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We’re so pleased to welcome Peterborough Relationship Support as a partner of UK SAYS NO MORE! Find out more from them:
All of us at Peterborough Relationship Support are thrilled to take part in the UK SAYS NO MORE campaign!
We’re all about helping keep relationships healthy. We offer a range of counselling services for individuals, couples and families, including relationship counselling and sex therapy. After noticing that a number of our clients were disclosing domestic abuse in their relationships, we decided we needed to do something about it and undertook some research.
The vast majority of support services are geared towards supporting victims, which is great. However, outside the criminal justice system there are few ways of dealing with the abuser. We also know that only a small portion of domestic abuse gets reported to authorities, which means that many abusers are never challenged, and can move between relationships creating more victims.
We believe in treating the cause of the problem (the perpetrator). That’s why we created Stop The Hurt, a 17-week therapeutic programme for domestic abusers. Our clients attend weekly sessions and take part in group and one-to-one exercises, to show them that their behaviour is unacceptable, and give them tools to change it.
Our interventions include working with them to manage anger and conflict safely, encouraging them to play the role of their partner to show them what like is like as the victim, and giving them tips for better communication. They’re also offered counselling to allow their partner to have a say too.
We’ve worked with a number of partners including police, probation, prisons and social services, and have seen nearly 200 people complete our course. We’ve seen some great successes, including one man whose probation officer was so thrilled with his progress that his probation period was reduced. Another man whose children were under Child Protection with social services showed such a marked improvement in family life that they were able to safely withdraw, leaving the children safer and happier. A number of prisoners who undertook the course have not offended since.
In fact, an independent review undertaken by Cambridgeshire Police showed that nearly 90% of those who attended our course had never come to police attention since, for domestic abuse or otherwise.
We’ll keep doing our bit to eradicate domestic abuse and protect victims, which is why we’re taking a stand with UK SAYS NO MORE. Please visit our website and get in touch if you’d like to know more.
Jon Putnam – Chairman of Peterborough Relationship Support.
Interested in becoming a partner of UK SAYS NO MORE?
We’d love to hear from you, please get in touch with Lyndsey Dearlove, Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) Partnership Manager.
You can contact Lyndsey by email at [email protected] or by phone at 020 7378 3170.
