Growing men’s resilience, transforming lives: Gippsland Family Violence Team
- kirranicolle
- 23 minutes ago
- 5 min read
The Men’s Behaviour Change Program (MBCP), delivered by The Salvation Army Family Violence Team in Gippsland, Victoria, is a program supporting men who have used violence in their intimate-partner relationships. As the only program of its kind run by The Salvation Army in Australia, it plays a critical role in addressing the root causes of family violence by fostering accountability and promoting respectful behaviours. This piece is created from a conversation between National Family Violence Specialist LILLY McKEICH and Integrated Men’s Services Team Leader REBECCA WILSON, from Rebecca’s perspective.
Led by Rebecca, the program provides a structured group environment where men are supported to examine their attitudes towards women, identify and address the shame often linked to their behaviour, and work towards meaningful change. At the heart of the program is a steadfast commitment to the safety and wellbeing of all victim-survivors and affected family members, ensuring that their voices and experiences remain central throughout the process.
Through this important work, the MBCP contributes to broader community efforts to break the cycle of violence and create safer, more respectful relationships and families.
How it works
The MBCP men’s group comprises of up to 14 men meeting face-to-face during the day, or the alternative of an online group in the evening. Each group includes twice-weekly sessions of two hours length, with 20 sessions in a program. Additionally, each client has two individual sessions with the facilitators.
Our group work is facilitated by both a male and female facilitator. This is to model healthy, respectful relationships to the clients.
The primary aim of the MBCP is to promote the safety and wellbeing of victim-survivors by addressing the use of family violence through risk assessments and safety planning. The program works with men who have used violence in their relationships; providing them with support, and encouraging accountability and education around family violence, exploring respectful behaviours, gender roles and discussion of power and control in relationships.
Managing risk for the impacted family members we work with is a dedicated Family Safety Contact (FSC), who is central to the MBCP. The FSC offers support to current or former partners, to ensure their voices are heard and safety is prioritised. The FSC is pivotal to the program, as that person ensures that we have a clear lens on the family and the experience of all victim survivors. The men who are participating are often living with their families, including children or extended family.
The group space encourages peer discussion and provides psychoeducation about family violence and the impacts of family violence on victim survivors, both adults and children. We use different modalities of working and engaging with the men participating in our program. We adapt the delivery of content to what the men’s life experiences have been with consideration of mental health, incarceration, alcohol and other drugs (AOD), education levels and cognitive ability. The content is reviewed weekly before each group session. This is to ensure that it is delivered in a way which addresses what the men are bringing into the space and their use of violence within their relationships – historic or current.
Our work is underpinned by the Duluth Model, and we deliver content through an intersectional lens that considers each individual's trauma history, life experiences, and family of origin. While we recognise that many people have experienced significant trauma, we also acknowledge that trauma alone does not cause violence, many people who have faced adversity do not choose to use violence. This understanding helps guide our approach: one that holds men accountable for their behaviour while also recognising the complex factors that may influence their choice to use violent behaviour.
The cohort
Referrals are often complex. Men referred may have criminal histories coupled with family violence, or have unsupported mental health factors along with AOD use. The team works with families who may have experienced intergenerational violence and unhealthy role modelling. The families referred are often intact and residing together unlike other specialist family violence programs. What’s at stake is the wellbeing, safety and lives of victim-survivors.
Not all of the men are motivated to make change, even if they’re mandated to be in the group by an order from Corrections or Child Protection, there is often resistance. We discuss what’s happened within their families, the use of violence and assess their capacity to take on the information and reflection in the group setting. It can be quite confronting for some of our men, often they have never had these direct conversations.
Processing confronting truths
We often get minimisation of the behaviour and the use of violence. We give them an opportunity to tell their story, we listen and ensure we’re not colluding with them. We will put a boundary in place around language or behaviour. If they say something inappropriate and blame their family violence behaviour on the victim survivor, we will immediately reinforce that it isn’t ok.
We are transparent about expectations of behaviour in the group and in the language used. We will challenge a client and push back on victim-blaming or a skewed version of events. We tend to gauge how they respond so we are able to manage this in a safe manner for all involved in the group space.
The risks involved
Our men can be very vulnerable. As the reflection and understanding of the violence used in their relationships develops, this can increase risk to themselves (self-harm) and increases the risk (harm) to families. The men are having first-time conversations about the impact of their behaviour on partners, children or family members.
We often hear, “I don’t want to be like my old man,” only to later realise that their own violent behaviour mirrors what they experienced as children from their father. This realisation can have a profound impact, often triggering deep feelings of shame and guilt.
We are very aware of the impacts this can have on the men, and they are supported with additional referrals to other services. Safety planning is completed with clients by facilitators and is completed with family members by the FSC. We are constantly assessing and reviewing risk.
Managing shame and guilt
Understanding shame and guilt and how these emotions impact behaviour or decision making is very important. Guilt will keep you repeating a behaviour. Shame can be paralysing and inhibit change.
We discuss body signs, the impact of emotions on your body. We talk about what to do if things become overwhelming, and help them develop the ability to make a different decision about behaviour in the moment. This might involve a response such as removing oneself, or having an agreed-to plan in place before things blow up.
We safety plan around the men's behaviour (historic and current) and the new emotions that group work may bring, with an awareness of any thoughts or feelings that may come from these group discussions.
The men are offered a space in the group to reflect on their violent behaviour and are given the tools to make a change and record this in a documented safety plan to promote accountability. This is done in a respectful, non-judgmental, supportive manner to strive for safe and positive outcomes for the families we work with.
