The purpose of this workshop is to give workers a number of practical tools for assessing and working with families who are dealing with the impact of violence in their lives.  Participants will learn how to develop a framework for understanding family violence and how to communicate with children to assess their coping.  Both will be done using existing case studies.  Four interventions will be discussed, including: 1) Validating mother and child’s experiences, 2) building on individual strengths, 3) developing personal control and 4) exploring individual options.  This workshop will explore the issues of helping the mother and father re-define their roles with feelings as a family, finding non-violent ways of communicating.