Rick Goodwin, MSW RSW
Bio
Rick is the Executive Director of 1in6 Canada: the National Knowledge Centre on male Sexual trauma and Recovery.
Rick’s past work experience has been as a social worker, educator and program manager. He conducts training on issues of male sexual victimization across Canada and the USA as well as facilitates a men’s trauma treatment program for men through The Men’s Project in Ottawa.
Rick co-authored the Men & Healing: Theory, Research and Practice with Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse (2009), was the author for Health Canada in their investigation concerning the correlation between men’s experience of HIV and sexual violence, and has since been published in Healing World Trauma (2013) andTranslating Psychological Research into Practice (2013).
Rick is the inaugural recipient of the Attorney General’s Award of Distinction for his work in “developing and implementing innovative victim service programs” (2007).
The Quote
What is to give light must endure burning
Viktor Frankl
What Led to the Specialization of Trauma?
Rick shares a very poignant story about an early experience he had with a client while he was working in a community service program for men. As was protocol for the program’s model at the time, therapists were not to engage in a client’s past victimization as it was thought to provide or allow for rationalization or minimization of their violence. That day, however, Rick entered into a discussion with one of the men during a break which radically shifted the way he engaged with his clients and also launched his trajectory into the field of trauma.
A Crucial Early Mistake
Rick shares an experience he had early in his career when he use to allow individuals in different stages of healing or recovering into the same group, and the lessons he learned from that mistake.
Rick’s Why
Rick shares two whys: First, he talks about how his own lived experience of sexual abusehas compelled him to continue to do this work. Second, he talks about how his desire to help create and foster the men’s movement in his own community has inspired him in this field.
Rick’s advice
Clinical Supervision, clinical supervision and clinical supervision!
Rick talks about the importance of having clinical supervision that is done from someone who is not in-house, ie from someone outside one’s place of work.
Rick’s go-to books
How Can I Help?, Ram Dass
Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence–from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, Judith Herman
Interview Links
Rick’s site: The Men’s Project