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 7: Vicarious Trauma, March 12, 12-2 pm EST

Working with IPV can lead to personal and professional growth. Moreover, it gives legal professionals the rewarding opportunity to work with a resilient population capable of making enormous changes in their lives. However, learning about cruelty, humiliation, abandonment, vulnerability and pain, and the devastating impact that abuse has on individuals, families and societies is not free of challenges. The same way abuse affects the individuals who have experienced it, working with IPV survivors can deeply transform the lives of legal providers working with them. This presentation will focus on providers’ response to working with IPV survivors and individual and organizational strategies to prevent and address providers’ responses to working with traumatized clients, as well as burn-out.

Rosa Regincos, MA, LCSW is a Licensed Master Clinical SocialWorker by New York State and an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychiatric Social Work at Columbia University, Psychiatry department. Ms. Regincos is also a Clinical Psychologist licensed by the University of Barcelona', Spain.Ms. Regincos works in private practice in NYC treating adults with and anxiety disorders and complex trauma. She integrates trauma, mindfulness, skills-based, cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic approaches. She is intensively trained in evidence-based trauma interventions with adults and children treatments. She is EMDR certified by EMDRIA.Her clinical interests include women’s mental health in the perinatal period and attachment trauma. She is part of the supervision and consultation team for an initiative from The Mayor’s Office to Combat Domestic and Gender Violence in NYC and provides supervision to faculty at the Women’s Program at CU and lectures to psychiatrist residents. 

Tamar Lavy, MD, ABIHM works as a psychiatrist on nativeLenape lands in NYC. She practices in the public sector serving survivors of gender-based violence at the FamilyJustice Center in Staten Island. Her approach is grounded in knowledge of systems of oppression, psychodynamic theories, and dialogic peer-supported frameworks of care.She also offers collaborative person-directed drug tapering support to transgender and formerly incarcerated people. Her participation today honours her ancestors amongst whom areHolocaust, totalitarian communism, and military-related torture survivors, and ghetto uprising leaders. Tammy has additional specialization in Integrative and Holistic Medicine.