The New York State Office of Victim Services (OVS) is pleased to announce a new training course for legal advocates and allied professionals from OVS-funded organizations. 

In partnership with NYU, NYLAG and Columbia University, Trauma Responsive Lawyering is an 8-session virtual training (Fridays, January 22 – March 12, 2021) led by mental health and legal experts who serve interpersonal violence (IPV) survivors and their families. 

This program is open to legal advocates from OVS-funded organizations and sessions are geared toward both newer and more experienced legal professionals. Sessions are free of charge, and Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits, including diversity and inclusion credits, will be provided to those who meet eligible criteria.

Training 3: Revictimization, February 5, 12-2 pm EST

Survivors of violence have increased vulnerabilities for re-victimization and increase risk for mental health, physical health, social, occupational, and legal impacts for the same. Identifying these vulnerabilities will enable legal advocates to more fully respond to survivor’s needs, link them with supportive resources early on in their work with them, and understand a survivor’s reaction to re-victimization as it may appear throughout our work with them.

Kate Walsh, PhD, is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Gender & Women's Studies, University of WisconsinMadison, and Director of the Sexual Violence ResearchInitiative at UW Madison. She is a licensed clinical psychologist who earned her PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She completed her T32-funded predoctoral internship in Traumatic Stress at the Medical University ofSouth Carolina and her T32-funded postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School ofPublic Health at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at UW, she was an Assistant Professor at Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology at Yeshiva University and anAdjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University. Her work focuses on risk factors for and outcomes of gender-based violence, with an emphasis on translating findings into effective primary and secondary prevention programs. She also studies the intergenerational impact of violence exposure and has published on pathways from maternal violence exposure and stress to poor fetal and offspring outcomes. She has published 74 peer-reviewed papers and 6 book chapters and has been funded by theNational Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.