3 Standard Units
Understanding Domestic Violence/Abuse in the Context of Family Law Cases: A Trauma- and Personality-Informed Approach
Presenter - Megan Hunter - High Conflict Institute
Chair: Melissa Boyle - Hugh Burton Chambers
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Domestic violence is explored through the lends of trauma and externalizing high conflict personalities. Understanding the lack of impulse control, inability to control intense emotions that lead to extreme behaviors, and the fear-based “operating system” in those who are involved in domestic violence.
This workshop/seminar focuses on four high conflict personality (HCP) types that may be involved in domestic violence, including: borderline, narcissistic, histrionic and antisocial. Not all with these disorders are violent but those who are high conflict personalities are the most likely to be seen in family court. Each type will be described in detail, including coercive controlling violence (the most severe type of DV); true and false allegations of violence; and personality types that are attracted to each other. The goal of this workshop is to help professionals gain insight into those who are dominated by reactivity and dominance rather than reasoning and stopping themselves.
Results from a survey that was conducted for the book, Dating Radar, by Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq., and Megan Hunter, MBA, will be provided.
About the Presenter:
Megan Hunter is an international speaker and author on the topic of high-conflict relationships in legal and business disputes. She is cofounder of the High Conflict Institute along with author and speaker, Bill Eddy, LCSW, Esq. who developed the high-conflict personality theory. Megan developed the concept of the Institute after 13 years in family law as the Family Law Specialist with the Arizona Supreme Court, and Child Support Manager of the Dawes County Attorney’s Office in Nebraska.
Megan has trained legal, mental health, business, leadership groups, universities and other professionals across the United States, Canada and Australia in the area of high-conflict legal and business disputes. She is publisher at HCI Press and founder/CEO of Unhooked Media and Unhooked Books focusing on providing digital and print publications on the topics of high-conflict disputes and complicated relationships.
She holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix and a Bachelor’s of Business and Economics from Chadron State College, Chadron, Nebraska. She served as President of the Arizona Chapter of the Association of Family & Conciliation Courts, the Arizona Family Support Council and Nebraska Child Support Enforcement Association. More recently, she served 5 years on the Arizona Board of Psychologist Examiners and is on the Advisory Board of the Personality Disorder Awareness Network. Her first book, Bait & Switch: Saving Your Relationship after Incredible Romance Turns into Exhausting Chaos was published in March 2015.