Black Box ParentingA program for at-risk caregivers

Dr. Rebecca Sng

Clinical Psychologist/Clinical Family Therapist

rsng@gph.org.au

Discussion Question

When have you experienced “professional loneliness”?

Grand Pacific Health

Qualitative Study – Mothers after DV

• Pels, van Rooij and Distelbrink (2015)

• Interviewed 100 survivors of DV

• Key Themes:• “Lack of attention to their children”

• “Taking out own frustrations”

• “Spoiling children” due to guilt

• “Children taking over adult responsibilities”

Parenting after DV – common sequence

Parent is reminded of past abuse

Parent has intrusive

memories or is unable to assert

authority

Child feels that adults cannot

be trusted to be in charge

Child is distressed and

becomes aggressive or oppositional

Black Box Parenting Program – group manual

• 5 x 2.5hr sessions fortnightly in a face-to-face group (3-15)

• Catch up sessions or individual phone calls on the “off week”

• Childcare and Morning Tea are a must

• Run to fit into one school term (about 10 weeks)

• Adjunct to work with individual families or other parenting programs based of Social Learning Theory (eg: Triple P)

• The aim is not to necessarily see a shift in child behaviour but to reduce shame and increase understanding, engagement and hope.

Black Box Parenting Program – group manual

• Why a manual?• May reduce the ability to adapt to individual and fall into the trap of didactic

teaching

• However, the good use of a manual can offer a generalist clinician some of the basic concepts a specialist in this area might build from

• Generalist clinicians are everywhere but in rural areas, being able to deal with a wide range of presentations is especially important

• Specialist training may also be hard to come by – usually not as wide a network of potential consultants or as many face-to-face workshops

Black Box as a Community of Practice

• Therefore, how can we use the Black Box program as the basis for building a community of practice in this area?• Locally

• Nationally

• Internationally

Pilot Study – Dads in D+A Rehab• It’s hard to implement if the service is not strongly

structured or kids are not invited onto the space

• Fathers had a significant decrease in guilt

• Fathers had significant increase in parental self-efficacy

• 83% said they would like to keep working on their parenting

• 93% found the Black Box metaphor helpful

• “…stuff isn’t pushed aside that’s forgotten. There is a storage and that can foster understanding where real concerns come from”.

© Marianne Torres. 2016

Present Project

• Using Black Box Parenting groups in families who have experienced family violence

• Currently with non-offending parents – although including all parents is an aim

• New Statewide Grant: from “Womens NSW” to run 30 train-the-trainer workshops in the next 3 years in rural and metropolitan centres throughout the state.

• Supported by Winston Churchill Fellowship – 7 week study tour to learn from Best Practice in the UK and USA.

T H R E A T

FIGHT FLIGHTFREEZE

“THINKING BRAIN”

“EMOTIONAL

BRAIN”

“REACTING

BRAIN”

SIGNALS TO BODY

BRAIN

DEVELOPMENT

DIAGRAM

Special Time Skills

P.R.I.D.E

• Praise

• Reflect

• Imitate

• Describe

• Enjoy

Black Box Parenting

Arousal Graph

“RED ZONE”

“YELLOW ZONE”

“GREEN ZONE”

TIME

AROUSAL

“Thinking Brain” Off

Freeze/Fight/Flight On.

“Thinking Brain” On

Freeze/Fight/Flight Off

The parent I want to be

Regret Guilt Shame

Sociocultural Influences

Towards a feminist understanding of intersecting violence against women and children in the family

SophieNamyaCatherineCarlsonbKathleenO'HaracJanetNakutiaPaulBukulukidJuliusLwanyaagaeSylviaNamakulaeBarbrahNanyunjaaMilton L.WainbergcDipakNakeraLoriMichaua

Black Box as a Community of Practice

• How can we use the Black Box program as the basis for building a community of practice in this area?• Locally

• Nationally

• Internationally

• How do you connect successfully easily?• Locally

• Nationally

• Internationally

Barriers to communities of practice• Don’t have time to be a member of too many communities

• Unless you’re an academic, you probably don’t have time to read a bunch of articles

• Bad history between members

• Turf wars

• “Elite” and those who don’t belong

• Short-term time/resources/effort for long-term reward

• Others?

Solutions that work

• What builds an engaging, inclusive, useful and sustainable community of practice?