While increasing awareness surrounding gender based violence is important, it is believed that counsellors need to be trained to recognise the complex trauma that survivors experience.

As survivors of domestic violence seek help, it is essential that counsellors adhere to specific guiding principles to provide effective and compassionate support, says Women’s advocate Shamima Ali.

Ali spoke at a Punanga Turuturu Itivaine (PTI) - the women’s counselling and support centre for survivors of gender-based violence (GBV) two weeks workshop focused on gender violence against women and girls, human rights and counsellor training for survivors of violence against women and girls.

Ali who is also the coordinator of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) and chair of the Pacific Women’s Network Against Violence Against Women, led the training programme at the Cook Islands Red Cross Society centre in Tupapa.

“It’s actually very specific that our counsellors, the people that are trained, are able to deal with and respond to survivors of domestic violence and there are certain principles like be survivor centred, confidentiality, and do no harm,” said Ali.

She said “ethics” around the training they use has been issued in the Pacific for over three decades.

“Participants also learnt that when women are raped or through domestic violence violated, that if we take them for counselling and say this is a safe place - there must be women in there.

“Do not refer them to male counsellors because they have just been violated by a male,” said Ali.

She said when women or girls go to a safe space and they feel they’re going to get some help, some solace and so on, “they don’t want to see a man around - and it’s not about choice.

“We have to ensure her safety at this point in time, later on if she wants to then she can.”

 “So, we make sure the female counsellors are always there, these are some of the ethics that we learn.”

According to Ali the Cook Islands has pockets of counsellors but not specifically for GBV.

She recognised that PTI is working hard to increase their support services and is hopeful they could help to provide in those roles.

Her recommendation to PTI is to have “in house counselling” at the office all the time when they are open and not on a volunteer basis. “Woman may not go back if there is no one there,” she added.

“It’s good if people get the qualifications but they have to be sensitised to gender equality, to right space approach, to the dynamics around the issues in domestic violence - having that understanding and using those skills - that is how we going to have effective counselling for women and girls and children,” she said.

“You can’t just get a qualification as a counsellor and say I can do gender based violence – you have to understand the dynamics around those issues.”

Participants also learnt about how to deal with children as well as the different methods used for different ages since their attention span is very small.

“We hope to provide the help and we hope they will do better with this knowledge and understanding,” she said.

Next month, four participants from the Cook Islands will attend a four-week programme on gender violence against women and girls, human rights and counsellor training for survivors, in Fiji. 

Ali shared her top guidelines for counselling survivors of domestic violence:

 - She should first of all be a very good listener

- She should be thoroughly well versed in the dynamics of DV

- She  must have undergone training - that is very important

- She should have compassion and kindness, and empathy not sympathy

- She should be an overall in this area – someone who believes that women are human beings and their rights are important – that there is No reason or excuse whatsoever for the violence that they undergo. –

This year, a Punanga Turuturu Itivaine initiative has awarded five USP Diploma of Counselling scholarships funded by the Green Climate Fund (GCF) project “Akamatutu’anga To Tatou Ora’anga Meitaki (ATOM) – Building a healthy and resilient Cook Islands Community – one block at a time”, to help to improve community mental health support.