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HMA Blog

Working with passion and integrity to bring out the best in people

Accountibility of Users of violence: Report insights HMA Priorities for 2025 – Hitting the Ground Running

Hard to believe we’re already into February! That Christmas break feels like a distant memory as we dive headfirst into what’s shaping up to be a big year. With a […]

Ake – The pilot and evaluation begins

We’re thrilled to announce that the evaluation and pilot of Ake, our innovative family violence programme support app, has officially begun. Our goal is to identify answers for several key […]

Looking back and looking forward

  You may not have time to read this Christmas blog, but if you do, thanks for being generous with your time. We appreciate the willingness of many organisations to […]

Te Huringa ō Te Ao – Sustainable behaviour change for men to restore whānau wellbeing

  Over the last month, I have been privileged to join the procurement panel for Te Huringa ō Te Ao. This new family violence service supports sustainable behaviour change for […]

Working with people who don’t want to work with you

  As part of MINT Oceania, we were thrilled to recently host Michael Clark, co-author of Motivational Interviewing with Offenders: Engagement, Rehabilitation and Re-Entry (Guilford, 2017), in Aotearoa/New Zealand, during […]

Are you ready to seriously consider change?

For those of us working in the area of behaviour change and intervention around domestic, family and sexualised violence (DFSV), ‘Are you ready to seriously consider change?’ is the crucial […]

Understanding the Process of Intimate Partner Homicide

  Intimate Partner Femicide: Using Foucauldian Analysis to Track an Eight-Stage Progression to Homicide (https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1077801220935195) – Jane Monckton Smith, 2020   Domestic, family, and sexualized violence (DFSV) is a patterned […]

An all too common story

Another woman was allegedly murdered by her partner (link). This all too common headline should give us pause to reflect upon why, in 2024, violence against women remains so prevalent […]

Supporting the specialised development of Probation Officers

The following article is by Rhiannon Cooper from New Zealand Corrections, dated 23 April 2024. Thank you to Rhiannon and the team for the kind words and permission to post […]

The role of peer work and behaviour change

We know that domestic, family and sexualised violence (DFSV) continues to be a major challenge across our communities. We also know there are insufficient specialist agencies and workers to do […]

Tauawhi Men’s Centre 

  In 2011, I ran a workshop in Gisborne for staff from the Tauawhi Men’s Centre. What a pleasure it was to go back and run a one-day intensive for […]

Engaging with young people at risk

  I spent time this week working alongside staff from the Youth Development Unit at Whenuapai Airforce Base in West Auckland.  They run a six-week program for young people 18 […]

I am not going to quit now!

I turned 65 in August, so I, along with my partner Suzanne, took a significant break from our work lives to reflect upon our next steps. When that magic number […]

The place of groupwork in social change

I love group work. I love training people in the effective use of groups. I love the idea that people with similar issues can come together and support each other […]

Reflecting upon a lifetime of trying to disrupt domestic and family violence

I’m in a contemplative mood at the moment. I recently reached the tender age of 65. For many people reaching this age comes with a degree of angst, uncertainty, and […]

What does it mean to be accountable?

Last week I was running a masterclass on Disrupting Family Violence, and the issue of accountability versus responsibility arose. I believe that in the DFV sector, we have embraced a […]

Three ways our behaviour change app will enhance your program

Our team created Ake with the goal of addressing the common challenges faced in the field of family violence intervention. Watch the videos below to find out the reasons why […]

Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers Chapter Meeting

It’s an exciting time for members and Friends of MINT Oceania as they prepare to gather in Melbourne next weekend. This gathering marks the first time in three years that […]

Who uses domestic, family, and sexual violence, how, and why?

At the recent ‘Working with Men to End Family Violence’ online conference, Associate Professor Michael Flood from the Queensland University of Technology presented a state of knowledge report on violence […]

Substance Misuse, Trauma and Family Violence

There is often heated debate about the links between these three factors. When a report from the Centre for Justice Innovation (UK) Substance misuse, trauma and domestic abuse perpetration: The […]

We are almost ready

We are in the final stages of publishing the app onto the Apple and Google Play stores for iOS and Android devices and are due to go live with Ake […]

Associate Spotlight – Peter Feeney

Peter Feeney is an actor, writer, teacher, and director. Peter is a good friend to HMA, having been involved in several of our media projects. His relationship with HMA began […]

Engaging with young people who use DFV 

Increasing attention is being directed at youth domestic and family violence. A significant amount of violence against parents goes unreported to formal systems (Police, Youth Justice). We also know that […]

It is good to have dreams/moemoeā

    When I started my social work career in the early 1980s, I had no idea where the journey would take me. Little did I know that I would […]

Once a week or all week?

