Domestic and Family Violence Counselling

CHCDFV001: Recognise and respond appropriately to domestic and family violence

TRIGGER WARNING: This course is about Domestic and Family Violence and there are numerous stories about survivors, and sometimes those who have not survived. Please pace yourself, book a counselling appointment and take care throughout this program if you have ever experienced any sort of violence.

Course Overview

This course provides students with the knowledge and skills required to recognise, respond to, and support individuals affected by domestic and family violence. Through a trauma-informed and person-centred approach, students will develop an understanding of the dynamics and impacts of domestic and family violence, while learning how to promote safety, dignity, empowerment, and access to appropriate support services.

Students will explore the lived experiences of victim-survivors, gain practical counselling and communication skills, and learn how to assess risk, identify client needs, and respond within professional and legal frameworks. The course emphasises the importance of prioritising the safety of clients and their children, challenging attitudes that minimise or excuse violence, and supporting pathways to healing and recovery.

By the end of the course, students will be able to recognise indicators of domestic and family violence, respond appropriately to disclosures, identify safety concerns, make suitable referrals, and support clients in accessing resources that promote recovery and wellbeing.

Topics Include

1. Survivor Stories

Explore the lived experiences of individuals affected by domestic and family violence to develop empathy, understanding, and insight into the complexities of abuse, coercive control, safety, and recovery.

2. Domestic and Family Violence Counselling

Develop foundational counselling skills and learn how to respond to disclosures of domestic and family violence using trauma-informed, strengths-based, and client-centred approaches.

3. Identifying Client Needs

Learn how to build rapport, gather information, assess risk, identify client strengths and challenges, and understand the impact of domestic and family violence on individuals, children, families, and communities.

4. Client Safety Needs

Examine the principles of safety planning, risk assessment, legal and ethical responsibilities, referral pathways, and strategies for supporting the physical and emotional safety of clients and their children.

5. Healing from Domestic Violence

Explore recovery, resilience, and post-traumatic growth through reconnecting with self, safe relationships, community, nature, culture, and sources of meaning and empowerment.

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to:
Support clients on pathways toward healing, recovery, and empowerment.
Recognise indicators of domestic and family violence.
Respond appropriately to disclosures of abuse.
Prioritise client and child safety.
Conduct basic risk and safety assessments.
Explain client rights, confidentiality, and mandatory reporting obligations.
Identify appropriate referral and support services.
Apply trauma-informed and culturally responsive practices.

and much more!

Webinar Recording

This will be added to the MeWe you have been allocated or added here.

Where to Start

Grab a journal as this is as much a journey into your own experience of trauma as it is a course on supporting others experiencing domestic and family violence

To think about your own journey with domestic and family violence or hearing stories of friends experiencing this, and begin to reflect and journal on how was your journey, your relationship with violence, survivors and perpetrators and how it changed you.

Reflective Practise

Throughout this module, you are invited to reflect on your understanding of domestic and family violence, the impact it has on individuals, families, and communities, and your development as a future counselling professional. Reflective practice is an important part of building self-awareness, empathy, professional competence, and trauma-informed practice.

As you progress through the topics, consider your beliefs, assumptions, and emotional responses to the material. Reflect on the survivor stories, counselling approaches, safety considerations, and recovery journeys explored throughout the course. What new insights have you gained about domestic and family violence? How has your understanding of safety, empowerment, resilience, and healing evolved?

Use a journal to record your reflections, observations, questions, and learning. Consider how the course content may influence your future work with clients. What strengths, challenges, or areas for further development have you identified within yourself? What actions can you take to continue building your knowledge, skills, and confidence in responding appropriately to domestic and family violence?

You may also wish to include creative reflections such as artwork, poetry, quotes, photographs, cultural practices, or other forms of expression that capture your learning and personal insights. Reflective practice is not about having the right answers; it is about developing curiosity, self-awareness, and a commitment to ongoing learning that supports safe, ethical, and compassionate counselling practice.

