Arzamas: New Social Practice: Using Restorative Methods in Working with Families in Crisis

Source: Moscow: Public Centre for Legal and Judicial Reform. Downloaded 10 October 2002.

When families experience crisis due to harmful patterns of family members relating to each other, outside assistance is often vital in facing and succeeding through the crisis. Professionals, such as psychotherapists or similar practitioners, can of course be helpful. At the same time, write Nina Kosova and Irina Gurina, formal professional processes may not help with some people and in some families. They maintain that restorative methods often can be most appropriate for certain families in crisis. In this framework, they describe the work of Peace to the Family – a civic organization of women of Arzamas (in Russia). Peace to the Family is beginning to use elements of restorative methods to respond to family crises, including cases of domestic violence. Kosova and Gurina include a summary of an actual case to demonstrate the use of such methods to deal with a family crisis.