Serving the Latino community
Since 1995 it has been my honor to research intervention with Latino partner abusive men and to create solutions to this widespread problem, together with many of my colleagues here in the US and in Mexico, Guatemala and Peru. Sin Golpes is the Spanish-language treatment program for Latino men that resulted from a four-year pilot study based on my doctoral dissertation in 1999. My esteemed colleague David Wexler, Ph.D., allowed me to use his STOP Domestic Violence program as the foundation of the new program, and cultural adaptations were added based on my qualitative research. Latino men both in the US and Latin America generally respond very well to the model, which emphasizes a cognitive-behavioral skills-based approach, along with the respect of the therapist and group that springs from self-psychology, and a focus on human rights. In November of 2014, the first group of trainers was certified in Durango, Mexico, to teach the use of the Sin Golpes model to therapists and other professionals in Mexico and wherever they are invited. All of the five certified trainers have at least 4 years’ experience working with Mexican men or women offenders in the states of Durango, San Luis Potosí, and Jalisco. This year we hope to be able to complete the first phase of a longitudinal treatment outcome study, with participants from offenders’ groups in various parts of Mexico. I am very grateful for my colleagues in various parts of Latin America who have responded to the great need for treatment for those who are violent to their partners and who are passionate about expanding this work as much as possible.
Jul 28, 2016 @ 21:59:54
Christauria, is it very interesting to hear about your work in México. have you ever tried to publish an intervention protocol? I and a colleague of mine recently conducted research on perpetrator programs in Latin America and the Caribbean. One of the things we encountered is that most of the intervention protocols are only available online, and that there are private or civil associations in México that appear not to have their association’s information readily available, and when this happens for some reason they cannot be easily tracked down through mainstream search engines (e.g. Google). Anyway, I am very happy for the work you and your team are doing in Durango.