NVR in Ireland

Written by: Tara Kelly with Dr. Declan Coogan

Non-Violent Resistance work in Ireland began with the work of Dr. Declan Coogan. Having identified Child to Parent Violence and Abuse in his role as a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Practitioner, Dr. Coogan, with the support of his team and of Haim Omer, adapted the NVR programme for use in Ireland.

With promising results from this programme, Dr. Coogan proceeded to deliver the programme to practitioners in a variety of child and family services in Ireland. This became the subject of his PhD research project in the National University of Ireland, Galway.

With his colleague, Eileen Lauster , Dr. Coogan became involved with the EU Daphne funded Responding to Child to Parent Violence Project . As part of this project, Coogan and Lauster trained practitioners across Ireland in the NVR model throughout 2013 and 2014 (https://cpvireland.ie/ ). Declan and Eileen continue to offer training and practice sessions in the NVR model.

The work of Coogan and Lauster has established a solid foundation for further work. Practitioners have begun to understand, identify and respond to this increasing concern for families in Ireland. There is now a high level of support for this work and Dr. Coogan has trained practitioners as trainers in NVR so that the work can continue to grow and develop. Key child protection and welfare agencies in the country have welcomed training and practice in NVR and the indications are that this programme is proving to be very effective in reducing CPV and in building and improving parent/child relationships.