Crisis support is available during business hours. This can include crisis counselling face to face or by phone, assistance to complete applications for domestic and family violence protection orders, assistance to access alternative safe accommodation, and other safety planning. Please be aware that financial relief is not available.

For emergency assistance outside of hours, contact the police on 000, Womensline on 1800 811 811 or Mensline on 1800 600 636

CRDVS offers individual face to face counselling for people who have experienced domestic and family violence. This counselling is free, and people can self refer. Counselling is offered predominantly at Caboolture, with outreach to Pine Rivers on a weekly basis.

Counselling provides a safe place to explore and talk about experiences. People who have shared their stories with us, express appreciation of the value of being heard, understood and believed. We consider that counselling has a role in assisting people to reestablish trust and faith in their own ability to change, heal and overcome difficulties. Counselling is about working collaboratively to generate alternative ideas and work creatively towards your desired change. It is our privilege to share your counselling journey.

Counsellors at CRDVS are guided by the beliefs, values and principles articulated in the philosophy and values of CRDVS.  Our counselling practice frameworks embrace ideas from a range of theories and approaches, including strengths based practice, feminism, constructivist and collaborative approaches, trauma counselling, expressive and creative therapies, and others.

CRDVS provides immediate assistance to people in crisis. For ongoing counselling there may be a waiting time due to high demand.

It is widely acknowledged in contemporary study that children who have lived with domestic and family violence may be as traumatised as being a direct victim.  Exposure to domestic and family violence can impact children's sense of safety, their social, emotional and psychological development, and damage relationships with the non violent caregiver.

The child witness counselling program of CRDVS is aimed at helping children to rediscover their resilience , to process their experiences and to rebuild their relationships with the non violent parent.  Children's counsellors at CRDVS are guided by the beliefs, values and principles articulated in the philosophy and values of CRDVS.  Our counselling practice frameworks embrace ideas from a range of theories and approaches, including strengths based practice, expressive and creative therapies, and others.

The children's counsellors do not undertake court reports or investigative counselling of any kind.

Circumstances where a child has experienced direct sexual abuse will be referred to appropriately specialised sexual abuse services.

To enter the child witness counselling program,  parents will first need to attend a Parent Information Session.  This session will provide details to parents in a group session about the impact of domestic violence on children, the aims and objectives of children's counselling and some ideas about how parents might support their children.  These sessions are provided on a regular basis.

Following the Parent Information Session, parents will be invited to a personal interview with a children's counsellor to discuss the circumstance and experience of their individual child.  After this step, the counsellor and parent will collaboratively decide on when and if counselling is appropriate and how to proceed.

It is important to understand that parents who bring their children to the child witness counselling program will be invited to have individual counselling for themselves, to provide a wholistic response to the family and maximise the possibilities for healing relationships.

Please be aware that there is a waiting list for children's counselling due to the high demand.

Confidentiality for children is important to CRDVS.  There are special arrangements in relation to confidentiality for children.  Please discuss this with the children's counsellors during your parent interview.

Assistance is offered in Caboolture, Redcliffe, Pine Rivers and Sandgate Magistrates Courts to people accessing the domestic and family violence legislation, on designated domestic violence call over days.

Workers are able to assist aggrieved and respondent persons with information about the court process, and appropriate referral information.

Workers at court on these days are also able to assist people to complete applications for domestic and family violence protection orders.

Workers are present in Sandgate Magistrates Court on Tuesdays, Pine Rivers court on Wednesdays, Caboolture and Redcliffe courts on Thursdays.

CRDVS offers a range of community awareness raising and education initiatives. The Service is active in speaking to children in schools about healthy relationships, speaking with allied professionals about the services we offer and providing specialised support for working with issues of domestic and family violence.  CRDVS regularly facilitates an educational domestic and family violence awareness program.

CRDVS is a lead agency in this catchment area for activities during the statewide Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Month, held in May each year. Past projects, as detailed in the Herstory page, have included Where You Go I Go Campaign, Badge Project and most recently, the Ripple Project.

The Centre Against Violence offers the Men Acting Responsibly program. This program provides limited individual counselling and group programs.

The Men Acting Responsibly group is specifically designed for men who have come to realise that violence and abuse in their relationship (past or present) is a concern. This course is for those who would like to change and find new ways of handling conflict in a non abusive way.

Please phone 0419 195 154 for more information.