Pathways To Healing
Pathways To Healing
What is Pathways to Healing?
Pathways to Healing is a six-week course of women-only domestic abuse workshops aimed at supporting survivors as they move forward in their lives, free of violence. We encourage survivors to consider how abuse has affected and impacted their lives and recognise that they are not to blame. We believe wholeheartedly in the power of women enabling women and therefore we hold this space to unite women to build connections, reduce isolation and learn strategies to start taking positive steps in their lives. These workshops are only available to survivors who are safe. This means that she should not be in a relationship with, living with, or in regular contact with a perpetrator(s).
The workshops have been developed and created in line with the voices and experiences of survivors, focussing on their key needs and learning what is most beneficial to them. These sessions are structured around presentations that are delivered in person over the course of 3 hours with scheduled breaks. We also ensure that there is plenty of time for discussion, sharing and interactive activities, and grounding exercises. We aim to provide women a space to reflect and consider how trauma has impacted their lives and we offer support, strategies, and resources to encourage resilience, be strength focussed and create goals for the future.
What do we cover?
Whilst we tailor the sessions according to the needs of our participants and revise and adapt the sessions based on service user feedback, our workshops generally follow this structure:
- Awareness of Domestic Abuse and a Gender Perspective
- Self Esteem, Myths, and Misconceptions about Abuse
- Warning Signs and the Impact of Trauma
- The Wider Impact of Abuse, Healthy Relationships, and Setting Boundaries
- Emotional Resilience: Challenging Negative Thoughts, Self Care and Improving Wellbeing
- Making Positive Changes and Setting Goals to Move Forward
Additional Information
Alongside group delivery, all participants must be able to commit to attending two one-to-one support sessions with one of our facilitators. These sessions take place at the start and at the end of the course.
Pathways to Healing may not be suitable for everyone and so it is really important that our facilitators have time to contact anyone who is interested in participating in the programme. It is really important to stress that anyone participating must be able to attend all of the scheduled workshops for the entirety of the programme, as we have a high demand on our waiting list of referrals. These workshops take place midweek during the daytime, typically in the mornings.
I’m interested, what happens next?
If you think this programme is something you would like to participate in, and you are safe to access this support, please use our online contact form to register your interest. Before getting in touch, we have put together this fact sheet with a bit of information about the programme to help you understand if it is right for you.
Once we have received your contact form request, our centre administrator will confirm receipt of your email enquiry. From there, the Pathways to Healing facilitators will contact you at the time of the next cycle starting to discuss the programme in more detail and start our enrolment process. Please be aware that we run one group every 3 months and so you will be held on a waiting list and contacted nearer the time.
I’m a professional working with a victim-survivor, how should I refer them?
If you are a professional who has the explicit consent to make a referral on behalf of a client/service user, we ask that you complete our Professional Referral Form. Again, they will be contacted at the time of the next available workshops. We have included this factsheet for considerations for referrals for professionals to help you assess whether this programme is suitable for your client.