[Parental presence and parental coaching in non-violent resistance].

Parental Presence (PP) and Non-violent Resistance (NVR) are the core concepts to describe an approach in counselling helpless parents of children with behavioral disorders. Basically PP means the presence of the parents in the life of their child. It can get lost when escalating conflicts so much become part of the everyday life of the family that these processes can't be handled constructively any more. The escalation then follows either a pattern of complementarity--the readiness of the parents to easily give in, or a symmetric pattern of increasing mutual hostility. Parents then often withdraw and thus parental helplessness and loss of PP come along with each other. The program of systemic parental coaching in NVR has been developed by Haim Omer in Tel Aviv, Israel, and attracted increasing attention among experts in Germany in the last years. It provides an opportunity for the parents to find a "third way" between the two escalating patterns and regain their presence. The approach is described, and the interventions are explained.