Symposium Facilitator, Rick Goodwin
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From 10-14 February 2020, Mosaic facilitated a New Zealand-unique landmark Symposium at Wellington's Victoria University 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. |
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 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.
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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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |
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. |