How do we increase the dosage in our men’s behaviour change programmes? How do we ensure learning transfer of the work we do in programmes continues after the session? How […]

What our young boys / men are subjected to

Forty years ago, I joined a number of projects that worked with the restraints that gendered restrictions placed on boys and men, and how these flowed through to behaviour towards […]

Is exposure to family violence a gateway to sexual violence?

I have increasingly been interested in the question of pathways that lead a person to engage in harmful behaviour, such as family violence and sexual violence. While it is generally […]

The gendered weight of desistance

The question of who does the social and emotional heaving lifting in relationships is a central question to the gender question. It is in my view that this is a […]

Hi from the No To Violence Conference in Adelaide

    Hi from the No To Violence Conference in Adelaide. I am enjoying the opportunity to meet in person with old friends, meet new ones, and engage in thoughtful […]

Male privileges and respectful living

    Forty years ago, I started a journey. That journey was born out of the challenges at the time of appreciating the privilege that comes from being male.  It […]

29% of adults have experienced sexual assault or intimate partner violence in their lifetime

    Every year I look forward to the data from the New Zealand Crime And Victim Survey (Cycle 4 November 2022 – November 2021, N=6,244, response rate 76%). Looking […]

On the road again – Our focus on Youth DFV

    It was with some trepidation that I got on a plane and headed from New Zealand to Australia. The last time I travelled out of New Zealand was […]

24/7 support for men kicking the behaviour of abusive practices

Have you ever wondered how much learning transfer occurs from the in-room or online session you are running back into the person’s life? This is an issue that has vexed […]

The role of trauma in DFV

How often have you wondered, “Why does he hurt the people he says he loves?” I know I have. Having spent the past 40 years trying to come up with explanations to that question, if there is one thing I have made sense of, simple reasons don’t consider the vast diversity in the population of men who use violence within their families.  

A third of domestic violence killers in Australia are middle class

    Statistics presented at Australia’s National Research On Women’s Safety (ANROWS) conference by Hayley Boxall from the Australian Institute of Criminology, saw that a third of domestic violence killers in […]

Looking forward to 2022

  It is a truism that life often throws us curveballs. At HMA, we have certainly experienced a few curve balls over 23 years of business. The 2011 Christchurch earthquake […]

People with brain injuries, developmental issues ‘over-represented’ in justice system – new report by Chief Science Advisor (Justice)

We have always known the challenges of those who are imprisoned in terms of early life trauma due to issues such as exposure the family violence and general violence, drug […]

Workshop – The role of Motivational Interviewing in working with Family Violence

“Resolving ambivalence and developing motivation is a key aspect of engagement into Men’s Behaviour Change (MBC) programs.”​ Given that most men referred to programs are mandated either formally or informally […]

We are sad

As you can imagine, the situation in Christchurch is incredibly sad and distressing for us as a nation right now. New Zealand has a long history of taking in refugees […]

Well done Gillette on taking a stand against the impact of rampant sexism

You may be aware of the furore around the new Gillette ad on masculinity. It has certainly lit up the internet. I am always interested that when traditional notions of […]

HMA 2018 Round-Up

We have had a fantastic year. Heartfelt thanks go to the agencies and organisation that have placed trust in HMA to work with their staff. From large delivery and design […]

Disrupting Family Violence Programme Launch!

Disrupting Family Violence & Moving Closer to Family Wellbeing An 18+ session family violence intervention programme for men Family violence has emerged from behind closed doors since the second wave […]

Winner! Outstanding Performance in Carbon Management

At HMA we tend to get around a bit. Given the large amount of work that we do throughout New Zealand and Australia, this is not surprising, but it comes […]

Empathy: The foundation of best practice

We are currently working with Corrections Victoria on a large pilot program implementing aspects of motivational interviewing with custodial staff. This is happening in two prison sites and a probation […]

Compassion… The greatest of virtues

Ranked a great virtue in numerous philosophies, compassion is considered in almost all the major religious traditions as among the greatest of virtues. Compassion motivates people to go out of their way to help […]

How technology will disrupt behaviour change interventions

I spend a lot of my time thinking about the best way to help with behaviour change. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of those people trained in face-to-face […]

Being careful how we see others

‘Me against my brother; my brother and I against my cousin; myself, my brother and my cousin against others’, so goes this old Arab Bedouin saying. It is however problematic […]

Technology… An abuser’s best friend?

