Lynette Parker: Restorative Justice…Not Counselling
Jun 15, 2009
A few months ago, I assisted with a training event for restorative conferencing facilitators. When asking questions, some of the participants would say, “so when people get this counselling…” and were surprised when I adamantly stated that conferencing is not counselling. Several laughed and joked about it the rest of the day, but the confusion between the two has stayed with me.
Since then, I’ve seen a conferencing agreement written by a seasoned facilitator that included “the defendant will learn from the restorative justice counselling he has received,” and talked with a programme director who is struggling with a facilitator in training who wants to sit down and give advice to participants. While none of us are disengaged from the people we work with (and really can’t be), I think that we bring some dangers to the process when we take off the facilitator hat and put on that of counsellor:
- Creation of power imbalances where the facilitators drive the process instead of empowering the parties to actively participate, build their own understanding, and develop realistic plans that meet their needs and concerns.
- Developing another system of ‘passive’ responsibility on the part of those who have caused harm. Dictating to or just advising a client on what s/he should doesn’t allow the individual to assume the responsibility for understanding the harm done or participating in creating a response that meets the needs of both those harmed and the one causing the harm.
- Dismissing individuals from the process based on facilitator biases instead of allowing the participants to have a voice in the matter. While all facilitators have a responsibility for ensuring the emotional and physical safety of participants, it is important to allow participants (especially victims) to make informed decisions about participation.
As I think about this, I think about something I wrote for a restorative justice training that Prison Fellowship International conducted a few years ago:
“For a facilitator in a restorative process, success is providing a safe place—both physically and emotionally—for all participants to tell their stories, listen to the stories of others, dialogue about the impact of the crime and decide on steps for moving forward.”
I think mistaking the restorative process for counselling can pull us away from what success really is and drive the process in a different direction.
What do you think? Am I over reacting and this really isn’t a big deal? Are there other dangers to mistaking the restorative process for counselling?
Restorative Justice: Not Counselling
Great article. My partner, Kris Johnson and I experience the same problem. It is affirming to know that it is not just "us." We oftened worried about our presentation of restorative practices--and also we are very careful when we have our "facilitator hat" on. I actually had a person refer to a story telling circle process that we do in a middle school after school program as a "help me activity like prevention activities and counseling." I was appalled; and no you aren't over-reacting and yes, I think it is a big deal! We all need to be careful in our parts of any restorative process, but we also need to spend a lot of time educating others. I thiink for me, that is the hardest part--there are a lot of preconceived notions out there.