ODL 422: Domestic Violence and Intimate Partner Violence: Trauma-Informed Identification, Safety Planning, and Ethical, Interdisciplinary Practice for Helping Professionals

Created On:  6/23/2026                  

Target Audience:

This course is targeted for social workers, psychologists, counselors, nurses and case managers.

Counselor Skill Groups: 

4. Counseling Services
5. Documentation
6. Case Management
7. Discharge and Continuing Care

Overview:

Domestic violence (DV), including intimate partner violence (IPV), is a pervasive public health and human services concern that intersects with trauma, mental health, substance use, chronic health conditions, child welfare, housing instability, immigration stressors, and economic insecurity. Helping professionals across healthcare, behavioral health, and social services are frequently the first or most trusted points of contact for individuals experiencing DV/IPV. Effective response requires a survivor-centered, trauma-informed approach that prioritizes safety, autonomy, and dignity while navigating ethical responsibilities, documentation standards, and interdisciplinary coordination.

This training provides an evidence-informed, trauma-responsive, and culturally attuned framework for recognizing DV/IPV patterns (including coercive control), using safe and appropriate screening approaches, conducting risk appraisal for escalation and lethality, and implementing practical, survivor-defined safety planning. Participants will also address considerations for diverse populations and contexts (e.g., LGBTQ+ survivors, older adults, individuals with disabilities, rural communities, and culturally/linguistically diverse clients), along with ethical decision-making, confidentiality and privacy considerations, mandated reporting parameters as applicable by role and jurisdiction, and strategies to reduce bias, enhance engagement, and prevent secondary traumatic stress.

Course Objectives:

By the end of the session, the participant will be able to:

• Differentiate common patterns of DV/IPV using accepted terminology and practice frameworks.
• Identify behavioral, psychological, and contextual indicators of DV/IPV.
• Demonstrate at least two strategies to ask about DV/IPV in a way that prioritizes safety, autonomy, and dignity and is trauma-informed and culturally responsive. 
• List key escalation/lethality indicators and select appropriate next steps when immediate danger is suspected.
• Give examples of a survivor-centered safety plan that addresses immediate safety, digital/privacy safety, children and dependent-care considerations, pets, and common barriers to leaving. 
• Integrate ethical decision-making into DV/IPV response by analyzing confidentiality, informed consent, professional boundaries, documentation, and collaboration dilemmas consistent with professional ethical standards and applicable laws/regulations.

Presenter:

Jessica Loftus, LICSW

Jessica Loftus (she/her), LICSW, has spent the last 20 years of her work as a clinical social worker committed to supporting survivors of gender-based violence and complex trauma in refugee camps, domestic violence shelters, trauma-specific services, and within healthcare. Jessica was the Program Director of Violence Intervention and Prevention Programs at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, until March 2025, when the hospital system undertook structural reorganization. She is currently a Senior Clinical Social Worker at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and sees clients in private practice. As the co-founder of the Adelante Project, Jessica has sought to develop creative and meaningful healthcare-based services for people who have experienced all forms of exploitation and human trafficking, and to develop and change systems that care for these survivors. Jessica is an expert in clinical care for survivors of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, and complex trauma. She holds a Master of Social Work from Boston College Graduate School of Social Work and a Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College.