Nowadays, the same technology designed to make our lives easier and more efficient, is increasingly being used as a tool to monitor, manipulate, shame and control people easily, and at […]

Men’s Safety Project – A FREE site for men and practitioners

81% of people think it is possible to change people’s behaviour around family violence* So do we… It’s not uncommon for men to struggle with patterns of abusive behaviour in […]

And the winners are…

We had a great response to our post ‘Motivational Interviewing Resources – OARS Tokens and MI Rulers’. Thanks to all of those people who got back to us expressing interest […]

Motivational Interviewing Resources – OARS Tokens and MI Rulers

Are you looking for innovative ways to up-skill yourself or your staff in Motivational Interviewing? Perhaps your wanting help with specific clients who seem stuck. Well, our new MI resource […]

Making behaviour change sticky

Here’s a question… What do you do after learning something new? Answer: I bet you go back to doing what it is that you usually do the whole time thinking, “that […]

Small numbers of family violence offenders create big impact!

Over the summer I received a tweet from the Sentencing Council in Victoria which reported half of reported domestic violence harm was caused by 2% of offenders. The report, by […]

Mindful Facilitation

Have you ever walked into a group session and found yourself in reactive mode to one or more of the participants? Have you ever walked away from a session, knowing you […]

MI in groups – Chris Wagner

Many practitioners have found Motivational Interviewing to be a useful addition to their work. While MI has become almost standard care over the past years, it is an individualized approach […]

Training waste – an expense we cannot afford

How often have we turned up to run or been part of a training event where you experience the following: Participants have been told they need to attend and they […]

Wanting to be SAFE within your relationships – a free website for men

  Many years ago when I wrote a self-help book for men titled ‘Feeling angry, playing fair’. It was written for men struggling with patterns of abusive practice in their […]

HMA launches new website

We are excited. Today we launch our new website (www.hma.co.nz). Over the past three months we have been working with Wired Internet Group to rebuild our website so that it […]

Working with discord – Ken interviews Daryl about returning to a life of crime

This months DVD on motivational interviewing focuses upon the notion of discord and the challenges of engaging with a client who is deciding on where to go next after spending […]

MI Oceania presentations now online

Thanks to everyone who attended either the MINT sponsored TNT, MITI4 coding workshop and/or the 4th International Symposium on Motivational Interviewing that was held in Melbourne during August. These events provided a […]

Anxiety robs us of our empathy

I spend a lot of time working in the criminal justice area with staff around general offending or family violence. The literature from the motivational interviewing field teaches us that […]

Our big successes

People often ask me, “What do you do?”. Putting this into a two minute pitch is often difficult. When asked I say our team is about enhancing community safety and […]

Case study on HMA features on Totara site

As you will know Hall McMaster & Associates (HMA) is a niche consulting agency. HMA provide programme design, training and mentoring to New Zealand and overseas governments in the important areas of criminal justice, family violence prevention, motivational interviewing and parenting. We are […]

Last chance registrations for ISMI

Registrations for the International Symposium of Motivational Interviewing (ISMI) close this weekend! The 4th ISMI will be held in Melbourne on Friday 7 August at the Treacy Centre in Parkville. […]

17 years six months

I was looking at my LinkedIn profile and was surprised to discover that 17 years and six months was the length of time since Suzanne and I formed Hall McMaster […]

Time running out to get on the MINT Training for New Trainers Workshop: 4-6 August 2015

Is MI a core part of your practice? Do you love MI? Share MI? Train others in MI? Want to join like-minded colleagues? The MINT Endorsed TNT is the first […]

Spotlight on the International Symposium on Motivational Interviewing: 7 August 2015

Do you use MI? Have conversations about change in your role? Want to know more? Go beyond the basics with this stimulating one day program on applications of MI. When […]

Spotlight on the MITI4 Workshop: 4-6 August 2015

Do you want to deepen your understanding of the elements of MI? Review how you’re going? Coach others MI? Conduct research on MI? Then the MITI 4 workshop could be […]

Online enrolments for Melbourne MI events now open

You are now able to enrol online with the early bird rate for the upcoming Melbourne Motivational Interviewing events here. The two events currently open are: Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity […]

A lot happening in the Motivational Interviewing space

We are delighted to confirm three exciting professional development opportunities will be held on 4-7 August 2015 by the newly formed MI Oceania, a not for profit group interested in […]

Rules or values – what works best in developing group culture

Have you ever struggled developing group rules or ground rules for the programmes you are facilitating? Often we establish rules, write them on flipchart paper, and then ignore them for […]

17 year anniversary – a time of reflection

Over the past couple of weeks I have been getting a number of congratulations on LinkedIn acknowledging my work anniversary of leading the HMA team. It is amazing to think […]

MI Oceania website goes live

MI Oceania was formed by the local members of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). This non-profit group covers Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific Islands. The founding […]

