PartnershipProjects

PartnershipProjects is a UK based training consultancy for psychological intervention where there are serious concerns for the safety of children, young people and vulnerable adults. Working in the family, school and community, we support the National Health Service, Social Services and schools in bringing about change in ‘complex cases’, involving multi-stressed families as well as children who are looked after. Our interventions deal with highly stressful experiences and dangerous behaviours in clients – ranging from complex post-traumatic stress disorder to violence and self-destructive behaviour in young people.
This work requires a combination of highly specialist therapies. In our casework, we use systemic therapies, which are evidence based and highly effective, such as Solution- focused Brief Therapy, Systemic Trauma-Focused Therapy, Resource-based CBT, and NVR- Non Violent Resistance Therapy.
NVR has become a cornerstone of our work at PartnershipProjects. The inspirational work of Haim Omer and the NVR team in Tel Aviv has helped us respond effectively to even the most concerning cases, in which young people show violent, controlling and self-destructive behaviour. We are the first organisation to deliver professional training and clinical supervision in this approach in the UK. NVR was introduced to the UK by Peter Jakob, Director of PartnershipProjects, who invited Haim Omer and Uri Weinblatt to present workshops on NVR in Southeast England. Over the past five years, we have provided training in NVR to many NHS and local authority organisations, and are now offering the first UK NVR certificate course, beginning in November 2011.
Our enthusiasm for NVR is in part derived from the openness of Haim Omer and the Tel Aviv group for new adaptations of the approach - such developments have even been warmly welcomed and encouraged. This enables NVR to respond both sensitively and effectively to local conditions. In the UK, many practitioners are concerned to meet the complex needs of multi-stressed families and of looked after children. Therefore, our training in NVR integrates trauma therapy as well as a child focus. Inspired by the work of Jim Wilson, who has developed a child focus in systemic therapy, we have adapted NVR to addressing the unmet needs of children and young people whose distress has been masked by their aggressive, controlling and often violent behaviour. In this way, our training gives the maximum support to practitioners who work with children and families where there have been histories of child abuse and neglect, and with foster carers.
In 2012, PartnershipProjects will open its NVR Skype service for parents anywhere in the UK. After a residential group-work weekend with other parents, experienced therapists will support parents with NVR over a three-month period, which in turn will be followed by another parent-group day.

Increasingly, schools are developing an interest in NVR. The ‘New Authority’ principles and practices offer an alternative form of inclusive discipline, which helps teachers out of helplessness and professional isolation. Together with a partner agency, PartnershipProjects is currently developing a school-based New Authority project in the Southeast of England.

Please direct any inquiries to info@partnershipprojectsuk.com, or visit our website at www.partnershipprojectsuk.com.