagement with clients. Group theory will be explored in terms of conceptual approaches as well examining the relationship between psycho-education and process work.

​Using experiential learning methods, participants gained experience using techniques such as Opening Circle to Testimony to conflict resolution.

​Ultimately, One Finger creates confidence for service providers to expand their services to groups – a necessary step to ensure community capacity for men’s healing to occur.

Day 5 Schedule: 'CORE CURRICULUM: First Stage Engagement with Male Survivors'

Core Curriculum delivered what many front-line workers request most: a step-by-step training focusing on the process of intake, assessment and the curriculum basics for first-stage engagement with male survivors.

​This training was applicable to both individual psychotherapy as well as dedicated group programming.

Following the precepts of a tri-phasic model of trauma recovery, participants were guided through the process of providing dedicated services to men. Derived from Rick's evidence-based Men & Healing program of working with male survivors, the foundational psycho-educational curriculum set the stage for trauma relevant to individual or group practice, this day accomplished it all.

​Much of the learning was participatory, lending itself to group engagement and skill practice. All participants received the “Men & Healing Participant Guidebook” for this day.