Non Violent Resistance Handbook for Practitioners- Responding to Child to Parent Violence in Practice

Abstract

Our experience in practice with parents and families and conversations with other practitioners in contact with young people and parents suggests that the aggressive behaviour of children and adolescents towards their parents is an increasing concern. It seems that although the initial referral for assessment and intervention may be related to concerns about ADHD, depression, out of control behaviours, youth crime or school attendance issues, more and more parents are beginning to talk about their experiences of being the target of their child s physical and emotional aggression and violence in their homes.

Although child to parent violence has yet to feature in policy and practice guidance in Ireland and the UK, it is a feature of daily life for some families and it is an issue with which practitioners are all too familiar (Coogan 2011; Wilcox 2012). In recent years, more and more parents are challenging practitioners with questions about how best to address this type of family violence (Coogan & Lauster 2014). Similar to the experiences of those living with domestic violence, it seems that many parents living with child to parent violence may deny or minimise the violence they experience or to blame themselves for the abusive behaviour and struggle in silence (Cottrell & Monk 2004; Gallagher 2004; Edenborough et al 2008).

This handbook is designed for the practitioner who would like to have some useful starting points in understanding and responding to child to parent violence. The handbook will also provide practitioners with guidelines about how to implement the evidence influenced, short term, systemic and effective programme called Non Violent Resistance in their work with parents in families where child to parent violence takes place.