Foster Care Training

For years we have been told to be “strength-based and client centered”, however, we have not typically been told what this means in terms of what we should be doing differently with our clients. In our field, we often focus on the negative events that have occurred or the pathology that a client and their family members seem to present with. We forget, in the midst of all of the difficulties, that everyone has strengths and abilities and good intentions. This training focuses on the importance of teaming with family members from the beginning of treatment to build an alliance and the importance of this alliance to engaging with families and sustaining this critical relationship. We will also clarify what it means in terms of our work to be “strength-based” and some of the basic ways of structuring our work to be inviting to families.