Anderida Adolescent Care's operational director and head of therapies, Kerry Shoesmith, recently spoke to The Leaders Council about how her organisation seeks to uphold and promote non-violent resistance [NVR] as a psychological intervention.
Kerry Shoesmith is the operational director and head of therapies at Anderida Adolescent Care. Anderida, a residential children’s home operator in East Sussex, provides therapeutic residential childcare, education and other services for young people and children displaying emotional, behavioural and social difficulties [EBSD].
Having initially joined Anderida as a mentor in 2001, Kerry rose through the ranks of the organisation, training as cognitive behavioural therapist in 2013 and beginning in her current director role. This coincided with meeting Dr Peter Jakob who first introduced non-violent resistance [NVR] to the UK as a psychological intervention for families having been developed in Israel by Haim Omer and his colleagues at the University of Tel Aviv.
Non-violent resistance as a psychological intervention is used to respond to aggressive, violent, self-destructive and controlling behaviours. Different versions of the model have successfully been deployed when working with young people displaying anxiety, addictions, truancy issues, as well as young people at risk of self-harm or sexual exploitation, and other problems.
The technique outlines that the parents or caregivers raise their parental presence, avoid repeated discussions and should not give in to unreasonable demands from young people. NVR effectively focuses on changing the behaviour of the adult and the nature of the intervention, rather than changing the behaviour of the young person directly.
In her stint as operational director, Kerry has helped oversee the transition of Anderida into an NVR organisation, a move which helped improve relationships between the young people in Anderida’s care and their teachers, parents, relatives and caregivers, and proved transformative for the organisation in combatting negative and destructive behaviours.
So committed is the organisation to the practice and its effectiveness today, Kerry and her colleagues within Anderida and at PartnershipProjects even went on to establish the Non-Violent Resistance Association [NVRA], which functions as a UK and international accrediting body for the NVR Professional Standards.
Kerry told The Leaders Council: “Here at Anderida, we strive to practice in non-violent resistance in all aspects of the organisation, be it in therapy, staff or childcare. Through the NVR Association, we also provide information, professional support and training opportunities, for both practitioners and non-practitioners, promoting awareness of good practice and innovation in non-violent resistance.”
Explaining how to go about deploying NVR tactics, Kerry added: “In practicing NVR, parents and carers will develop tools to manage risk without getting into escalatory conversations or power struggles. Removing themselves from these conversations allows the parent or carer to not act in the heat of the moment, but instead take time to reflect and challenge the behaviour once calmer.
“Parents and carers of young people with challenging behaviour may also have a tendency to avoid taking action because of fear or shame. With support, they can resist the ‘rules’ set by the young person, regain parental presence and take back the freedom to act as adults and parents.”
Elaborating on how to raise parental presence, Kerry revealed that the main means of doing this comes through delayed action-taking, action which has been carefully thought-out.
“The key to raising parental presence both in and out of the home is by carefully planning delayed action. Punishment in response to consequence no longer works and results in escalatory behaviour patterns.
“Furthermore, reconciliation gestures can be taken by parents and carers which are unconditional acts of doing something good for the young person. This works as a means of showing affection and care, focusing on the child’s needs and building trust.”
Further information on non-violent resistance can be found here.
Photo by Ryan Gagnon on Unsplash
