GBV Violence Conference Bios
Dr. Peter Jaffe
Dr. Peter Jaffe is a psychologist, Professor Emeritus, and one of the founding Directors of the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women & Children in the Faculty of Education at Western University (London Ontario, Canada). He has co-authored eleven books, 40 chapters and over 80 articles related to domestic violence, the impact of domestic violence on children, homicide prevention and the role of the criminal and family justice systems. For the past 30 years, he has presented workshops across the United States and Canada, as well as Australia, New Zealand, Costa Rica and Europe to various groups including judges, lawyers, health, mental health professionals and educators. Since 1999, he has been on faculty for the National Council of Juvenile & Family Court Judges in the US for judicial education programs entitled “Enhancing Judicial Skills in Domestic Violence Cases”. He was a founding member of Ontario’s Chief Coroner’s Domestic Violence Death Review Committee. He has also been instrumental in developing violence prevention programs for schools. Together with David Wolfe, Claire Crooks and Ray Hughes, he helped in the development of “The Fourth R: Skills for Youth Relationships”, a school-based curriculum targeting multiple forms of violence, including bullying, dating violence and peer violence. The curriculum is being used in over 5,000 schools in Canada and the US. In 2009, he was named an Officer in the Order of Canada by the Governor General for his work preventing domestic violence in the community.
Lisa Heslop
Lisa joined the team at the Centre for Research and Education on Violence Against Women and Children at Western University (CREVAWC) following a long career managing a clinical crisis intervention team with the London Police Service. Lisa co-leads initiatives at CREVAWC related to family violence and family law. Lisa is a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Toronto (OISE), where her primary research focuses on assessing risk of intimate partner violence (IPV) recidivism. She is the co-author of articles and book chapters related to gender-based violence and its impact; trauma and violence informed practice; and the criminalization of persons with mental illness. She is a member of the Clinical Panel of the Office of the Children’s Lawyer, was a member of the National Police Framework Committee on Intimate Partner Violence, and the recipient of the Canadian Association Chiefs of Police Award for Research Excellence.
Rosa Elena Arteaga
Rosa Elena Arteaga has been working in the anti-violence field for over twenty years. She delivers workshops on gender-base violence, trauma-informed narrative therapy and IPV prevention and intervention skills-based approach to service providers at national and international level. Rosa Elena is the Director of Clinical Practice with a non-profit anti-violence women’s organization where she supervises a multi-disciplinary team. She is also a long time Vancouver School for Narrative Therapy faculty member. She has developed a powerfully innovative narrative therapy informed social justice/feminist inspired therapeutic practice to support girls and women of all ages, and diverse backgrounds who are experiencing complex trauma and GBV. Rosa Elena guides participants far beyond popular ideas on trauma informed therapy by situating the complexities of GBV and trauma within cultural, racial and gender politics. Rosa Elena trains and supervises world wide in both Spanish and English.
Tod Augusta-Scott, MSW, RSW
Tod has worked alongside the Bridges Board of Directors build an organization dedicated to the ideal that abuse in relationships can be stopped and repair is possible. As the Lead Clinical Therapist, Tod encourages the counseling team to learn from each other and to share their successes and struggles in this difficult work.
Tod has become known internationally for his work with Bridges and other organizations and government agencies that address gender-based violence. His work integrates narrative therapy, trauma work and restorative justice into the field of domestic violence. Over the last twenty years he has published and presented his work internationally (Asia, Europe, British Isles, America) and presented in every province in Canada. He is the co-founder of the Canadian Domestic Violence Conference. He also works as a civilian therapist with the Canadian Armed Forces. He has taught in the Department of Social Work, Dalhousie University and is a guest speaker in classes on a regular basis.
Tod is the co-editor and a contributor to the critically acclaimed books Narrative Therapy: Making Meaning, Making Lives (Sage Publications, 2007) and Innovations in Interventions to Address Intimate Partner Violence: Research and Practice (Routledge Press, 2017). He has been interviewed by various media organizations including the Huffington Post, International Journal of Narrative Therapy, CBC The World at Six, and the Globe and Mail. Tod is a regular reviewer for numerous academic journals. He has created a group manual for working with men who have abused that has been officially adopted by three government departments in Canada. Tod was awarded the Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Association of Social Workers in 2013. His work is featured in the 2017 documentary A Better Man, a film about domestic violence and restorative justice. He received an Award of Excellence for his work on gendered-violence in the Canadian Armed Forces in 2019.
Magi Cooper
Magi Cooper is a Certified Hakomi Trainer and Therapist in private practice. Magi facilitates Respectful Relationships and Relationship Violence Prevention Programs for the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General. Since her first workshop with Jon Eisman in 1992, Magi has been committed to the spiritual principles and practices of Hakomi. Standing firmly in the Hakomi principle of non-violence, she has been an advocate of domestic peace for over 30 years. She brings compassion, mindfulness and loving presence to her work with marginalized populations, as well as a deep understanding of Cedar Barstow’s work around the Right Use of Power. She uses her passion for Hakomi as the underpinning of her work with couples.
Magi has been a strong advocate of domestic peace for over 25 years. Standing firmly in the principles and practices of non-violence, Magi brings compassion, mindfulness and loving presence to her work with marginalized populations. She has a deep understanding of the politics of power based on her own experience and her work with Cedar Barstow, author of Right Use of Power; The Heart of Ethics. Magi lives, works and kayaks on Vancouver Island.