Uploaded: June 2019, Issue 35
Keywords:
community building, narrative therapy, externalising conversations, men’s groups, adolescent-to-parent violence, family violence, nonviolent resistance (NVR), team of life, children, adoption, men’s culture, ethic of risk, collective accountability, partnership accountability, intellectual disability.

Ben Shannahan

Ben is a family therapist who works in a public Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service and in independent practice in London, UK. He is a passionate musician and has an interest in using music as a medium to connect with young people and their families. He can be contacted via email:ben.shanna-han@gmail.com

Abstract

This paper explores the use of narrative therapy practices in developing a community response to a young man’s use of violence towards his family. Opportunities and ethical tensions experienced in incorporating principles and methods of nonviolent resistance (Omer, 2004) are discussed along with opportunities narrative therapy might offer as a response to these tensions. Different conceptions of responsibility and accountability, and the pushes and pulls of dominant aspects of men’s culture are considered in relation to how these factors might shape responses to adolescent-to-parent violence and how multi-generational men’s meetings were incorporated as part of this work.Keywords: community building, narrative therapy, externalising conversations,men’s groups, adolescent-to-parent violence, family violence, nonviolent resis-tance (NVR), team of life, children, adoption, men’s culture, ethic of risk, col-lective accountability, partnership accountability, intellectual disability.