Court preparation
What a Safety Plan Looks Like Before the First Court Date
Safe contacts, transport, childcare, and the go-bag. Why the plan gets rewritten once bail conditions are set.
Read the pieceClients come to us through different doors: a survivor calling directly, a family member asking on someone's behalf, or a social worker sending a referral from a clinic in Khayelitsha or a legal aid office in Pretoria. The notes below set out how we define the people we work with, so there is no confusion about who a session is for.
Anyone over 18 who has experienced domestic or gender-based violence, and the family members or guardians who support them. We also count referring practitioners as clients of a different kind: they need clear intake notes and a working contact route, not counselling.
We do not run emergency response, and we are not a shelter. If someone is in immediate danger, the first call is to the police or a crisis line. We also do not act as legal representatives or appear in court on a client's behalf; court preparation means getting a person ready to speak, not speaking for them.
No names, no case numbers, and no identifying details appear in our written materials or on this site. Session notes stay in the file. Where a referral requires a written summary, it is written without graphic description and shared only with the person who made the referral.
Sessions run in English, with isiXhosa and Afrikaans interpretation booked where needed. Our written summaries follow the same pattern: a plain English version with a shorter isiXhosa or Afrikaans summary attached. We work across the Western Cape and Gauteng, and referrals outside those provinces are redirected to a service closer to the client.
A referral is not a commitment to a fixed number of sessions. Intake comes first, and the plan that follows depends on what the person decides they want to do next.
These three pieces come up most often in intake calls and in emails from social workers. They cover the practical ground we cannot always fit into a first session: what to prepare before court, how language shapes a counselling room, and what a referral should actually contain.
Court preparation
Safe contacts, transport, childcare, and the go-bag. Why the plan gets rewritten once bail conditions are set.
Read the pieceLanguage access
How we book and brief interpreters, and what stays out of the written summary afterwards.
Read the pieceFor practitioners
The referral pack, the intake call, and the details we deliberately leave out of the file.
Read the pieceReferrers who want the full pack can reach us at info@theintensiveabuseunit.com or on 016 246 3007. Written requests can go to 23132 nonkululeko Loaf, Port Kgomotsofurt, EC 2695.