The Department of Family Studies within the Faculty for Social Wellbeing at the University of Malta has the pleasure to announce a seminar on  the “Jyväskylä model for working with male perpetrators of intimate partner violence” led by Prof Juha Holma from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland as part of an Erasmus exchange between the two Universities.

The Jyvaskyla model of working with intimate partner violence (IPV) started twenty years ago as a multi-professional collaborative project in Jyvaskyla, Finland. The two main collaborating agencies, the local Crisis Centre Mobile and Jyvaskyla University Psychotherapy Training and Research Centre, serve both victims and perpetrators of IPV, and co-operate with various social and welfare agencies and the police. Perpetrators are offered group treatment preceded by individual treatment. From the outset, the process and utility of group treatment for male perpetrators of IPV has mainly been researched by applying discursive and narrative approaches. The treatment program combines a feminist perspective and psychotherapeutic approaches to violence-specific interventions, such as safety planning. These aspects have also been a focus of research. Dialogical and discursive approaches have been applied in analyzing interaction at both the group and individual levels.

Language-based analyses have focused on the identity construction of male perpetrators as well as on the discursive processes and therapeutic strategies used in the treatment group. From the gendered viewpoint, the findings point to the importance of focusing on the construction of masculine identity, especially in relation to fatherhood. Moreover, the findings of the project show how IPV perpetrators vary in their individual processes of change. Change has been approached from the perspectives of reflexivity, mentalization, attachment style, and problem assimilation. In these studies, the success of the process has been evaluated on the basis of partner interviews. Overall, the results demonstrate the diversity that exists among perpetrators and point to the importance of adapting the therapeutic strategies deployed in group interventions for IPV to serve clients’ individual needs.

The Department of Family Studies would like to invite academics as well as professionals in the areas of family therapy, psychotherapy, psychiatry, counselling, psychology, social work, health sciences and medicine to attend the seminar. Students in these areas at Master and Ph.D. level are also welcome.

The seminar will be held on Monday 16 April at the University of Malta Msida Campus and it will run from 09:00 to 17:00. 

Venues:
09:00 - 15:00 - Students' House Conference Room (SHCR)

15.00 - 17.00 - Hall E, M.A. Vassalli Conference Centre - Gateway Building (HEGW)

Places are limited, and are on a first come first served basis. Kindly contact Ms Renita Agius by email by 11 April, 2018 to register for this seminar.