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Responding to violence in families: considerations of safety, gender and culture
A one and a half day workshop with
The Just Therapy Team from The New
Zealand Family Centre
Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese, Paul Hirini & Charles Waldegrave
18th-19th June*
This workshop is being supported by the Norwegian Family Therapy Association.
The Just Therapy Team has, over the last two decades, inspired and challenged therapists and community workers in many different countries and contexts. Their introduction of the term 'Just Therapy' and their determination to bring issues of gender, culture and socioeconomic justice into therapeutic considerations have had powerful implications. So too, has their example of taking the personal stories of those who consult them as therapists into broader political and policy arenas. The Just Therapy Team's committed, dignified and caring cultural partnerships have signalled alternative ways of conceptualising working relationships. Their descriptions of therapy as a sacred encounter, their honouring of Indigenous traditions of spirituality, and the ways in which they always seek culturally appropriate healing ways have changed forever our understandings of the responsibilities of therapists and healers.
This workshop will explore the experience and learning of two decades of therapeutic, community and social policy work around issues of safety and abuse. It will focus particularly on the issues families struggle with when children have been abused and the differing family responses and needs that arise as a result. The complex issues for families who choose to continue to live together and those who continue in some other form of contact will be addressed.
The critically differing foci of work with the victim/survivors and the perpetrators of abuse will be highlighted. The fears workers have and the need to develop a consensus about what does and does not constitute abuse in organisational settings will also be explored. A set of separate steps through the processes of working with those who have been abused and those who have abused will be put forward. A set of safety indicators will also be spelt out for assessing the safety of those who have abused but have subsequently begun to take responsibility for their actions will be discussed.
The macro policy environment will also be considered in terms of its contribution to the safety of children. Particular emphasis will be given to the 'child focus' in English speaking countries and the 'family focus' in European countries and the differing outcomes in each. The value of effective and innovative new policy approaches that will support and enhance safe alternatives and new learning for families will be discussed.
If you are working with individuals, couples, families and/or communities in which violence is an issue; if you are seeking to find respectful and effective ways of keeping people safe; if you are grappling with complexities of gender and culture; if you are trying to respond to those who have perpetrated violence; or if you are meeting with those who have been subjected to violence; then this workshop has been designed with you in mind.
The work of the Just Therapy Team is informed by community work, counselling and group work practice and rigorous social policy research. For more information see Just Therapy - A journey by Charles Waldegrave, Kiwi Tamasese, Flora Tuhaka and Warihi Campbell. (Dulwich Centre Publications 2003) Taimalieutu Kiwi Tamasese is the Samoan Co-ordinator at the Family Centre. She is a family therapist, community development worker, a social policy analyst and researcher. She has published in all these areas. Kiwi leads contracted workshops and educational events regularly in New Zealand and throughout the world. Paul Hirini is a member of the Māori Section of the Family Centre. He is a senior clinical psychologist, researcher and educator and has a doctorate in clinical psychology. He has worked extensively in hospital and community settings with Maori in Aotearoa, New Zealand. He has published widely in the area of indigenous mental health in New Zealand, and has had previous appointments as a senior lecturer and senior researcher in New Zealand and Australian hospitals and universities. Charles Waldegrave is a psychologist, a family therapist, an Anglican priest, a social policy analyst and researcher. He is the Pakeha (European) Co-ordinator of the Family Centre. He leads the Social Policy Research Unit there and is also a joint leader of the New Zealand Poverty Measurement Project. He has published extensively in therapeutic and social policy research areas. Charles leads workshops and educational events on therapeutic and applied social policy topics regularly in New Zealand and throughout the world.
*This workshop will begin on Monday afternoon to enable practitioners from Oslo to get to Kristiansand in the morning.