Who We Are
Awareness Matters is a training organisation delivering part knowledge-based and part therapeutic-based programmes and workshops on abuse-related issues. Every programme is designed to support victims and survivors and are underpinned with a trauma-informed framework and approach, to best address the dynamics and impacts of coercion, control and domestic abuse within relationships. We run workshops and training for multi-agency professionals from both statutory and voluntary organisations in the UK and internationally.
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We offer three facilitator trainings: Who’s in Charge? Programme, for parents and carers experiencing child to parent violence and abuse, Escape the Trap Programme, for young people experiencing coercive control and intimate relationship abuse, and the VOICE Programme, for adult victims of intimate coercive experience and domestic abuse. All workshops and trainings are now available online.
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Trainings not only develop professional skills and awareness on abuse-related issues, but also encourage and support delegates to fully embrace the part knowledge-based and part therapeutic-based approach that is woven into every stage of the programmes.
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Whether you’re a front-line practitioner working with victims and survivors, a team leader, or service manager, our training is delivered in a highly accessible way, ensuring a full opportunity for learning, discussion, strategies, and tools to support best practice.
Having worked with thousands of victims across voluntary and statutory agencies, our experienced trainers are uniquely placed to understand the needs of victims and survivors, as well as the practitioners supporting them.
Upcoming Trainings
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Escape the Trap
24th, 25th, 28th February 2025
An 8-week programme designed to support to support all young people to learn about the dynamics of grooming, coercion, and power and control at an early stage in their experience of intimate relationships.
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VOICE Programme
10th, 11th, 13th March 2025
A 12-week domestic abuse programme for adults addressing domestic violence, coercive control and impact of such significant traumatic experiences within a therapeutic framework.
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Who's In Charge?
29th April, 1st & 2nd May 2025
A nine-week programme for parents whose children are using abusive or violent behaviour toward them or who appear out of parental control.
Meet the Team
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Cathy Press
FOUNDER AND DIRECTOR
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Paula Devareaux
ASSOCIATE TRAINER
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Evie Turner
MARKETING COORDINATOR
About Cathy
Cathy is a psychotherapist, trainer, and author, based in Suffolk. With over 25 years experience as a therapist and trainer, Cathy has worked with thousands of victims and survivors, and the practitioners supporting them from both statutory and voluntary organisations.
Cathy is a registered MBACP Senior Accredited Counsellor and Supervisor with the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy adhering to the BACP Code of Ethics. She has a particular interest in the traumatic impact of domestic and sexual abuse, and has long believed in the integral connection between mind and body and draw on somatic approaches to enable clients to move through traumatic experiences.
For many years Cathy sat on the DV Hate Crime Scrutiny Panel addressing domestic abuse prosecutions for the Suffolk Crown Prosecution Service and continues to provide consultancy for organisations.
Cathy wrote her first book, When Love Bites, with respect to the thousands of young people and adults with whom she has worked across three decades. Nearly all wished that someone had noticed what was happening to them, warned them or talked more openly about the reality of coercive and controlling behaviours. This is the aim of When Love Bites, a relationship guide that clearly relays the behaviours and beliefs of Controllers and their Loving Partner counterparts.
