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9. Investing in the protective parent: structured 1-to-1 or groupwork support programmes for partners/mothers/carers

This training is for professionals working with abusers and/or with children and families where there has been either intra-familial or extra-familial child sexual abuse. It is also suitable for professionals working with intra-familial offenders in cases where the partners may become external monitors of the relapse prevention plans.

Course overview

Recent research (Jones and Ramchandani, 1999) has emphasised the importance of the non-abusing parent in the child's healing process and the general absence of focused intervention in this area of work.

Typical training content may include:

  • A research-based appraisal of the need for such intervention, its relevance to child protection and to offender relapse prevention

  • Information about different patterns and profiles of sex offenders and the subsequent differing impacts on partners/mothers

  • The application of offender knowledge to understanding non-abusing partners' responses to disclosure (from belief and support of the child to minimisation or denial)

  • Approaches which enable protective parents to apply knowledge of offenders to understand:
    • The therapeutic and safety needs of the child(ren)
    • The dysfunctional impact on wider family dynamics, reframed as a cohesive 'how did the abuser do that to us?'
    • The relevance of protective parents' own survivor issues where this continues to disempower them or to increase their vulnerability
    • How to use offender knowledge to reverse the impact of the offender's manipulations, to help open up communication between the protective parent, the child and other relevant family members
    • How to minimise isolation and enable protective parents' to deal with related problems with extended family, peers and local community

Course aims

  • To identify and provide a rationale for key areas of intervention

  • To enable participants to set up and run a structured 1-to-1 or groupwork programme

  • To teach the necessary therapeutic skills to run such a programme

For further information and to discuss your individual needs please contact the Training Co-ordinator on 01527 591922 or email: training@lucyfaithfull.org.uk