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What is NVR?
• NVR addresses violent, destructive and harmful
behaviours in children and adolescents
• The methods and ideas of non-violent resistance and
direct action come from Mahatma Gandhi and Martin
Luther King
• NVR can help parents and carers overcome their
sense of helplessness
• It can develop and strengthen a support network that
will reduce violent and destructive behaviours both in
and out of the home
• It can improve relationships between family members
and the outside world
Mission statement
• Learning to resist violence and destructive
behaviours is a powerful choice to make
• NVR is not about giving in or ignoring
behaviour
• NVR restores individual strength and self
respect and supports caring and respectful
relationships in the family and wider
communities
What are the key principles?
• Taking a firm stand against violence,
risk taking and antisocial behaviours
• Holding back from physical or verbal
violence
• Increasing positive presence in the
child’s life
How do we put these into practice?
• Increasing parental/carer presence
• De-escalating conflicts
• Taking a firm stand against any acts of
violence by the parent or the
child/adolescent
• Announcing a commitment to the
child/adolescent
• Arranging sit-ins
• Breaking the cycle of shame and
silence
• Recruiting and using supporters
• Creating reconciliation gestures that are
not linked to the young person’s
behaviour but increase positive
interactions between parents/carers and
young people
NVR Map
Announcement
Sit-in
Reconciliation
Gestures
PARENTAL PRESENCE
Baskets
Inside home
De-escalation
Outside home
REBUILDING THE
RELATIONSHIP
Supporters
Helping siblings
and others
Looking after
yourselves
Parent Testimonials
• When we started NVR our daughter (who has Aspergers)
was 15 years old and out of school. Her behaviour was
on a downward spiral: she came and went from the family
home as she liked, she was verbally abusive, physically
threatening, she had ‘trashed’ our home several times.
Eventually we had her arrested and charged with theft
after she had stolen money, phones and jewellery many
times.
• Looking through the NVR booklet it was hard to imagine
what we could achieve: would this really work? When you
face challenging behaviour on a daily basis it is hard to
believe that anything will change it, all our lives seemed
very fragile and uncertain.
• Coming to the sessions and talking about the ways of
dealing with our child as well as knowing that there
were others in our situation gave us the confidence in
ourselves to change our reactions to difficult
situations. Looking back over the past few months
the things that helped were giving firm boundaries,
keeping rules simple, not letting situations escalate
and presenting a calm, caring attitude. The ‘baskets’
were a useful tool for focusing on the main issues
that needed addressing immediately.
• We are not perfect parents, we still get frustrated
sometimes and shout instead of talk, but there is a
great improvement to the quality of all our lives and
our time spent at NVR sessions were of enormous
help and we are glad that we persevered.
• Our daughter is now in college and is much more
settled. We still find it hard to believe that we won’t
ever go back to how things were before, but we
continue to build bridges where we can and slowly
our confidence and trust in her grows. We love our
daughter very much.
Testimonial 2
• I have found a big change in our family life as a
whole and the relationship between my son and me
has improved 80%. This has also helped my
daughter (who has ADHD) tremendously and the
arguments have been cut by 50% because her
brother has been less aggressive in responding to
her bad behaviour.
• It has all happened gradually but improvements are
continually being made.
• Even though my daughter’s behavioural problems are
pretty constant my attitude towards her has changed
so this has helped me cope much better.
Graduate Parents
• Every parent who completes the
programme becomes a graduate parent
• New parents meet a graduate parent
• Non-pathologising experience
• Creates a network of support
• Booster seminars
• Newsletter
Research Findings
• In the United States Weinblatt (2007) found that “parents
that received training in NVR showed a decrease in
parental helplessness and escalatory behaviours, and an
increase in perceived social support. The children’s
negative behaviours, as assessed by the parents, also
decreased significantly”.
• Research in Germany by Ollefs (2008) shows that when
NVR is compared with one of the NICE recommended
parenting programmes (Triple P for teenagers), the
outcomes are the same but the client group is significantly
different. Therapists using NVR were more successful in
keeping parents engaged and the NVR adolescent group
had a wider range of more difficult problems than the
Triple P adolescents . Both groups did better than the
control group who received no treatment.
Why this approach?
• It works
• It changes ways of relating in the long term
• It reduces distress for the carer and the
child
• It helps parents move away from a position
of helplessness
• It values parents’ experiences and abilities
• It promotes healthy relationships
• It is an individual approach
• Has guiding principles rather than directive
strategies
• It changes the child’s environment rather than
expecting the child to change
• It works on principles rather than specifics
• The child adapts their behaviour in response
to a more healthy environment
NVR Audit
• Initial evaluation of the first four Oxleas
parenting programmes shows that NVR is
effective and that it addresses the needs of
families where the problem behaviour is at
the more extreme end of the spectrum . At
the end of the programme most parents
assessed themselves as less distressed,
more in control and feeling more supported
(Day & Heismann, 2009).
Attenders by age group
Attenders by age group
11%
34%
age 8 - 12
age 13 - 15
age 16 - 17
55%
Attenders by Gender
all 4 NVR clinics: Gender
29%
all 4 NVR clinics males
71%
all 4 NVR clinics
f emales
Oxleas at the Cutting Edge
• Oxleas has developed the first NVR parent group
• A three year Randomised Control Trial study is
beginning this year in Belgium and they have
asked permission to translate and use the
materials that therapists at Bexley and
Greenwich CAMHS have developed.
• Later this year clinicians from Sweden will be
visiting the Oxleas NVR programme
NVR Projects
• NVR parent booklet and wristband
• 4 audited joint Bexley and Greenwich
NVR parent group programmes
• NVR parent group manual and DVD
• Bexley foster carer group – Autumn 09
• Next joint service parent group –
Autumn 09
• International NVR conference 2010