IVAT is a comprehensive resource and training center addressing all aspects of violence, abuse and trauma across the lifespan. We strive to bridge the gaps between policy, practice and research to help improve current system-response by cultivating multidiscipline prevention and intervention strategies that promote trauma-informed, culturally sensitive, and gender-responsive prevention and interventions. For the past 25-years we have provided professionals and students access to our Summits and trainings to learn from leading experts in prevention, identification, investigation, and interventions for exploitation, abuse, and trauma.

We provide a list of opportunities for addressing interpersonal violence, child abuse, human trafficking, system-response and community engagement, professional burnout, and conflict resolution / de-escalation trainings. Fees for trainings vary depending on duration, and eligibility for receiving continuing education credits.

Mary Jo Barrett, MSW, is the Founder of Collaborative Change Consultation. Ms. Barrett has been working in the field of family violence since 1974 beginning with Parents Anonymous. She created the Collaborative Change Model, a contextual model of therapy used to transform the lives of those impacted by abuse and/or traumatic events. Her training and published works focus on the teaching of the Collaborative Change Model; Family Therapy and Interpersonal Violence; Adult Survivors of Abuse and Trauma; Complex Developmental Trauma and Compassion Fatigue. Ms. Barrett founded the Family Dialogue Project, a mediation program which strives to redefine relationships within families that have been impacted by allegations of abuse or differences that appear irreconcilable.

After Abuse: The Case for Individual and Institutional Restorative Justice

Presenters: Alissa Ackerman, PhD; Guila Benchimol, PhD

Date & Time: May 23, 2024 @ 10:00 am PST

Description: Restorative Justice is a survivor-centered approach to healing that honors the humanity of all parties involved. It offers unique and creative pathways for addressing the needs expressed by those impacted by harm. Sometimes those pathways involve direct interaction with the initial harm doer, while other times it includes those responsible for secondary or institutional harm. This workshop will explore the roots and fundamentals of restorative justice. It will then cover the use of restorative justice in individual and institutional cases.

Emotional Survival and Wellness: Trauma, Post-Traumatic Growth, and the Process of Healing

Post Certified Course #43173

Presented by Capt. Dan Willis (ret.)

Emotional Survival and Wellness: Trauma, Post-Traumatic Growth, and the Process of Healing focuses on the daily work traumas of the profession and how they can cause suicide, post-traumatic stress, unprofessional service, excessive force issues, and a host of emotional, mental, and physical health problems. The curriculum features specific evidence-based wellness strategies to promote post-traumatic growth and effective ways to enhance resiliency and heal from trauma.

Contact Dan Willis at www.FirstResponderWellness.com or dwillis1121@yahoo.com

Training: LGB&T Cultural Humility - Knowing our Place
Presented by Kunane Dreier & Maddalynn Sesepasara

LGB&T Cultural Humility training is designed to increase knowledge and skills to effectively interact with LGB&T people, as well as support and provide affirming care and support.  This training integrates the unique viewpoints of local and Hawaiian culture as related to māhū. Utilizing the unique viewpoints of our Hawaiian and local cultures, we aim to increase humility and capacity for understanding when engaging with our most vulnerable populations. 

Training: Stopping Violence Through Understanding Failure and Rejection
Presented by Janie Christensen, MSW, RSW

This training will delve into the intricate connection between substance use and sex trafficking in Hawai'i. Gain valuable insights into the vulnerabilities that underlie substance abuse and how addiction can be wielded as a tool of exploitation. Explore the current landscape of healing and discover pathways to enhance the recovery journey for survivors in the future.

Training: Intersections of Substance Use and Sex Trafficking
Presented by Ashley Maha’a

This training will delve into the intricate connection between substance use and sex trafficking in Hawai'i. Gain valuable insights into the vulnerabilities that underlie substance abuse and how addiction can be wielded as a tool of exploitation. Explore the current landscape of healing and discover pathways to enhance the recovery journey for survivors in the future.

Training: SAFeR: A Systematic Approach to Addressing IPV in Child Custody and Parenting Time Cases Presented by Tracy Shoberg, JD

Description: This training will introduce legal practitioners to a structured approach to decision-making in domestic violence-related custody cases that centralizes the experience of battered parents and their children.  The training will also acquaint participants with a suite of tools designed to enhance screening, assessment, and informed decision making in domestic violence related child custody matters. 

