The Response Network

Abstract

Some years ago, I listened to recorded group therapy sessions with children and young people who had witnessed violence their mothers had suffered. They all lived in the same rural area in central Sweden. Evident in these recordings was the fact that even if the children themselves were not the targets of violence they were not passive bystanders in the way the concept ‘witness’ may sometimes entail. They always did something in response, for example trying to escape by turning on music or seeking refuge in a sibling’s bed. They had been successful in blocking out the visual, but not the audible aspects of the violence. Some took action in efforts to stop the violence, such as calling the police, rescuing the mother or ‘playing’ with the violent man — their father or stepfather, or the mother’s boyfriend — with the purpose of distracting him (Hyden, 2009; Overlien and Hyden, 2009).