Beyond Violence+
Description
A gender-responsive, trauma-informed treatment program for mental health, addiction, and domestic violence professionals working within the criminal justice system
Beyond Violence+: A Prevention Program for Justice-Involved Women and Gender-Diverse People is the revised and expanded version of the evidence-based Beyond Violence (2013). The expansion includes additional sessions focusing on suicide prevention, parenting, relationships in prison, and gender diversity. This treatment program is specifically developed for those who have committed aggressive or violent crimes and are in prisons, jails, and community correctional settings.
The curriculum applies the Social-Ecological Model to understand violent impulses and their management. This same conceptual model is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and by researchers affiliated with the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). This four-level violence prevention model considers the complex interplay between individual, relationship, community, and societal factors. It addresses key issues that put women at risk of experiencing or perpetrating violence.
The Beyond Violence+ program consists of 27 group sessions. Facilitators receive the background information and content necessary to lead practical and effective sessions, and the Participant Workbook allows women to process, record, and refer back to their therapeutic group experiences. By the end of the program, participants will have new skills in communication, conflict resolution, de-escalation, decision-making, and self-soothing. They also will have a newfound understanding of themselves, their backgrounds, and the paths forward in their lives.
Stephanie S. Covington, PhD, LCSW, is an internationally recognized clinician, consultant, lecturer, author, and pioneer in addiction, trauma, and recovery. For more than 35 years, she has created gender-responsive and trauma-informed programs and services. She has also consulted for the Federal Bureau of Prisons, the California Department of Corrections, and many other institutions nationally and internationally. She has published extensively, including 10 gender- and trauma-focused interventions, and co-authored a three-year research project, Gender-Responsive Strategies: Research, Practice, and Guiding Principles for Women Offenders, for the National Institute of Corrections. Her latest book is Hidden Healers: The Unexpected Ways Women in Prison Help Each Other Survive.
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Praise for Beyond Violence+
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Dr. Covington has dedicated her career to advocating for women and girls who are incarcerated (and otherwise caught up in the system). Her passion and brilliance have never wavered, with each new publication and training providing the latest research for assisting this still too often invisible and neglected population. Dr. Covington continues to challenge the status quo and sees these women and girls as much more than the society and systems that oppress them. I'm thrilled that she is releasing this new work that is, once again, stellar!
-Joanne Belknap, PhD
Professor Emerita of Ethnic Studies, University of Colorado-Boulder
Past President and Fellow of the American Society of Criminology
Author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice (currently in its 5th edition)
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Beyond Violence+ presents a transformative opportunity for women engaged in an alternative to incarceration intensive treatment program. Through this resource, individuals are guided to explore and comprehend their trauma, illuminating the pathways and experiences that led to their involvement in the criminal legal system. Covington's approach is accessible and comprehensive, offering a simplified yet profound understanding of complex issues. Each topic is meticulously addressed, making it a valuable and targeted resource. Facilitators have reported observable changes in the individuals served, highlighting the program's effectiveness. Clients, in turn, can make meaningful connections to their lives and behaviors, fostering personal growth and healing.
-June Seibert, Clinical Supervisor
Women In Recovery
Tulsa, Oklahoma
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If you work in a criminal justice setting, especially one that focuses on women and gender-diverse populations, then Dr. Covington's work is critically important. She has been successfully integrating trauma-responsive approaches to this population for decades, and her work is both practical and well-informed. She offers clear ideas for managing the challenges you will likely encounter in a group setting while providing the theoretical underpinning for understanding those challenges.
-Sandra Bloom, MD
Associate Professor, Health Management & Policy
Dornsife School of Public Health, Drexel University
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With Beyond Violence+, Dr. Covington has again developed a curriculum -that is timely, insightful, and thoughtful in its contribution to the healing and hope of incarcerated individuals. The focus on women and gender-diverse populations provides a powerful tool for trained facilitators to guide participants through a journey of hope that "sees" the person in all their complexity and woundedness. The attention to self-care, safety in self-disclosure, and the many guiding exercises allow for measured yet profound insights. Dr. Covington makes an immeasurable contribution to impacting lives that can thrive beyond the violence and pain of their past. This updated work fills a need for thoughtful practitioners committed to supporting women and diverse populations as they heal.
-Andie Moss
Founder and CEO
The Moss Group, Inc.
