Providing for client safety is a critical concern for therapy. This workshop focuses on the assessment and management of domestic violence. It includes sections on intimate partner abuse, distinctions between male and female batterers, and ethical and legal concerns as well as cross-cultural and same-gender partner abuse issues.

At the completion of this course participants will be able to:
1. Recognize common typologies of batterers.
2. Measure the severity of abuse in cases of physical, emotional, verbal, and sexual abuse.
3. Enact strategies to empower clients to stop the cycle of domestic violence and/or to extricate themselves from situations of domestic abuse.
4. Better communicate with colleagues and clients regarding myth vs. reality of domestic abuse and about the recent history of measures to counteract domestic abuse in the United States.
5. Address human diversity issues concerning domestic violence.

This course satisfies the requirements for the California Board of Behavioral Sciences mandatory Continuing Education course in Spousal or Partner Abuse.

Presented by Rocio Hernandez, MFT

Rocio, or "Cio", is an instructor for Gerry Grossman Seminars, Northern California Division. She is an Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner for Marin County Health and Human Services, where she specializes in Spanish speaking survivors of sexual abuse, teen pregnancy and issues of reproductive health. She is involved in many community building efforts in Marin County and has a small private practice in San Rafael. She is also on the Institutional Review Board for Kaiser Foundation Research Institute.