Stephen Rollnick Free MI resource online

The British Medical Journal has a free one hour module on MI with Steve Rollnick. This is a nice introduction to MI that anyone can access. Register first here:http://learning.bmj.com/learning/home.html Then […]

Practitioner Interview Video Series – Male Sexual Assault

In support of Sexual Violence Awareness Month, Living Well are pleased to release a new Practitioner Interview Series of videos for those meeting and working with men sexually abused in childhood and […]

Motivational Interviewing Intermediate Workshop Auckland 19 – 20 November 2014

This rare opportunity to attend a public workshop with Ken is limited to 20 participants. This workshop is for participants who have been using MI for a time and are […]

Aviva and Pillars do our sector proud

Big heads up to Nicola and team at Aviva being named the region’s top charity in the medium-to-large category at the annual business awards in Christchurch last night. Aviva (formerly Christchurch […]

Thanks for doing what you do

I am often asked why I keep the pace on doing what I do. My response is: “It is all about you.”  What sits behind this for me are the […]

Two workshop opportunities with Ken McMaster

These days I spend most of my time running learning and development workshops for organisations across Australia and New Zealand. I therefore haven’t had time during the past year to […]

Exciting developments around motivational interviewing

Over the past six months the group of us MINTees (Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers members) from Australasia have been busy on several projects to bring greater awareness and accessibility […]

A restorative justice approach to family violence: Changing tack

This volume provides an essential update on current thinking, practice and research into the use of restorative justice in the area of family violence. It contains contemporary empirical, theoretical and […]

A resolution approach to family violence

Consider the following scenario: A woman survivor of domestic violence approaches your service seeking assistance. Her son, aged eight, has just completed a children’s program to express/work through the violence […]

Self talk that keeps us stuck

I am currently preparing to run a workshop on motivational interviewing for prison officers who are about to manage a unit for prisoners with mental health issues. In my research […]

App for men who have been sexually abused or sexually assaulted

I am always impressed by the fantastic work that the team at Living Well in Queensland are doing to support men who have been sexually abuse or sexually assaulted. This app, […]

Restorative conferences continue to empower victims

I have always been a strong supporter of restorative processes since the time HMA worked on the design of the original pilot programme for the Ministry of Justice back in […]

Best practice for family violence intervention

Sit around with a group of family violence practitioners (not those perpetrating violence) and ask them to describe what best practice looks like and you will get a range of […]

Restorative conferences for psychopaths

Imagine putting an offender who has little ability to express empathy and a victim together to talk about the impact of the crime committed. I’m not sure about your initial […]

The things dads give us

My dad died on Boxing Day eight years ago. The day we buried him next to my mother, was the day I stopped smoking for good. Every Xmas I take […]

Intimate terrorism even happens to the rich and famous

The jokes have been flying around recently about Nigella (‘Higella’) Lawson and her very public court case with her ex: Charles Saatchi. As most of you will know it involves […]

Protection Orders – Do they work?

Edward Livingstone came back to his ex-partner’s house in the quiet suburb of St Leonards in Dunedin. He had been separated for the past year. He had a shotgun. Katherine, […]

Men and boys do have a place in violence prevention

“Engaging boys and men to prevent violence against women has been identified internationally as one of the top 20 ‘practice innovations’ in violence and injury prevention during the last 20 years. Violence […]

Have you signed the pledge

Today of course is White Ribbon Day, a day of remembrance of men’s violence towards women. It is also a day where we take stock of the appalling statistics, recognising […]

“Will they do it again” (new stock arrived)

We have had renewed interest in this book around risk assessment and management. We decided to do another small print run. Every day we are bombarded with the reality that […]

Reintegration of offenders back into the community

The puzzle of what works in the reintegration of prisoners back into the community is a major issue facing a number of jurisdictions. A small study of 26 prisoners released […]

7 Challenges of online learning

Learner flexibility is recognised as a key need for fast changing workplaces. Keeping up with new ideas is challenging for all of us. E-learning provides us with an efficient and […]

MI is not a decisional balance

In their 2009 paper, ‘Ten Things that Motivational Interviewing Is Not’ Miller and Rollnick, noted that one of the things that MI is not is the notion of decisional balance, […]

‘He just gets me’ – The layering of psychological abuse

“He makes me laugh. He makes me cry. He makes me feel beautiful. I love him like I have never loved anyone before. If he doesn’t get out do I […]

Effective Interventions with Offenders – New Stock has arrived

The view of the 1970s and ’80s – that in terms of rehabilitation programmes, nothing works – continues to exert an influence that is no longer deserved. Over the last […]

Videos of presentations from ISMI 2013 available

Open source and rendering practice ideas visible have always been important to us at HMA. We therefore decided as part of the hosting group for the 3rd International Symposium on […]

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