Promoting Resilience and Agency in Children and Young People Who Have Experienced Domestic Violence and Abuse: the “MPOWER” Intervention

Abstract

<br/ ><br/ ><br/ >The MPOWER programme is a resource oriented intervention to support children and young people (CYP) affected by domestic violence and abuse. It draws on principles from feminist informed systemic family practice and creative therapies. The intervention was delivered in 4 European countries (Greece, Italy, Spain and England), reaching 58 CYP. This paper reports on young participants’ wellbeing outcomes and perceptions of the intervention. Participants completed the Children’s Outcome Rating Scale, and the Children’s Group Session Rating Scale (Duncan et al. Journal of Brief Therapy, 3, 3–12, 2003). A descriptive analysis of this data suggests improvement in subjective wellbeing as CYP moved through this programme. Qualitative interviews were also conducted with 21 CYP, exploring their experience of the group intervention and of its impact. These interviews were analysed thematically (Braun and Clark Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101, 2006). Three themes are discussed: These were “Working Together: Building Trust and Sharing Common Experiences”; “Disclosures, creativity and working with emotions”; and “Roots and Branches: Working with relationships”.