Doing Shame Without Shaming: Responding to Affect in Men’s Violence Workshop

This workshop will highlight and illustrate ways of responding to men’s affective reactions when addressing family violence. Violence is often mediated through reactive affects which can be overlooked in cognitive interventions and psycho-educational programs. The workshop will focus on the importance of understanding and responding to the parasympathetic affects of shame, disgust and contempt which are central in the mediation of violence and abusive behaviour. When these affects are misunderstood they tend to produce reactive behaviour for the men we work with and within ourselves. However, these affects can also enable a productive and ethical movement towards just, respectful and loving connections within families. The workshop will highlight non-shaming ways of responding, rather than reacting, within the complex assemblage of power relations and moral imperatives that support family violence.