This influential and compassionate book explores ways of working with adult men and young men who are violent and abusive. It gives practical examples of how they can be invited to discover more sensitive, respectful and personally rewarding ways of relating to others.
This book was recommended to me by my therapist and friend. Though I am not violent, and I doubt even my wife would consider me to be abusive, as I read this book I did find passage after passage that seemed to fit me and my unhealthy thought patterns. I had no idea how many manipulations I actually do engage in with my wife. This book opened my eyes about myself, led to some wonderful conversations with my wife and made me a better person. What more can you ask of a book?
A great read for those working with or wanting to work with, abusive men. The book focuses on men but I think the approaches could probably be used with either gender. Although the book is a little dated, the approaches and examples seem relatable. However, I feel like many of the example questions are repeated throughout the book and it got a little dull. I would also have appreciated more examples of dialogue between counsellor and client, and perhaps having one main client examined throughout the book would have been useful. Jenkins does use the same pseudonym for the fictional wife, 'Jill' throughout, but it's used mainly as examples of questions a counsellor might ask the client.