Reciprocal Relationships - Non Violent Resistance and the IASW as solidarity and support against abusive and violence behaviour

The Irish Association of Social Workers (IASW) creates spaces for voices of encouragement, hope and support for practitioners and researchers using new ways of responding to new needs. A new and innovative response to child to parent violence and abuse (CPVA) is Non Violent Resistance (NVR). The IASW has supported us in our work with this systemic and relatively brief model of intervention with parents since the early days of its use in Ireland from 2007 onwards. As a systemic model of intervention, social workers and other practitioners use NVR to engage parents in the process of change and an end to the problems of CPVA. In this article, we outline the development of the NVR model in Ireland, while celebrating the key role played by the IASW. The Association continues to be a forum in which social workers can share new ideas and practices, learn from each other and further the cause of human rights and social justice in the lives of the people with whom we work. Using a case example, we highlight support and solidarity as key elements of NVR and reflect on the ways in which we have experienced support and solidarity as members of the IASW. We have changed the names and other details used in this article (from the practice of the first author) to protect client confidentiality. Whenever we refer to parents, we are also thinking of grandparents, foster-carers, adoptive parents, same sex single or couple parents and anyone who has parental responsibilities for a child under the age of 18 years old.