ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author discusses the some of the small details of working with highly unregulated emotion associated with violence, past and present. Changing the interactional context of violence between a couple while it is still a hot issue and interrupting escalation is something a therapist has to practise in order to manage it with confidence. Working with the recognition of internalised trauma or violence from the past as it relates to current distress requires ongoing calm and patience on the part of the therapist. It is always important to consider how future triggers for violence will remain in the family system, internalised differently in each member’s inner working models of emotionally charged patterns of provocation and response. Frameworks for considering why the violence pathway is being privileged over other possible responses in any particular family subsystem are more safely approached by a cognitive and curious framework from the therapist.
