Michael Torres

Working in the domestic violence sector, almost all funding and programs for Indigenous people are focused on women–leaving out Indigenous men. I’m celebrating my twentieth year working with Darwin Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Women’s Shelter (DAIWS) in the family violence sector providing individual counselling and programs for Indigenous men. There were no culturally appropriate programs or culturally safe places for men to get support and undertake healing when I first started work in this sector.

Many Indigenous men are disconnected from themselves, family, community and culture and require wrap around services to address their needs. By providing counselling, therapeutic groups, mentoring, general support and referrals to other services, clients are supported with their healing journey. Through this process clients reconnect with themselves first and may reconnect with family and community.

When I first started work with Darwin Aboriginal Women’s Shelter as a family violence counsellor in 2005, my role was to engage with the partners of the women coming into the shelter. I didn’t have an office to see clients, so I undertook home visits. That didn’t work too well because only some men would engage. I went on to network with other agencies and formed many partnerships. Community Corrections allowed me to use their interview rooms for counselling men on probation and parole.

Six months later at the end of 2005, DAIWS was able to lease a vacant building where I facilitated weekly groups. My weekly program quickly filled up to 30 participants. There were no men’s programs in Darwin at that time and I received referrals from the two drug rehabilitation centres, community corrections and self-referrals. I therefore negotiated with the rehabilitation centres to facilitate programs at their centres and have one open group for correctional clients and self-referrals.

Through the counselling process I identified some common issues: family and relationships, anger, alcohol and other drug misuse, anxiety, depression, mental disorders, trauma and poverty. I also identified that Indigenous men feel more comfortable speaking with other Indigenous men in a culturally safe environment.

I facilitated three groups per week for the whole year every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings. I managed the rest of my time for individual counselling and administration. I worked solo for ten years until we were successful with one grant submission. It was difficult: I had no office for the first six months and undertook outreach visits to clients and agencies. It was my responsibility to make the men’s project work, and I was under pressure to get outcomes and make the project succeed.

I consulted with Indigenous men from 2005 to 2015 regarding their needs and aspirations. The consultations consisted of one-on-one talks, group discussions and feedback from individual clients accessing our service. I received much feedback from men over the years and many valued coming to our service and commented that they would like a men’s healing place in their communities. Their feedback encouraged me to advocate for more services for men. DAIWS was successful and secured a grant to employ another male worker and lease a premises for our men’s programs and in 2016 I established the Indigenous Men’s Healing Shed in Darwin.

The Men’s Healing Shed provides a culturally safe and supportive service for males to heal and learn healthy family and relationship skills as to prevent the incidences of family violence from occurring and reoccurring. The Indigenous Men’s Healing Shed is a place where men can drop in, have a yarn and cuppa, link into mentoring and counselling, and attend weekly programs. Up to 200 men access the service yearly.

As Coordinator Counsellor I manage the Men’s Service and prepare submissions for funding, progress reports, evaluation reports, strategic plans, briefs and develop partnerships with various organisations and supervise and train staff who have worked in my projects since 2014.

I designed the men’s service from the ground up, based on Indigenous men’s needs. Through the counselling process I identified key themes such as violence, abuse, anger, anxiety, depression, alcohol and other drug misuse, mental disorders, trauma and poverty. Many participants need to address their health issues first before they could undertake behaviour management programs. Some men have PTSD, FASD and other mental disorders and require support services from the health system, counsellors and wrap-around services.

I use both western and Indigenous models for healing, such as counselling therapies including Narrative Therapy, Person Centred Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Mindfulness Activities, Meditation, breathwork and relaxation techniques and Indigenous healing activities.

I work with both urban and traditional Indigenous people, and use my cultural knowledge in my practice. I start by having a general discussion with a client regarding our services and then asked them what they would like to talk about. A person may not have the words to express themselves fully, so I ask them to tell me about their culture and community. If the person is a traditional man, I will facilitate his cultural knowledge for healing by asking him to play the didgeridoo or clap sticks and I will facilitate an Indigenous mindfulness activity incorporating talking therapies, music, singing and storytelling. If the person is an urban man I may use a combination of talk therapies, drawing with pencils or crowns and storytelling. The Indigenous healing activities are thousands of years old, and they have elements of talk therapy, art and music therapy, and mindfulness activities as in western models. I find that Indigenous healing models are flexible and have a wide range of activities that incorporate cultural and spiritual healing.

Over the last four years the Advisory Council has developed a National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Action Plan to stop violence against women and children. This is the first time men are considered in the national plan, and the first time funding has been targeted for men’s wellbeing centres. Previously, DV funding was for women and children’s programs only. Statistics show that 85 per cent of perpetrators of domestic violence against women are men. It has been a long and slow journey over the last twenty years advocating for funding and services for men and boys. Men need a culturally safe place to go to get support to address their family and relationship issues, social, emotional and spiritual wellbeing.

Many men are disconnected from themselves, family, community and culture and require wrap around services to address their needs. Therefore, family violence prevention strategies must include a community approach that addresses trauma in individuals, families and communities. Healing activities can incorporate both Western and Indigenous ways of healing. Partnerships should be developed with Indigenous people through a genuine co-design process that respects and supports local cultural governance, self-determination and empowers communities to drive change. Indigenous people must be supported to lead the way in developing services to create real and lasting change for Indigenous people and communities.

Author Biography

Michael Torres has worked in Indigenous Affairs for some 40 years visiting communities between Broome and Darwin in Northern Australia. He has worked for government and non-government organisations in various positions providing grant administration, project management and counselling.

He first worked in the Family Violence area in the year 2000 at the Men’s Outreach Service in Broome WA. He moved to Darwin and currently works for Darwin Aboriginal & Islander Women’s Shelter (DAIWS) providing counselling and programs for Indigenous men since 2005.

He is the Coordinator counsellor of Darwin Aboriginal Women’s Shelter’s Indigenous Men’s Programs. He developed the Indigenous Men’s Healing Shed in 2016. The Healing Shed employs an Indigenous male counsellor and two Indigenous male mentor trainers who provide individual counselling, healing activities and deliver three programs per week for Indigenous men, brotherboys and sistergirls.

He uses Western and Indigenous models for healing Indigenous men. He believes that supporting men to heal first, is the way forward in developing and maintaining safe relationships, families and communities.