Stephen McFadden, C.S.W.

Same-Sex Domestic Violence

Domestic violence occurs in same-sex couples at roughly the same rate that it does in heterosexual couples. There are, however, much fewer services for gay and lesbian persons caught up in the web of domestic violence. Stephen began looking at the problem of domestic violence in the LGBT community in 1994, when he was a volunteer member of the New York City Gay & Lesbian Anti-Violence Project's (AVP) therapist cohort. He developed a pilot project for groups to intervene with same-sex batters at that time. This eventually turned into the Seeking Non-Violent Alternatives Program, or SNAP. SNAP was the first and only program in New York City to work with lesbian and gay batterers; it was developed and run by Stephen, and was funded through AVP. It was a 26-week program, composed of two groups, one for men and one for women, to monitor behavior and to teach behavioral change, attitudinal change and accountability.

Stephen is recognized as an expert in same-sex batterers' intervention, and continues to provide consultation and training for social service and criminal justice agencies in New York City that work with batterers. He also does some limited individual work with batterers, integrating basic batterers' intervention protocols with EMDR to address the early childhood trauma that most batterers have experienced.