Picking Up the Pieces After Domestic Violence: A Practical Resource for Supporting Parenting Skills

How does domestic violence affect children and parents, and their relationships with each other? How can a parent who has been abused regain authority over the children? Can a parent who has scared a child in the past engage in child discipline? This book includes expert advice and techniques, as well as exercises and worksheets for use with both abusing and non-abusing parents. Domestic violence can have a powerful and distorting impact on the family. Children may feel threatened by or protective towards their parents and family power relationships turned upside down. Parents are left struggling with issues of separation, wondering how to discuss what's happened and how to adapt to the changes in the family dynamic. Borrowing from different areas of parenting work to meet the varying needs of both abusing and non-abusing parents, this toolkit offers guidance on risk assessment and provides a framework for assessing parents' needs. This book includes all the materials needed to create a sequence of engaging group or individual sessions, including worksheets, ideas for role plays, safety plans and family agreements. This practical step-by-step guide will benefit children and family social workers, children's centre workers, therapists, counsellors and anyone supporting a family recovering from the trauma of domestic violence.