Centacare Brisbane is about to resume a series of successful workshops and seminars for the first half of 2003.
These workshops assist men, women and families deal with a range of emotional and relationship issues; most notably identifying and managing anger and the avoidance of domestic violence.
Topics of specific interest to women will be covered in a series of two half-day workshops held between March and April. The topics covered will be Identifying, Understanding and Managing Your Anger; Power and Control in Relationships and Emotional Abuse – what is it?
The workshops are held at Centacare’s Fortitude Valley site and while there is a small fee involved, it does include free parking and free child-minding services. The workshops are open to women of all religious beliefs.
Men will also be catered for in the first half of 2003 with workshops on Identifying, Understanding and Managing Your Anger and Men’s Domestic and Family Violence Group being held in February and March.
Centacare is an agency of the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane and has been providing for parish and community welfare services for many years.
In 2002 the Centacare Brisbane designed “Childrens First” program was recognised internationally with a prize as one of the world’s twelve best education and group intervention programs.
The program was designed to help children through the changes that occur when parents separate or divorce.
While it was a great feather in their cap, Centacare sees it as simply a part of fulfilling the Agency’s role in the Mission of the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.
The tenets of that mission are to provide education and advocacy in areas of community service and to support and encourage the addressing of community welfare needs.
Fiona Bosly, Senior Counsellor and Coordinator of the Women’s Domestic Violence program at Centacare, said that by presenting a fairly safe environment to explore certain issues, these workshops educate people as to what the dynamics of the issues are and allows them to come together and explore the issues.
“It also formalises and validates their concerns and provides them with a forum where they can explore what strategies they may want to develop for themselves”, Ms Bosly said.
“The feedback from the workshops so far has been very positive”.
“The workshops give people an exposure to the issues dealt with and wider programs are offered to look at the weightier issues in depth”.
“People keep coming back so that itself is a good indication of the positive feedback these workshops have received so far,” she said.
For people wanting to find out more or book in for one of the workshop programs please phone Centacare on (07) 3250 4305.
Released by Catholic Communications Office.