Testimonials

"I really liked it, very informative and really understandable. Good language for Germans to understand"

"I think it was very interesting and I must try it in real situation"

"Thank you for the great input"

"It's interesting how you've been able to put into words things I've felt, like the attitude toward perps"

"Informative"

"Really liked that it was interactive. It was really interesting and informative and tought well even for someone who isn't done with studying and hasn´t had much experience yet"

"I think you managed really well to have something difficult transferred into almost micro-skills that everyone can learn and start using. Thanks."

The Ethical Inquiry

The Ethical Inquiry is a unique, comprehensive approach designed to help social workers and professionals engage effectively with men who use violence against their partners. Here's how it makes a difference:

Structured Engagement: Provides specific questions and a 3-step interview structure to guide conversations with men who use violence to hold them accountable in a respectful context.

Broader Understanding: Explores the socio-political landscape to help practitioners understand the dynamics of family violence.

Avoiding Common Mistakes: Helps workers avoid pitfalls like ‘Oppositional Collusion,’ which can lead to frustration and poor outcomes.

“Instead of using confrontation and coercion, we prioritise the principles of respect and accountability.”

Cool Engagement: Using the ‘Cool Engagement’ strategy we can respond to denial that cools the conversation down. When the time is right, we heat the conversation back up and invite the man to reflect on his violence and abuse.

Ethical Conversations: Encourages men to reflect on their ethical positions regarding violence and abuse, paving the way for responsibility-taking and safety planning.

Practical Tools: Includes resources like questioning flowcharts, example transcripts, live demonstrations, and flashcards for skill development.

The Parallel Journey: While the Ethical Inquiry has a number of tools and a guiding structure, the key to developing good outcomes is in the practitioner's posture. Adopting the parallel journey posture is the most important part of the Ethical Inquiry, as the worker achieves a respectful approach while holding the perpetrator accountable through this philosophy.

With these and other concepts of the Ethical Inquiry, practitioners can invite the man to begin to safety plan and increase family safety.

"An Ethical Inquiry is a questioning approach that sustains respectful and accountable conversations through the discovery of the perpetrator’s own ethical preferences in relation to family violence." (Greenwell & Smith, 2021)

Example of the session planner for the Ethical Inquiry Webinar Series