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Working Systemically with Parents, Children and Adult Survivors When the Abuse Stops

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Intervening After Violence

Part of the book series: Focused Issues in Family Therapy ((FIFT))

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Abstract

Many parents feel very distressed when experiencing serious difficulties with their children and come forward to ask for help themselves, while others are referred to clinicians for help by child protection services. Therapeutic work with families whose children are placed in out-of-home care is often about repair and healing following maltreatment. Many others, who would have been abused as children, consult with a therapist when they become adults. This chapter is about therapeutic work with families when the violence from parent to child stops. It also touches on violence from child to parent and on violence between siblings. How do we go about helping parents and their children in such difficult situations once the violence stops?

The original version of this chapter was revised: See the “Chapter Note” section at the end of this chapter for details. The erratum to this chapter is available at 10.1007/978-3-319-57789-0_10

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Notes

  1. 1.

    All vignettes are either taken from existing literature or are closely parallel to stories of clients. However, every effort has been made to conceal the true identity of the clients.

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Correspondence to Arlene Vetere .

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Sammut Scerri, C., Vetere, A., Abela, A., Cooper, J. (2017). Working Systemically with Parents, Children and Adult Survivors When the Abuse Stops. In: Intervening After Violence. Focused Issues in Family Therapy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57789-0_6

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