I have new skills to help with safe and respectful relationships

Nearly all the clients who attended our non-violence programme last year say it provided them skills to safely manage their lives, their family’s lives, and to engage in a more respectful relationship.

Ninety-six men and three women completed the programme in the six months ending 31 December last year. They participated in at least 10 weeks of individual and group sessions with our specialist clinicians across the top of the South from the West Coast to Kaikoura.

In surveys, 91% told us when they left the programme, they now have “new skills to help with safe and respectful relationships.”

What are these new skills?

Our specialist clinicians customise the programme within some parameters based on the individual needs of each client. Sessions can vary as well if someone is in a group programme versus an individual programme.

In general, we start programmes with learning how to make the individual feel safe and, if applicable, how children can be safe. Safety plans are always created before the end of the programme and clients learn how to communicate when they feel unsafe.

We teach about self-awareness and how to develop trust and openness in relationships. Our clinicians assess the level of risk in any client’s intimate partner situation, which also gives the client a new way of looking at their own level of risk.

Nearly every client learns new skills about how to handle relationships, including valuable breathing techniques for anxiety and anxious moments that could turn to anger, or how to manage anger in the moment using the 1-10 scale.

Overall, out of the 99 participants, 95 of them, or 96%, said the programme overall was helpful to them.