We are saying so long to our intern Aimiee and welcoming her replacement, Jessica.  Looking forward to the next 8 months!

-James

Hello all,

Check out this new hub of resources for human trafficking victims:  https://www.canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca/promotional-resources/.  The Peoples' Clinic is listed as a service provider.  

-James  .

We are sad to see our intern Matthew go.  But, we are happy to announce that Kim Gowan will be joining us.  Check out her bio on our staff page.

-James

Dear friends of the Clinic;

The Peoples' Counselling Clinic has built a solid foundation as a counselling agency serving multi-problemed individuals.  This broad mandate, we feel, is necessary to serve the majority of people who access health and social services.  We maintain that fitting people into pre-packaged programs does little to help. 

So what does the Peoples' Clinic do?  We have found our niche to be in forensic mental health practice and trauma.  We offer ManTalk, a group for male-identified individuals who have experienced sexual violence.  We also conduct our Hey Men work for men who show problematic sexual behaviour, including views on sex and gender which are toxic.  We also work with post-adjudicated sex offenders.  

Our forensic work in intimate partner violence, has largely developed through our partnership with the Halifax Domestic Violence Court Programme.  We have a unique approach to blending criminal Justice and community practice ideologies which has made us a welcomed service in this setting.  As a result of this work, we are beginning to see an increase in referrals from allied Justice agencies, such as probation, community Justice, and corrections.  Another group of similar clients we see are adults who were raised in care or who suffered severe disruptions in attachment, or have experienced trauma and loss as children. 

Many of the people we serve have problems which fall somewhere on the lower end of the continuum of offending or problematic behaviours.  These referrals are our priority, and will be served by our interns.  Referrals from Justice where there are more complex forensic or mental health needs will be served by our clinic manager and executive director, two forensic clinicians who have demonstrated relevant competencies for work in this branch of the field.  

-James

So I was on MainStreet, the CBC afternoon radio programme on Thursday March 7, 2019.

They were asking me questions about how victims may respond to their sexual abuse.  The Q&A was in response to a call in segment that they had about the recently aired (or streamed) documentary, Leaving Neverland, that centres on the stories of two men who describe the relationships they had with and the abuse they were subjected to by their friend and abuser Michael Jackson.

Being drawn into the discussion by MainStreet’s invitation left me thinking about the difficulty that the Jackson case raises.  Because Jackson was a globally beloved figure whose artistic legacy literally changed the world and the lives of countless millions, people are having a hard time reconciling his positive influence with the now well articulated and very credible stories that paint him as a serial child sexual abuser.  The truth is more chilling than most people are able to absorb.  It is likely that Jackson was both of these things.

Sexual abusers take many forms.  The idea of sexual abuser typologies is a bit controversial because there is a line of thinking that has taught us that all sex offending is about power and control.  This idea promotes the image of a large, powerful, mean, controlling, forceful individual who achieves their aims through threat and violence.  It is important to understand that this is not always or often the case. 

Most, if not all sexual abusers are broken people.  They are themselves victims of violence or of mal-attachment, disrupted psycho-social and psycho-sexual development.  Some are seeking to meet their needs through the “relationships” that they cultivate with their victims.  When I listen to the descriptions that the victims in the documentary tell, it makes me think of an immature sexual abuser:  An individual who is childlike.  Someone whose psycho-social development was disrupted, such that a large part of their identity remains in a child-like state.  From that state, the individual seeks friendships with their “peers”:  Children who are developmentally at the age with which they identify.  The image of Jackson as a grown man, huddled in the corner, crying because his 7 year old friend and his family are leaving to go home is a scene with which all parents are familiar.  Of course, we’ve had to coax our 7 year olds out of that state, not our grown children.

The problem with immature sexual abusers is that they have the emotional state and needs of young children, but the libidos and sexual urges of grown people.  And it is natural for grown people to have their “relationships” be the places where they discover and meet their sexual needs.  This, of course, does not justify having sex with children.  It does however help us to understand how these abusers work.  Understanding that is key to both prevention and treatment.  Both of the mothers in the documentary allowed the “relationship” between Jackson and their children to develop because of the innocence that Jackson demonstrated.  That child like innocence was not evidence of safety, however.  Quite the opposite, it was evidence of the lack of sexual maturity necessary to maintain proper boundaries with children. 

But let’s not blame the mothers.  Because most sex offenders don’t have horns and tails we don’t readily recognize them.  In fact, we love and trust them and give them access to our children.  And though I hesitate to say that many of these sex offenders don’t know they are harming their victims, I will say that their ability to perceive the reality of what they are doing is disrupted. 

Immature sexual abusers are sympathetic characters, but treating them is not something we do just to serve them.  We treat them to reduce the likelihood that they will perpetrate.  Imagine if Jackson had someone in his life that could have led him to proper treatment early in his life instead of facilitating his access to children and their families.  Not only could the suffering of his victims been avoided, but also Jackson’s suffering could have been avoided.  Perhaps even his life could have been saved. -

-Robert

Getting ready for a discussion on sex and male wellness in the me too era with the guys at Phi Delta Theta.  Here is a panel we spoke on at the DSU not long ago:

https://www.facebook.com/dalstudentunion/videos/585995405164732/

-James

We are thrilled to be partnered with the folks at the Halifax Domestic Violence Court Programme for another year.  More information about the programme can be found on the Courts of Nova Scotia website: 

http://courts.ns.ca/Provincial_Court/NSPC_domestic_violence_court.htm

-James

We are pleased to welcome our newest intern Amiee.  We have student openings in May, 2019 and August, 2019.  If you would like to complete your practicum here, please forward a resume and writing sample and schedule an interview with Robert.

-James