Domestic Violence Specialists, LLC

Leila offers a range of foundational, practice-based, and advanced trainings designed to support individuals, organizations, and communities responding to relational harm, trauma, and systems of power. These trainings are grounded in interdisciplinary frameworks (including trauma theory, attachment systems, narrative practice, and healing justice) and are designed to meet learners at various levels of experience, from community members and peer supporters to licensed clinicians.

You can explore summaries of each training series below, including foundational modules and full certificate programs. These offerings can be delivered as a complete series or booked a la carte, depending on your organization’s needs.

Leila regularly teaches these trainings in person within my local community and am also available for remote facilitation. Please check this page for upcoming scheduled sessions, or contact me directly if you’d like to bring one of these trainings to your organization or community. Leila welcomes inquiries about customized sessions, collaborations, and multi-session partnerships.

Which Training Level Is Right for You?

Not sure where to begin? Each training level is designed with a different audience and role in mind:

• Community & Lived Experience Level trainings are open to anyone impacted by or supporting others through harm, no professional experience needed. These sessions are grounded, accessible, and focused on building shared understanding, emotional literacy, and community-rooted care.
  
• Advocate / Peer / BSW Level trainings are ideal for people in support roles (advocates, peer specialists, case managers, and early-career social workers) who are offering direct services and navigating complex systems with clients or community members.
  
• Clinical Level trainings are designed for licensed or license-track mental health professionals looking to deepen their trauma-responsive, relational, and anti-oppressive clinical practice with individuals affected by relational violence.
  

If you’re unsure which level fits best, feel free to reach out for guidance.

Training Prerequisite

All participants are required to complete the Foundational Training for their level before enrolling in a certificate series or advanced modules. The foundational training provides essential concepts, shared language, and core frameworks that the series builds upon.

If you’ve already completed a foundational training with Leila in the past, you do not need to retake it. If you’re unsure whether your previous training qualifies, feel free to contact Leila for clarification.

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Foundational Sessions

Description:
This introductory session offers an accessible and welcoming starting point for individuals and communities exploring how harm and healing show up in everyday life. Participants will be introduced to core ideas about how people experience conflict, care, and disconnection, across their bodies, relationships, and social environments. Through accessible concepts and collective learning, this training invites reflection, shared understanding, and the possibility of repair beyond blame.

Who It’s For:
Community members, grassroots organizers, peer supporters, and anyone impacted by or supporting others through relational harm. No professional background required.

What You’ll Learn:

• How relational harm affects our bodies, emotions, and sense of self
• Skills for naming harm without blame or fixed identities
• Community-centered ways of thinking about healing, safety, and connection
• Frameworks that include personal experience, cultural context, and systems of oppression

Description:
This foundational training equips advocates, peer supporters, and frontline workers with the tools to understand and respond to relational harm through a trauma-informed, systems-aware lens. Participants will engage with frameworks that honor complexity, including the Stages of Change and the Range of Choice for Change, and learn to support people navigating harm, ambivalence, and transformation across time.

Who It’s For:
Advocates, peer support workers, case managers, and BSW-level practitioners working within domestic violence, mental health, housing, or crisis systems.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to recognize and respond to relational distress through a trauma and attachment lens
• Use of the Stages of Change model to support dynamic decision-making
• The Range of Choice for Change: how social position, skills, and beliefs shape options
• How to distinguish patterns of harm from identity, and offer support without coercion
• Strategies for accompaniment through crisis, stabilization, and long-term change

Description:
Designed for clinicians working with individuals affected by relational harm, this foundational training introduces an integrated clinical framework for understanding, assessing, and supporting clients through trauma and transformation. Using the ESRIBO model and grounded in critical theory, attachment science, and neurobiology, this training challenges linear diagnostic thinking and centers the social, cultural, and embodied realities of clients navigating complex harm.

Who It’s For:
Therapists, counselors, clinical social workers, psychologists, and mental health professionals providing relational or trauma-focused care.

What You’ll Learn:

• A multidimensional clinical framework (ESRIBO) to assess patterns of harm and adaptation
• How trauma, attachment, and meaning-making shape client behavior and internal narratives
• Culturally responsive and ethically grounded approaches to naming, witnessing, and intervening in relational violence
• Tools for clinical reflexivity, neutrality, and holding transformation without pathologizing

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Certificate Series

Description:
This series is designed for people with lived experience of harm and those supporting others in their communities. It offers accessible tools and shared language for understanding how harm affects our bodies, relationships, and sense of self and how healing is possible in everyday life. Through reflection, skill-building, and culturally grounded frameworks, participants move from recognition to action, exploring how to build safety, connection, and accountability in community.

Who It’s For:
People with lived experience of harm, community members, peer supporters, and anyone seeking tools for personal healing and collective care. No professional background is required.

What You’ll Learn:

• How relational harm impacts your nervous system, emotions, and sense of identity
• How to identify and build safe, supportive relationships and resources
• Practical skills for boundaries, regulation, communication, and community accountability
• Tools for healing and mutual care that are rooted in everyday experience and cultural wisdom

A pathway toward long-term healing and community engagement

Description:
This certificate series offers a comprehensive framework for frontline practitioners who support people navigating relational harm, trauma, and systemic barriers. Bridging theory and practice, each module centers trauma-informed care, identity-aware advocacy, and practical tools for supporting change across crisis, stabilization, and long-term integration. Participants will leave with an expanded understanding of how to support others with complexity, nuance, and care.

Who It’s For:
Advocates, peer workers, BSW-level case managers, and community-based practitioners in domestic violence, housing, mental health, or crisis response settings.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to conduct safety assessments, plan for stabilization, and navigate high-risk situations
• How to support people across the Stages of Change using relational and culturally grounded approaches
• Practical skills for case planning, systems advocacy, documentation, and ethical accompaniment
• Tools for supporting identity exploration, boundary repair, and long-term relational healing
• Strategies for practitioner sustainability, reflection, and continuing education planning

Description:
This advanced clinical certificate series equips therapists, counselors, and mental health professionals with a comprehensive, integrative approach to working with clients impacted by relational violence. Grounded in trauma theory, attachment science, narrative practice, and cultural humility, the series guides practitioners from stabilization and assessment through trauma processing and identity reclamation, while supporting ethical, sustainable practice throughout.

Who It’s For:
Therapists, clinical social workers, psychologists, counselors, and other licensed or license-track professionals working with individuals affected by complex trauma, relational violence, or coercive dynamics.

What You’ll Learn:

• How to establish therapeutic safety through attunement and nervous system stabilization
• How to use the ESRIBO framework for clinical assessment and trauma-informed formulation
• Skills for initiating and pacing trauma processing to support attachment trauma integration
• Tools to support post-traumatic identity, values clarification, and relational repair
• Reflective practices for ethical decision-making, documentation, and long-term sustainability

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Get in Touch

Leila welcomes opportunities to connect with individuals, organizations, and communities interested in learning, healing, and collective transformation.

To inquire about scheduling, customization, or registration, please use the contact form or reach out directly. Leila looks forward to hearing from you.