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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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

My seven most effective engaging questions

We all know the importance of engagement for successful intervention with people experiencing difficult and challenging behaviour. How easy is it to get off to a wrong start with somebody? […]

Stand to deliver and sit to process

I recently had an email from a colleague in Queensland inquiring about a piece of advice I had given some years during a training session on group facilitation. Two thoughts […]

Getting the most out of therapy

It is easy for us in the helping professions to forget what it is like for  people coming to therapy for the first time. I have always believed in the […]

Breaking news – Now available Motivational Interviewing 3rd edition – Helping People Change

We are pleased to announce that early next week that we will be receiving the first shipment of the new Motivational Interviewing (3rd Edition) into the HMA Bookshop. We have […]

Three phases to enhance completion of interventions

Completion rates for community based programmes for a range of issues are often low (between 30 – 35% for AoD and community based stopping violence programmes) while completion rates for […]

Accountability based practice – setting up a family conversation

In last week’s blog I talked about the concept of accountability based practice that I used as the basis of my address to the recent Violence Against Women conference in […]

10 ways to structure group reflection

Have you ever been in a group situation, the session finishes and you haven’t had the chance to close off the experience, capture your thinking and consider what difference the […]

10 ideas in responding to resistance

Ever felt you were in the hot-seat when talking about challenging issues? I am sure that many of the people we work with find this a really tough assignment  – […]

10 reasons for resistance

In the last blog I discussed resistance to change being a product of the position taken by the counsellor. In this blog I want to explore the myriad of issues […]

Resistance to change – does it exist?

Resistance is a word that gets bandied around a lot in relation to client work. I often hear people talking about how resistant their client is, resistance of the client […]

40 effective facilitation strategies

It is my belief that it is the small things that happen within a group setting that make the difference. Noticing someone, helping a person to realise something not pleasant […]

5 ways to build emotional literacy through using Feeling Face Cards

For many years we have been using these very cool Feeling Face Cards in our group work. We have also been finding ways to integrate their use within the design […]

6 ways to get greater group involvement

Have you ever had a passive group of learners who have been told to turn up rather than self-selecting into the learning opportunity? Or the energy in the group of […]

10 ideas to stretch a group

Asking a group to take ownership over their learning is the key to managing growth, developing cohesion and dealing with challenging behaviour. I have always been interested in finding creative […]

20 strategies for successful facilitation

The art of facilitation is complex. Have you ever found yourself running late, not having things properly prepared, or you don’t have a good feel for the content. I think […]

9 ways to keep group members engaged

Ever had the feeling that the group is not with you? They are physical present but their heads seem somewhere else? I imagine that if you have been running groups […]

8 ways to learn names of group members

You are about to start a group. People start to arrive and you check them off your list. Apart from the person who came early while you are getting ready, […]

From Ken’s Desk November 2010

Whenever I meet people, and talk about the work that I do in designing intervention programmes and training people in programme delivery for those who offend, the question is, “What […]

Celebrating turning up or helping the helpers

Every week throughout New Zealand/Aotearoa, men and women sit in agencies working with men who have been abusive within their families. Think of all those facilitators heading out the door […]

Good Training

Mark Tisdall, one of the HMA Associates reflects upon what makes good training. When I first read Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything in 2003 I thought I […]

What makes respondent programmes effective

Garth Baker This report summarises the findings of recent research on intervention programmes for men using domestic violence. Drawing on the latest Canada and the USA evaluations, along with recent […]

Shifting practice – thoughts on stopping violence work

Mike Cagney has a long history of working in the area of child protection, family violence and sex offender intervention. Last year Mike addressed the National Network of Stopping Violence […]

In the thick of it – reflections from Papua New Guinea

Sam Farmer has been one of our key associates for a number of years. He hails from the United Kingdom and has a background in social work and psychology. Sam […]

Conversations about abusive practice

You are a social worker from a small rural provider, who suspects that within a family you are working with that violence is occurring. In the situation the social worker […]

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