Workshops Pre-Conference
01. Campfire Mastercourse – Build Resilience. Strengthen Your Team. Protect What Matters.
In the book Smittet av vold (The cost of caring / Medkänslans pris), Per Isdal describes how therapists and helpers are affected by working closely with violence, pain, and human suffering. He demonstrates that such work carries a considerable health risk, and he devotes a substantial part of the book to how this risk can be prevented.
One of his most important contributions is the “Campfire” method – a structured form of regular debriefing and “detoxification” in meetings with colleagues. The method is designed to strengthen professionals’ emotional resilience, prevent burnout, and contribute to a safer and more supportive working environment.
About the Facilitator
Per Isdal is a psychology specialist and author. He cofounded Alternative to Violence (ATV) in 1987 and has worked in the field of domestic and interpersonal violence for nearly 37 years. He is the author of The Meaning of Violence and Smittet av vold (Medfølelsens pris / Medkänslans pris), in which the Campfire method is presented as a central preventive tool against strain and burnout in the helping professions.
02. Violence and parenting
Interparental violence and parents’ violence toward children can lastingly affect parent-child-relationships, even after the violence stops. This workshop addresses how to use a relational understanding of the effects of violence clinically in work with parents, and children.
The following themes will be treated in particular:
- Understanding and working with fathers who have used IPV.
- Understanding and working with mothers who have been exposed to IPV.
- Understanding and working with parent-child relationships after parent-to-child violence.
- Pre-school children’s experiences of violence.
The workshop will also address how violence during pregnancy and in the child’s early years affects attachment and later parent-child interaction, the complicated field of visitation after separation in the context of IPV, and co-operation across systems.
Principles regarding safety, assessment and examples of concrete clinical interventions will be presented.
About the Facilitator
Henning Mohaupt has been a psychology specialist at Alternative to Violence since 2008. He has clinical experience from therapy with adults who commit violence, and adults and children who have lived with violence. Henning has a doctorate from the University of Oslo on how men in violence treatment experience their relationship with their children. In 2024 he published the book "Violence and Parenthood". He is a trainer in Child Parent Psychotherapy, a trauma method that targets young children (0-6 years) and their caregivers. He is also a member of the state commission for partner homicide.
03. Samtaler om vold – En voldsspesifikk familieveileder for barnverntjenesten
Familier som er meldt til barnevernet på grunn av bekymring for vold, opplever ofte kontakten som ufrivillig og belastende. Mange foreldre kan kjenne på både uro og overveldelse, samtidig som det kan være krevende å snakke åpent om det som har blitt vanskelig i forhold til barna. Hjelpere kan kjenne seg usikre på hvordan de skal snakke om vold både med foreldre og barn. For å unngå at alliansen settes på spill, kan foreldreskapet bli hovedfokus, uten at volden blir snakket om verken med foreldre eller barn.
ATV har i et samarbeidsprosjekt med barneverntjenesten i Søndre Nordstrand utviklet en voldsspesifikk veileder som skal sikre et fokus på vold. Veilederen er særlig tilpasset barneverntjenesten, men kan også brukes av alle hjelpere som møter familier berørt av vold. Den fremmer en utforskende tilnærming og inneholder visuelt pedagogisk støttemateriale som inviterer til å snakke om vold på måter som vekker interesse og nysgjerrighet hos foreldre og barn.
På kursdagen vil vi presentere veilederen og demonstrere hvordan hjelpere kan ta i bruk de ulike verktøyene i praksis. Deltakerne vil også få anledning til å arbeide aktivt med verktøyene gjennom øvelser og refleksjon.
About the Facilitator
Yalila Castro Guerrero er psykolog og ansatt ved Alternativ til Vold siden 2008 med særskilt ansvar for etnisitet og familievold. På ATV jobber hun med voldsutøverbehandling, utsattbehandling, familiearbeid, undervisnings og veiledningsvirksomhet. Hun har bidratt til boken «Barn som lever med vold i familien» (2011). Hun har vært med og utviklet informasjonssamtaler med barn av foreldre som utøver vold i prosjektet Si det videre. De siste årene har hun vært med å utvikle og implementere voldsspesifikk veileder til bruk i barneverntjenesten. Veilederen er utarbeidet i nært samarbeid med Søndre Nordstrand barneverntjeneste.
Øygunn Lid er spesialist i klinisk barne- og ungdomspsykologi og jobbet flere år med barn og ungdom i BUP, ATV og barnevern. På ATV jobber hun med voldsutøverbehandling, utsattbehandling, familiearbeid, undervisnings og veiledningsvirksomhet. Hun har vært med og utviklet informasjonssamtaler med barn av foreldre som utøver vold i prosjektet Si det videre. De siste årene har hun vært med å utvikle og implementere en voldsspesifikk veileder til bruk i barneverntjenesten. Veilederen er utarbeidet i nært samarbeid med Søndre Nordstrand barneverntjeneste.
04. Research Symposium
Violence, parenting, and separation - when violence disappears from our understanding and the interventions we implement
Several Norwegian studies show how various social institutions that are supposed to help, protect, support, and rebuild safety for those who experience violence and abuse may also end up facilitating further violence.
What happens when parents disagree about what has happened in the family? What significance do gender, the ideal of equal parenthood, and violence have for the childcare situation after a breakup?
We have invited clinicians and researchers in the field of family violence to share their knowledge. We want to stimulate joint reflections on these topics and how we can work together to strengthen our ability to protect and support victims of violence and hold those who perpetrate violence accountable. If we do not attach importance to violence, we not only fail those who are subjected to violence, but we also deprive those who perpetrate violence of an opportunity for responsibility and change.
About the Facilitator
The workshop facilitator this day will be Ingunn Rangul Askeland. She is a specialist in clinical psychology and has worked at Alternative to Violence (ATV) for over 30 years. For several years she was also working as a researcher at Norwegian centre for violence and traumatic stress studies (NKVTS). She has a PhD in psychology. Her research has been on men in psychotherapy for violence against their female partner and their children, what characterizes this group and what changes during and after treatment.
Psychologist, Eir Torvik has investigated expert assessments in parental disputes from the Oslo District Court, and what understandings of parenting, care and child development are used in such assessments. She will talk about how gender stereotypes flourish, and violence often slips through these assessments
Specialist in psychology, Jannicke Stav is a PhD Candidate on the project “Visible Children – Professional Discretion in Child Custody Disputes in Court” at Oslo Metropolitan University. The project analyses expert reports and verdicts from Norwegian district courts, where Stav focuses on professional judgment related to domestic violence and safety in parental disputes where there have been police reports of domestic abuse.
Sociologist and senior researcher Anja Bredal (PhD) from OsloMet,will present her study: Yielding to “parental conflict”? Systemic responses to abused mothers after separation.
Margunn Bjørnholt is a professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences at VID University College and a researcher at the Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress in Oslo. She is doing research on mothers exposed to violence and breakups and has, among other things, launched the concept of continued violence/post-separation violence, which has had a great impact in Norway and Denmark. She will speak about “Stories about concern, protection and care. Mothers exposed to violence talk about their children.”
Specialist in Psychology, PhD, Trine Eikrem, will talk about "Violence or Conflict: When "violence" becomes "allegation of violence" after a breakup.
