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WORKSHOPS & PRESENTATION TOPICS

Dr. Abrams has provided the following presentations to teams, universities, parent groups and businesses.  Feel free to contact him to tailor the programs to your needs.

 

Anger Management for Athletes

Performance Enhancement & Transgression Reduction 

No emotion is more misunderstood than anger.  People wrongly believe that anger is the problem. It isn't.  Anger is like a flame.  You need it to cook a good meal, but if it's too hot, it'll burn you up.  Success in sport and in life requires you to learn how to adjust the flame; utilize your emotions to maximize performance without burning out.  These skills maximize personal power and can increase performance in sport and in life.  If you want to find "The Zone" more often, the key is learning emotional balance.  

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Abrams Model of Sexual Assault Prevention for Athletes

The Abrams Model is especially developed for young athletes and those involved in their lives.  Different from Bystander Education models, this program does much more.  It teaches about the legalities of consent, as well as what life would be like if incarcerated.  It highlights the consequences for the victim, perpetrator and organization (school or team) including explaining Title IX Lawsuits. Education about how drugs and alcohol are used as weapons to facilitate rape is provided as well as toxic masculinity that, when nestled inside the male athlete culture, may give way to rape supportive attitudes.   To prevent future transgressions, organizations need to create a zero tolerance approach that permeates a changed culture.  Bystander education is utilized as a necessary, but not sufficient approach.

 

Domestic Violence Prevention, Assessment & Treatment

Having worked with both perpetrators and survivors, Dr. Abrams knows the importance of talking to people in a way that they hear.  Validate people's emotions and experience and empower them to make better decisions when angry so as to not sabotage their future and hurt the people around them.  Most domestic violence is not what is depicted in the media.  Most commonly it is low-level (not severely violent) and bidirectional (both parties being abusive to one another).  Relationships eliciting heated emotions are not unusual.  Dr. Abrams differentiates between excuses (there are none) and explanations for volatile relationships.  The explanations help identify how to change dynamics and prevent repeat violence.  He reviews different typologies of batterers and illustrates why some people are more receptive to treatment than others.  He also can asses risk and provide treatment to reduce re-offense.

Hazing Prevention

Top-down and bottom-up approaches are utilized to banish hazing from the athlete culture.  The line between team-building ribbing and abusive indoctrination is a blurry line that sits on a slippery slope.  When hazing exists, either leadership knows what is going on or they should know.  Therefore, schools and organizations are quite vulnerable if hazing occurs in their midst.  Dr. Abrams helps organizations increase individual and group accountability, changing the culture of sports.

 

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