Have you ever learned an important life lesson by getting into trouble...

...and then getting back out of it in some positive way?

 

If you're nodding your head "yes," then you have experienced one of the facts of human nature that helps explain why restorative approaches are so effective.

We call this "The Theory of Trouble."

Trouble is what brings restorative justice workers into the lives of the people we serve. In The World Behind the World, author Michael Meade proposes a theory of trouble that rings true for many of us:

“People try to teach the young to avoid errors, yet the best opportunities for learning occur after mistakes have been made. Teaching begins where trouble raises important issues of life, so does learning. The desire to learn awakens where people lack knowledge and make mistakes.”

In Restorative Justice, we view trouble is a doorway through which people may enter into the inner work of their lives. This inner work is the deeper curriculum of life. More from Meade:

“People ‘find themselves’ when in some kind of trouble. What troubles us always seems bigger than we are, it grabs hold of us and we find ourselves being pulled deeper and deeper into it. That’s the point of trouble: to get us into deeper waters than we might choose on our own.”

In our culture, restorative workers serve like lifeguards who are trained and willing to go into those “deeper waters” where others are floundering.

But to be true to a fundamental vision of “restorative” we do not simply rescue others. Instead, we swim with them in a way that helps them discover their own capacity. We believe in them, that the capacity is there, and we believe it deeply enough that we do not supress it by doing too much.

This is a way of understanding empathy. Ours is not a prescriptive practice, but is rather a cooperative process, more akin to community organizing than to social work or therapy.

We are guides, helping people and communities come through times of trouble in a way that better leaves them better equipped to engage the fullness of life.