Citation

Paré DA, Bondy J, Malhotra C. J. Syst. Ther. 2006; 25(2): 64-79.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Guilford Press)

DOI

10.1521/jsyt.2006.25.2.64

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article describes an approach to working with groups of men who have abused which uses dramatic enactments of conversational exchanges to approximate the conflictive interactions with partners that precipitated the referrals to the group. The approach is informed by the Domestic Abuse Intervention Program in Duluth, Minnesota, but differs in significant ways. Rather than placing a primary emphasis on the men as having an intent to wield power and control, the group facilitators assume multiple intentions. Drawing on the notion of restraints, intentions to interact in nonviolent ways are actively sought out, but are understood as restrained by various factors regarded as separate from the men in the narrative therapy tradition of externalizing. After establishing the theoretical context of the discussion, the article depicts the various uses of the dramatic enactments that help to provide a bridge between talking in abstract terms about violence and actively changing interactional patterns in situ with their partners. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) (journal abstract)