Peer Group Case Supervision

Ensuring you have continued support as a counsellor out in the community. Every month we meet as counsellors, graduates and those who want to learn more and go over case studies that we have. This is a very valuable process as ensuring you have support and guidance is part of best practise and essential for professional development hours.

JOIN US. To book go to: https://student.awakening.com.au/course/case-study-supervision-groups/

Staff

Brenda Sutherland

Brenda Sutherland

Brenda Sutherland
B.Soc Sc (Psych) TAE, IICT, AHHCA
Brenda founded The Awakening Group P/L in 1993. Her clear vision was to empower each individual to live their true potential. Since then The Awakening Group has grown from counselling, to counsellor training to offer online webinars and programs for organizations and businesses bringing teams together, effectively communicating to deliver results across the board.
Brenda B.Soc.Sc.(Psych) is a Holistic Counsellor, Trainer and Consultant with her practice grounded in over 30 years experience. She is the founder and Director of The Awakening Group accredited training programs and workshops conducted throughout Australia. Over the past 20 years Brenda has taught at universities, lectured at conferences, appeared on TV and radio, written for magazines and conducted seminars throughout Australia and NZ. She has facilitated many workshops for private, corporate and governmental organizations on personal growth and professional development.
Brenda is a dynamic counsellor and educator who employs her intuition and professional knowledge to gently guide every individual in living their truth.
Throughout her career Brenda has combined her personal commitment to her own self growth and extensive, yet unique, professional training including Psychology, EMDR: Eye Movement Desensitization Reprogramming, Art Therapy, Tantra, Eco-psychology, Soul Centred therapy, Kinesiology, Family & Organizational Constellation with world renowned facilitators (Dr Gunthard Weber, Dr Albrecht Mahr, Dr Guni Baxa, Dr Ursula Franke, Jakob Schneider, Dr Jane Peterson, Ed Lynch, Stephan Hausner etc). Further Brenda has trained with Bessel van de Kolk (one of the worlds leading trauma experts), as well as Pat Odgen; body centred psychotherapy. She has also trained in The Work of Byron Katie and is a Effectiveness (Communication) Training instructor. Brenda combines the latest neuroscience, attachment styles, arousal regulation, memory reconstruction techniques to return clients to a peaceful sense of self . Furthermore Brenda is a PACT Level 1 Couples counsellor having trained with Dr Stan Tatkin, the Founder of the Psychobiological Approach for Couple Therapy. You have the power within to transform and live your hearts desire. Brenda creates an opportunity to take you and your experience in relationships, life, sexuality, career and love a step further in authenticity to be the person you dreamed yourself to be. Discover and live new possibilities within yourself, relationships, career, sexually, health, with money and life. Individual sessions, couple counselling and workshops are available (also via Zoom online) to support you in moving into the freedom of being. Issues of anxiety, fear, stress, anger, grief, sexuality, illness, relationships and much more are addressed with each session personally tailored to transform issues standing in the way of being the more of you. Here’s what one client said:
“Thank you for today. I feel Amazing!!!” Brenda has written for:

She has been quoted in: and appeared on Channel 9’s Alternatives pilot program facilitating “Unmasking The Wild Woman” with guest Catriona Rowntree (Getaway presenter)
[ecs-list-events cat="brenda" limit="8"]

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Navigating the Classroom

Scroll further down and you will see the lessons under each module. Click on the first lesson and go through the lesson, answer the quiz questions at the bottom of the lesson by clicking on ‘Take Quiz’. Then submit the quiz, the majority of the lessons are automatically marked.

Each module has a Reflection and Case Study lesson which reflects on the module and then asks more comprehensive questions.

Work your way through the online classroom in the order that it is designed.

Remember to add your Evaluation at the end to complete the course. Thank you for your feedback in advance.

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The Awakening Group acknowledges the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as Australia’s First People and Traditional Custodians. We pay respect to Elders past, present, and future and are committed to making a positive contribution to the wellbeing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students.

The Awakening Group believes our world is a colourful one. We value diversity and are committed to providing a safe, culturally appropriate and inclusive service for all people, regardless of their ethnicity, faith, ability, sexuality, socio-economic status or gender identity.