Tom Caplan, M.S., M.A., M.S.W., P.S.W., I.C.A.D.C., A.A.M.F.T. 

Adjunct Professor: McGill University School of Social Work

Director and Supervisor:  McGill Domestic Violence Clinic

Director and Supervisor: Montreal Anger Management Centre

Director: Caplan Therapy Training Centre

Clinical Director: Caplan Therapy Centre

CERTIFICATIONS / SPECIALIZATIONS: Marriage and Family Therapy Supervisor, Psychotherapy, Domestic Violence, Forensic, Substance Abuse, Violence

Private Practitioner

Faculty – Argyle Institute of Human Relations

Clinician – MFT for Cree Patient Services 

            Tom Caplan, MSW is a social worker in private practice who works with individuals, couples, families and groups.  He is an Adjunct Professor at McGill University in the School of Social Work and director and supervisor of the McGill Domestic Violence Clinic.  He is also a designated expert in Domestic Violence for the Quebec Court System. Tom does clinical work with forensic populations, is the Clinical Director of the Caplan Therapy Centre and is the founder and supervisor of the Montreal Anger Management Centre. Tom is on the faculty of the Argyle Institute of Human Relations. Tom works at home and away as a couple and family therapist for Cree Patient Services. Tom also presents workshops, gives trainings and lectures in universities, junior colleges and local community centers. He has participated in research projects in collaboration with McGill University, Concordia University, the Jewish General Hospital and the Douglas Hospital. Tom is on the editorial board of Social Work with Groups, is a certified marriage and family therapist and a certified marriage and family therapy supervisor (A.A.M.F.T.), an internationally certified alcohol and drug counsellor (I.C.A.D.C.), a licensed psychotherapist (OPQ Psychotherapeute) and a member of the Professional Order of Social Workers of Quebec (OPTSQ).

I have worked with a community based domestic violence treatment program for 20+ years.  I have also worked as a facilitator of d/v treatment programs inside Canada’s Federal Penitentiary system in Kingston Onatrio for approx. 4 years.

I am currently without academic affiliation, possessing a Bachelor of Arts from McGill University in Canada, and am exploring the possibility of applying to do graduate work in social work or psychology.

Since 1997, I have been an entrepreneur. For the last 14 years, I have trained and coached entrepreneurial women and men to create expertise-based businesses. Both group programs and private work include leadership development, emotional resilience, and conflict management. For some women clients, I also provide coaching for anger management, abusive behaviour towards staff, and emotional abuse in their personal relationships.

From 2011 to present, I have been involved in the creation and start up of a 501(c)3 called the Indrani’s Light Foundation (ILF) whose mission is to eradicate ‘gender-based violence’ (GBV.) The activities of the foundation are two-pronged.

(1) Internationally, in partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation and Population Services International, the NGO in Washington, DC, funding GBV work in keeping with the U.N.’s Millennial Development Goals.

On the ground in India and Trinidad and Tobago, ILF provides evidence-based, behaviour-change trainings called ‘Live a Brighter Life’ which teach boundaries, shame resilience, and self-care to community workers, NGO-staff, abused women, and schoolchildren.

(2) In the US, ILF provides ‘Caring for the Caregivers’ training to Women’s Shelter caregivers in Houston, Texas and in 2017, Portland, Oregon.

Training in both of the above areas takes place over half a day to, ideally, a 2-day time span for participants in person, however, an online version of the Live a Brighter Life course has also brought measurable results. To support scaling these efforts, ILF has also started to train trainers.

As of 2014, with new trainers in place, I have been studying research methods and conducting qualitative interviews of female perpetrators and male survivors, with the goal of gaining a more balanced picture of the field, and to determine possible future contributions.

For entrepreneurs, I published ‘We Need to Talk: Your Guide to Challenging Business Conversations’ in 2014. In 2003, I published ‘Multiple Streams of Coaching Income.’ In between the two, there have been other titles, all unrelated to domestic violence.

Some books of note for various reasons:

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk
The Emotionally Abusive Relationship by Beverly Engel
The STOP Program by David Wexler
An Adult Child’s Guide to What’s Normal by John Friel
The Power of a Positive No by William Ury
Getting our Bodies Back by Christine Caldwell
The Potent Self by Moshe Feldenkrais
My Darkest Hour by Harold Turley II
The Emotional Terrorist and Violence Prone by Erin Pizzey
I Thought it was Just Me by Brene Brown

Honours BA in Psychology