Training: Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Abuse and Alienation Allegations: What Do the Data Show? Presented by Joan Meier, JD

Description: This webinar is the the first study to ever assess custody case outcomes across the U.S., the 2019 Custody Outcomes in Cases Involving Abuse and Alienation Allegations study was federally funded by the National Institute of Justice. Findings regarding courts' skepticism of abuse allegations by mothers, the power of alienation crossclaims, and gender bias will be reported.

Training: Unmasking Abuse: Identifying Psychological Defenses That Put Families at Risk
Presented by Robin Lynch, PhD

Description: This webinar is designed for identifying the dynamics that lead to abuse is central to effective domestic violence prevention. Intervention is difficult as abuse is often difficult to discern, including to the victims, and to measure. This presentation introduces the notion of the “narcissistic affect dysregulated” individual who projects their emptiness and anger on others to self-regulate and, in doing so, creates abusive relationships.

Training: Neurobiology of Trauma
Presented by Dr. Robert Geffner, PhD, APN, ABPP

Description: This workshop is designed for a range of professionals who work with survivors of trauma and will cover the different areas of the brain that are affected by traumatic and stressful situations. This workshop will describe how adverse childhood experiences can disrupt neurobiological development that can affect functioning throughout the lifespan.

Training: Collaborative Recovery: Using Experiential & Person-Centered Approaches for Survivors of Sexual Assault and Institutional Betrayal
Presented by Lori R. Daniels, Ph.D., LCSW

Description: This workshop will discuss various integrative, person-centered, and experiential psychotherapy techniques, provide assessment tools, and ways to build rapport while contracting for treatment. Due to the collaborative nature of the counseling work based on a survivor’s level of information for interventions, a person-centered, experiential approach for IBSA recovery may also be useful for clients of diverse backgrounds.

Training: Invisible Epidemic: Strangulation, Traumatic Brain Injury and Domestic Violence, Presented by Rachel Ramirez, MSW, LISW-S, RA

Description: When most people hear "concussion" they think about sports or the NFL. But what about brain injuries caused by domestic violence? Come to learn about the invisible epidemic of brain injury caused by violence--an emerging issue featured recently on NPR's OnPoint and in the New York Times Magazine.

Training: Understanding Coercive Control and How it Harms Children, Presented by Dr. Emma Katz, PhD
Description: This presentation explores survivor mothers’ and children’s experience of coercive control, both before and after the survivor mother has separated from the abusing father. Showing how coercive control harms children, it will enable delegates to push beyond the view of children as ‘witnesses’ or as ‘exposed’ to abuse. By understanding children’s perspectives, we can see them as co-victims and co-survivors.

Training: Bringing Caregivers and Children Together: An Overview of PC-Care and Its Application in Hawai`i , Presented by Alexandria King, PsyD

Description: Developed in 2016, Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) is an abbreviated form of Parent Child Interaction Therapy. This 7 session dyadic treatment program was designed for families that are interested in improving caregiver-child relationships and are willing to learn new child behavior management strategies. In this webinar, Dr. Alex King will share why PC-CARE was developed and some of the outcomes from research on this new intervention. Additionally, participants will learn about the core components of the PC-CARE model including experiential practice with the skills of PC-CARE.

Training: The Link Between Grief and Trauma: A Tailored Treatment, Presented by Blythe Landry, MEd, LCSW

Description: When we work in trauma for years on end, the inevitability of vicarious trauma and moral injury are ever present. As seasoned trauma professionals, we often have basic trainings around vicarious/secondary trauma, but we don't often go deeper to discern our own very personal reactions and how this can create a deep grief response that is hard for those who are not in our field to understand. Left unaddressed, this grief reaction can adversely impact our relationships, our professional offerings, and our own mental health. This training will be for intermediate to advanced practitioners seeking a more in-depth and interactive approach to both discussing and responding to vicarious trauma and all that it causes in our lives.

Training: It’s Alienation, Clearly - Or Is It? presented by Madelyn Simring Milchman, PhD.

Description: This webinar addresses evidence needed to assess causes of parent rejection in custody cases. It identifies problems that are unique to assessing alienation and differentiating it from child sexual abuse, child maltreatment, and bad parenting. It supports improved evaluations, investigations, direct and cross-examinations, and judicial decisions.

Training: Walking the Delicate Balance: Helping Adult Survivors with their Future Relationships with their Families, presented by Mary Jo Barrett, MSW

Description: Adult Survivors of childhood abuse, neglect, and trauma often struggle with how to have a relationship with family members that contributed to their experience. Therapists want to understand how to clinically manage the adult relationships of their clients. There is no one solution. This workshop will provide clinicians with some therapeutic concepts and interventions to help their clients navigate difficult family relationships.