A half day interactive workshop for practitioners in specialist family and domestic violence services

This half-day workshop helps participants understand the body’s stress responses when exposed to high risk and high-harm cases, and why the specialist family and domestic violence workforce, the bedrock of the family and domestic violence system, is particularly susceptible to vicarious trauma, compassion fatigue and burnout.

Participants will explore how the gendered nature of this work means many practitioners bring their own lived experience of violence to the role, and how this can shape the impact of the work on their health, safety and wellbeing, alongside the additional cultural load carried by Aboriginal practitioners and workers from culturally diverse communities.

Participants will identify their own roles and responsibilities for maintaining their wellbeing, as well as how to recognise signs of struggle in colleagues and support one another, within a workplace culture of hope, resilience and continuous improvement. The workshop covers the role of regular supervision, reflective practice and debriefing in sustaining a healthy workforce, and how everyday work with victim survivors can also connect practitioners to broader advocacy and social change.

Participants will have the opportunity to practice self-care techniques within the workshop, understand the workplace supports available to them, including access to an Employee Assistance Program, family and domestic violence leave entitlements and confidential support strategies, and develop their own personalised self-care action plan to sustain them in this work over the long term

Duration: Half day

Audience: Practitioners working in specialist family and domestic violence services