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Protected: Pilot. Supporting Neurodivergent clients: A guide for practitioners facilitating domestic abuse perpetrator interventions

Pilot. Supporting Neurodivergent clients: A guide for practitioners facilitating domestic abuse perpetrator interventions

Nicole Renehan
Overview
Curriculum
  • 9 Sections
  • 64 Lessons
  • 0m Duration
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CONFIDENTIAL Supplementary materials
2 Lessons
  1. Supporting Neurodivergent clients: A guide for practitioners facilitating domestic abuse perpetrator interventions (pdf)
  2. Pilot training event recording 16 September 2025
Part 1: Introduction to the Guide
8 Lessons
  1. 1.1 What is this guide about
  2. 1.2 Definition of key terms
  3. 1.3 Who is this guide for?
  4. 1.4 How to use this guide
  5. 1.5 Structure of the Guide
  6. 1.6 Where did this information come from? (Funding and project partners)
  7. 1.6 Where did this information come from? (Building on previous research)
  8. 1.7 What is and is not within the scope of this guide?
Part 2: An introduction to neurodivergence
7 Lessons
  1. 2.1 What is neurodivergence?
  2. 2.2 Neuro-affirmative language and provision
  3. 2.3 Key explanations about neurodivergence to support practice
  4. 2.3.1 The neurodiversity paradigm
  5. 2.3.2 Spiky profiles
  6. 2.3.3 Executive functioning
  7. 2.3.4 The double empathy problem
Part 3: Neurodivergence and domestic abuse
3 Lessons
  1. 3.1 Understanding Coercive Structural Control
  2. 3.1a Neurodivergence does not cause domestic abuse!
  3. 3.2b Understanding differences between structural and coercive control
Part 4: SPACE: A framework for supporting neurodivergent clients in domestic abuse perpetrator interventions
2 Lessons
  1. 4.1 What is the SPACE framework?
  2. 4.2 Adapted SPACE Framework
Part 5 Supporting neurodivergent clients
31 Lessons
  1. Introduction to Part 5
  2. 5.1 BUILDING AND ENVIRONMENT
  3. 5.1a Building
  4. 5.1b Intervention rooms
  5. SCENARIO ONE: The Unknown
  6. 5.2 ASSESSMENT OF NEEDS AND ADAPTATIONS
  7. 5.2a Initial contact and planning
  8. 5.2b Initial appointment and exploring neurodivergence
  9. 5.2c Exploration of needs and adaptations
  10. SCENARIO TWO: Sensory overload
  11. 5.2d Managing distress: identifying a client’s coping strategies.
  12. 5.2e Identifying communication and learning needs
  13. 5.3 UNDERSTANDING RISK TO PARTNER AND CHILDREN
  14. 5.3a Understanding specific challenges in the home environment
  15. 5.3b Identifying coping strategies in the home
  16. 5.4 SUPPORTING AND MAINTAINING ENGAGEMENT IN AN INTERVENTION
  17. SCENARIO 3: CONFLICT IN THE GROUP
  18. 5.4a Group and intervention rules and agreements
  19. EXAMPLE STATEMENT ON NEURODIVERSITY AND RESPECTING DIFFERENCE
  20. 5.4b Providing predictability during sessions
  21. 5.4c Communicating information and facilitating learning
  22. 5.4d Recognising and preventing distress
  23. 5.4e Responding to distress
  24. 5.4f Group work: managing competing needs
  25. 5.5 ADDRESSING COERCIVE STRUCTURAL CONTROL IN BEHAVIOUR CHANGE WORK
  26. 5.5a Unpicking neurodivergence and coercive strategies
  27. EXAMPLES OF RECIPROCAL, NON-ABUSIVE NEURODIVERGENT RELATIONSHIPS
  28. 5.5b Taking individual responsibility for regulation
  29. 5.6 SUPPORTING SAFE INTERVENTION EXIT AND SOURCES OF SUPPORT
  30. 5.6a Supporting safe intervention exit
  31. 5.6b Identifying safe sources of support
Part 6 Practitioner wellbeing and care
2 Lessons
  1. 6.1 Supporting the development of neuro-inclusive working practices
  2. 6.2 Practitioner self-care
Part 7 Sources of support
3 Lessons
  1. 7.1 Acknowledging the challenges of signposting
  2. 7.2 Resources for practice
  3. 7.3 Reading
Questions to explore with clients – a quick reference guide
6 Lessons
  1. Appendix introduction
  2. A1a. Questions for exploring neurodivergence
  3. A1b. Questions for exploring communication and learning needs
  4. A1c. Questions for exploring the home environment
  5. A1d. Questions to support learning facilitation and check understanding
  6. A1e. Questions to explore intent behind and impact of behaviour

This guide is about domestic abuse in the context of neurodivergence. His Majesty’s Prisons and Prison Service and Ministry of Justice have identified neurodiversity as a research and business priority. The recent Home Office Standards for Domestic Abuse Perpetrator Interventions (Home Office, 2023) make it incumbent upon service providers to consider the needs of a neurodiverse client base (p.22). Yet, practitioners have often had little support or guidance about how to work from a neuro-inclusive perspective (Renehan, forthcoming).  This guide aims to help fill some of these gaps by: 

  • increasing awareness, understanding and confidence of neurodiversity amongst those working within the domestic abuse perpetrator intervention sector;  
  • examine and clarify the differences between coercive control (an abusive behaviour) and structural control (a coping strategy deployed by many neurodivergent people) and explore how these dynamics can intersect in practice;  
  • support organisations to design environments and processes that recognise the needs of a neurodiverse population of clients to enhance accessibility and engagement;  
  • creating neurodivergent friendly workplaces that recognise, value and support neurodivergent colleagues working in this sector.  

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