Dr Emma Williamson, Research Fellow at the new Centre for Gender and Violence Research in the School for Policy Studies, helped to advise on the development of the Relate Responsive Model for Domestic Violence, a project that has received the Innovation in Counselling and Psychotherapy Award from the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Dr Williamson served on Relate's Domestic Violence and Abuse External Advisory Panel. The new Responsive Model will be rolled out as standard practice throughout the Relate network before the end of 2009. This new model ensures that counsellors will be able to engage with couples where domestic violence and abuse may be an issue, both safely and in accordance with good practice evidence.