In New South Wales, Australia, when people are referred to the Goulburn Family Support Services (GFSS) they always get a basic education in Silvan Tomkins’ theory of affects. “We started doing this in 2002 and have found it to be a key element in our clients’ success,” said Matt Casey, Chairman of the Management Committee. The clients are often involved in domestic violence and come to GFSS for safety planning to determine how the abusive behavior can be stopped and the relationships in the family repaired. “Initially we imagined we would run restorative conferences for the women and their families, including the abuser,” said Casey, referring to a specific type of meeting involving all parties in a traumatic event and intended to surface multiple perspectives and feelings to promote mutual healing. “For a range of reasons, including the fact that many of our clients didn’t have strong family support, we found that it was not possible to run the conferences.” So the team at GFSS looked for ways to get the benefits of a restorative conference from one-on-one interactions with the women and their partners. They knew about Silvan Tomkins’ affect theory, and “it became obvious to us that this theory underpinned everything we know about restorative justice,” said Casey.... Read More