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Dr. Covington has taken her already outstanding, time-tested Beyond Violence program for incarcerated individuals who have traditionally been placed in segregated housing due to their behavior and updated it to reflect the diverse population seen within women's institutions today. Additionally, the included Facilitator's Guide in Beyond Violence+ is simple to follow yet comprehensive, starting with updated historical background information on women and violence, and women and crime, and then on to the very detailed 27 lesson plans that set up and move the treatment group through their trauma and how it has affected their connections with themselves, and then over the ensuing weeks connections with their children and others.
With Beyond Violence+, Dr. Covington continues to change lives.
-Dawn S. Davison
Former Warden, California Institution for Women
Chairperson, Just Detention International
Correctional Expert Consultant
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A pioneer in trauma-informed and gender-responsive treatment for prisoners, Covington has brought an immensely important, timely, and valuable resource to the field. Beyond Violence+ offers an updated approach to working with imprisoned women that is an easily adaptable resource. Beyond Violence+ provides the opportunity for incarcerated women to understand and relate their own experiences to their justice system involvement and begin a journey toward recovery. It addresses substance abuse disorders and gender diversity, as well as trauma, in new and insightful ways. Covington's work is thoughtful, sensitive, and well-organized. It provides facilitators with tools that are understandable and usable. Her work is, as always, smart and on target.
-Martin F. Horn
Distinguished Lecturer, John Jay College of Criminal Justice,
New York, NY; former Secretary of Corrections, State of Pennsylvania
and former Correction Commissioner, City of New York
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Beyond Violence+ addresses a widely ignored but crucial aspect of women's healing as they traverse through the criminal justice system. It provides a tangible and effective path for women to move beyond the grip of anger and the destructiveness of violence toward self-realization and empowerment. It is an important addition to any provider's tool kit!
-Lorraine Robinson, MSW
Former Executive Director
Ka Hale Ho`ala Hou No Na Wahine (the home of reawakening for women)
Honolulu, Hawaii
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In this edition of Beyond Violence+, Dr. Covington guides treatment and healing for a critical and often-ignored segment of those entangled in the criminal justice system-women and gender-diverse persons who have been convicted of violent crimes. Here, Dr. Covington offers a keen understanding of these complexities in providing hope and concrete steps in healing the trauma and consequences of violence and anger. By creating pathways away from suffering and towards personal healing and prevention of future victimization, Beyond Violence+ provides practitioners and therapists with the tools for personal transformation. Building on an understanding of our increasing knowledge of the cycle of violence for gendered persons, this expanded edition includes steps to address the role of gender diversity and trauma. As an evidence-based practice, Dr. Covington's programs provide light in the often-dark world of criminal justice programs.
-Barbara Owen, PhD
Professor Emerita Department of Criminology
California State University-Fresno
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With creativity, depth, and wisdom, Dr. Covington builds on her previous evidence-based work to create an updated and inclusive intervention specifically designed with and for women, transgender, and nonbinary people who have been incarcerated for violent crimes, the majority of whom are victims of violence themselves. Part of what is so compelling about Stephanie's work is the ease with which she distills such a vast wealth of knowledge and experience-including up-to-date research, cutting-edge theory, clinical expertise, and the voices of women talking about their lives-into such a clear, accessible, and profoundly touching and effective treatment program. With grace, honesty, and compassion, Beyond Violence+ offers an island of reflection and safety for people to explore the impact of violence on their lives, develop new understanding and skills, and create a larger sense of community to support and nurture these changes.
-Carole Warshaw, MD
Director, National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health
Executive Director, Domestic Violence & Mental Health Policy Initiative Chicago, IL
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Stephanie Covington has really done it this time! She has developed a curriculum on anger and violence that does not emphasize "managing" anger at all. Instead, she accompanies women and gender-diverse people as they move behind their rage to see where it comes from and beyond to create new relationships and envision new communities. Drawing on her broad-ranging experiences with women in all phases and places in life, she has distilled into a 27-session (54-hour) group all that a person might need to deal more effectively with the impact of trauma and abuse that likely underlies much of their anger.
Dr. Covington takes the multiple contexts of violence and anger seriously. This is more than a theoretical set of commitments (though the theory is laid out nicely); it reflects a much larger commitment to understanding the lives of women and gender-diverse people from the inside out.
This is a participant's workbook and a facilitator's guide jam-packed with information, activities, and ideas to engage people in their own exploration. It is an inviting and...
