Giving and Receiving Warmth, Love, and Care: Women's Processes of Change in an Interpersonal Violence Intervention
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Overview
This presentation shares findings from a qualitative study evaluating the Connections program—a therapeutic group designed for both general population and Indigenous mothers. The program supports participants in reflecting on their own childhood experiences, exploring their internal models of healthy relationships, and learning about children’s healthy development (BTC, 2014). Drawing on thematic analyses of semi-structured interviews, we highlight the changes women reported after completing the program. Preliminary findings suggest that Connections fosters reparative experiences that help reshape women’s physiological, perceptual, and intuitive ("gut-level") understandings of relationships. This presentation will explore these insights and discuss the therapeutic significance of creating new relational memories grounded in care and connection.Speakers
Melissa Major
Melissa is a clinician-researcher who aims to unravel narratives that trauma spreads intergenerationally and cannot be alleviated, by creating experiences of safety and love that reach between generations. She has a goal of providing excellence in clinical services to survivors of intergenerational, colonial, and violence-related trauma. Melissa carries a diversity of lineages and aims to honor them equally. Of relevance to her current clinical and research work are two lived experiences that impacted her deeply: surviving violence rooted in intergenerational trauma and thriving in a loving environment where her grandfather stepped in to raise her as a father, introducing their family to Québec Indigenous culture (Métis; French-Canadian and St-Lawrence Region Abenakis) and information about their family's heritage. Melissa does not have a clear-cut, satisfactory story about her family’s relationship with Indigeneity to offer, she is still searching for answers and family relationships are still healing. Her goal is to become the best psychologist she can be and close race and gender-based gaps in quality of care. She grounds herself with the last thing her grandfather ever said to her about serving Indigenous communities: “The most important thing to do is listen.”
Dr. Naomi Andrews
Dr. Naomi Andrews is an Associate Professor in the Department of Child and Youth Studies at Brock University. She conducts research using a relational perspective to understand children and youth’s social adjustment and problem behaviors, as well as community-based intervention and evaluation research on healthy relationships, in partnership with Mothercraft’s Breaking the Cycle program – a prevention and early intervention program for mothers with substance use issues and their young children.
Dr. Debra Pepler
Speaker bio coming soon.
