The Kent State University Center for Applied Conflict Management
On-line Advanced Training Seminar

12 contact hours

This advanced training seminar has been developed for helping professionals to enhance their ability to recognize the effects of coercion and force in the context of a trust-based relationship. Battering relationships, domestic violence, and child abuse are all situations where one person wields power over the other person in order to control and dominate. Recognizing coercive control can be difficult--less than ten percent of domestic violence is reported to the police or to medical personnel. Few women self-identify as a "battered woman" for many reasons, including the physiological and psychological effects of trauma. The effects of trauma and dissociated coercion will be explored in this interactive seminar, and participants will be provided with information designed to enable them to develop individualized screening and assessment plans. The use of the Internet to communicate with other professionals, and as a research and information gathering tool, will be emphasized.

Topics to be addressed include:

Recognition

• Violence in society:  Recognizing the pervasiveness of violence against women 
• Violence in the home:  Recognizing the prevalence and nature of intimate violence 
• The lack of professional acknowledgment:  Recognizing professional responsibility 
• The effects of violence on the victim:  Recognizing dissociated coercion 
• Complex posttraumatic stress disorder:  Recognizing the effects of trauma 
• Lack of skills versus oppressive violence:  Recognizing the motivation of the perpetrator

Response

• Screening for interpersonal violence
• Mediation and domestic violence
• The role of the helping professional
• Intervener ethics
• Developing an individualized assessment protocol
• Building a personalized reference and referral system

Participants will be asked to answer questions regarding reading materials in order to demonstrate competency. Individualized interaction with each participant will be provided by the seminar instructor, as well as the opportunity to communicate with other seminar participants enrolled at the same time period via e-mail. Participants will have a one-week period to complete the course material and to have all written work submitted back to the instructor.

Instructor:

Jennifer P. Maxwell, Ph.D., L.S.W., and B.C.E.T.S., has taught conflict theory and intervention skills at the university level for the past twenty years.  Her research focuses on the dynamics of power disparity and oppressive violence in interpersonal relationships, the effects of coercion and trauma on victims of violence, and the assessment and development of intervention and prevention strategies.

Dr. Maxwell is an Associate Professor in the Political Science Department at KSU, a trained mediator and arbitrator, a certified teacher in Social Studies (7-12) and Art (N-12), and a licensed social worker.  She has developed training programs and curricula for business, law, education, government, and human service professionals, and for non-profit community organizations.  In 1996, Dr. Maxwell established the Dissociated Coercion Project, the CACM applied research and community service project addressing the manifestations of dissociated coercion (the juxtaposition of trust and violation in interpersonal relationships); the effects of trauma on victims of violence; posttraumatic stress disorder; intervention strategies for survivors; increasing the effectiveness of violence prevention education; and ramifications for the field of conflict management and mediation. She is a member of the Association of Family and Conciliation Courts and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.  She is a Board Certified Expert in Traumatic Stress--Diplomate, American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress, and is listed in the National Registry of The American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress.

Registration:

This course is currently being offered for the introductory rate of $50.00. This includes all course materials and continuing education credit (12 contact hours).

To register contact the Center for Applied Conflict Management:

phone:  330-672-3143
e-mail:  jmaxwell@kent.edu

address: 

Center for Applied Conflict Management
Political Science Department
Kent State University
P.O. Box 5190
Kent, OH 44242-0001

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