Response-based therapy

Response-based therapy, or the response-based approach, is a relatively new psychotherapeutic approach to treating psychological trauma resulting from violence, based on the theory that whenever people are treated badly, they resist.[1] Incorporating elements of solution focused brief therapy, narrative therapy, and discourse analysis, it was first proposed by a Canadian family therapist and researcher, Allan Wade, in his 1997 article "Small Acts of Living: Everyday Resistance to Violence and Other Forms of Oppression."[2]

Therapeutic methods of response-based therapy are based on two theoretical foundations: (1) That alongside accounts of violence in history, there exists an often-unrecognized parallel history of "determined, prudent, and creative resistance", and (2) language is frequently used in a manner that (a) conceals violence, (b) obscures and mitigates perpetrator responsibility, (c) conceals victims' resistance, and (d) blames or pathologizes victims. This second principle employs "discourse analysis" and is referred to in response based therapy as the "four discursive operations."[3]

This presupposition of resistance as a natural response to violence is used to engage clients in in-depth conversations about how they responded to specific acts of violence. In response-based literature, resistance is defined and examples given:

"Any mental or behavioural act through which a person attempts to expose, withstand, repel, stop, prevent, abstain from, strive against, impede, refuse to comply with, or oppose any form of violence or oppression (including any type of disrespect), or the conditions that make such acts possible, may be understood as a form of resistance." (Wade, 1997, p. 25)

"Whenever people are abused, they do many things to oppose the abuse and to keep their dignity and their self-respect. This is called resistance. The resistance might include not doing what the perpetrator wants them to do, standing up against, and trying to stop or prevent violence, disrespect, or oppression. Imagining a better life may also be a way that victims resist abuse." (Calgary Women’s Emergency Shelter, 2007, p. 5).

Therapy consists of using language to (1) expose violence, (2) clarify perpetrators' responsibility, (3) elucidate and honor victims' resistance, and (4) contest victim blaming.[4]

In response-based therapy, the client is viewed as an "agent" who has the capability to respond to an act, rather than a passive "object" that is "acted upon." Example: the response-based therapist would not ask a victim "How did that make you feel?", but instead would ask "When [act of violence] was done to you, how did you respond? What did you do?"

References

  1. ↑ Wade, 1997, p. 23
  2. ↑ Wade, A. (1997). "Small acts of living: Everyday resistance to violence and other forms of oppression". Contemporary Family Therapy. 19 (1): 23-39. doi:10.1023/A:1026154215299.
  3. ↑ Coates, L., & Wade, A. (2004). "Telling It Like It Isn't: Obscuring Perpetrator Responsibility for Violent Crime". Discourse & Society. 15 (5): 3–30. doi:10.1177/0957926504045031.
  4. ↑ Todd, N. & Wade, A. (2003) 'Coming to Terms with Violence and Resistance: From a Language of Effects to a Language of Responses', in T. Strong & D. Pare (eds), Furthering Talk: Advances in the Discursive Therapies, New York: Kluwer Academic Plenum. p. 152.

Related reading

External links

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