Citation

Greenwell R. Int. J. Narrat. Ther. Community Work 2016; 2016(2): e44.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Dulwich Centre Publications)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper describes the use of Troublemaker Cards in men's domestic violence behaviour change groups as an innovative approach to expose and challenge the dominant ways of being and thinking that support men's violence and abuse towards women. While language that minimises men's responsibility-taking for their actions is available and ubiquitous, the Troublemaker Cards offer an alternative, and promote the gendered and political understandings of violence and abuse in a respectful parallel journey of discovery. The externalising language used on the cards keeps the men's identities separate from these discourses, and yet supports an attentiveness to their relationship with them. Guided by the cards in a 'cool engagement', the men are invited to explore and deconstruct the Troublemakers as well as build the foundations for second-story development. Evidence from practice suggests that once men experience this separation and foresee alternative territories to step into, they can better describe their relationship with the 'Troublemakers' in a 'hot engagement'. In a context of accountability to women and children, the men create opportunities to propose how they will prevent potential future abuses and take action based on preferred relationships to the Troublemakers, such that they are not unwittingly reproducing dominant ways of being.

Language: en