Fairbanks Therapy Associates started out at The LEAP Program in 1997.

In 2019 we changed our name to Fairbanks Therapy Associates, because we were doing more than just The LEAP Program.

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Many have questions regarding The LEAP Program: LEAP can teach you something different. We can help you to heal from what you've experienced and teach you healthy relationship and parenting skills that will help you to make your life healthier.

 

For over 25 years, LEAP has been working with people who use violence and those who have been affected by it. We are proud of the fact that we treat you respectfully, honestly, and with dignity.

 

Our staff is very well trained in working with both urban and rural Alaskan populations, as well as military personnel. Participants may have been court ordered to complete the program, may be involved with OCS, may be complying with a custody investigation, or may be attending voluntarily.

 

Our program was the first Alternatives to Violence program (they are also sometimes called Batterer's Intervention Programs - but not all who have been abusive behaviors others are batterers – see above) to be state approved. in Alaska. We were initially based on the Duluth Model. This only means that we work within a larger community effort to stop domestic violence and hold abusers accountable, we do a men's group that emphasizes the offender taking responsibility for their choice to abuse, and we cover specific types of abuse that were outlined by the Duluth program as being part of a battering relationship.

 

Violence is used because it's what we know and it works to get power and control in the short term. However, the bottom line is that no one deserves to be abused and no one has the right to do it.

Our program goes beyond that. The Duluth Model, in itself is not the end-all for working with DV offenders. Our program and curriculum are dynamic and have grown and changed to reflect what is effective in working with male (we also have a program for female offenders) DV offenders so that they can change and not continue to follow their behavioral and thinking patterns that they have used to justify any abuse within a relationship. We are a trauma-informed program that recognizes that those who make the choice to abuse do so for a handful of reasons. We work with clients respectfully and honestly.

 

The LEAP curriculum is cognitive behavioral. We also do a class that is psycho educational for those clients who need information to be more concrete for them to learn. In our program we not only address topics such as emotional and psychological abuse, isolation, privilege, but also grief, emotional regulation, deconstructing irrational beliefs used to justify any abuse, developing critical thinking skills, developing specific healthy parenting skills, and recognizing the neuro biological effects on a developing brain that is exposed to abuse.

 

Additionally, we at times work with people individually if they are highly resistant and we offer therapy to assist the client in working through past trauma or mental health issues that (ex: childhood sexual abuse, anxiety etc) compromise the client's ability to develop emotional and psychological regulatory skills. It is a rare situation when you can work with a DV offender in one group a week and have that be enough to inspire, motivate and guide them through being able to make changes in life-long patterns.