Community professionals are dealing increasingly with family conflict and violence but typically have little training in this area. Family dynamics in the causation and consequences of intra-family aggression were studied in a project involving seven groups of community professionals, including lawyers, ministers, physicians, police, nurses, school principals and social workers. A series of free workshops were held, and 65 out of 200 invited professionals, primarily social workers, participated. Individual professional group workshops focused on learning the symptoms and manifestations of family aggression and violence, showed films about child and wife abuse, and provided role-playing sessions followed by intensive discussion. The main objective of the project, i.e., to impart a greater understanding of family violence, was achieved, but the augmentation of skills in dealing with family violence was less successful. An unanticipated benefit of the project was the "consciousness raising" among participants about personal values and the acceptability of some physical force in families as "normal." (Author/KMF)