Foster Care Training

This is a 3 hour introduction to some of the basic concepts and tools of Narrative Therapy. Participants will be provided with an understanding of why Narrative Therapy’s theory, concepts and practices are particularly relevant to working with children, teens, families and care providers who are suffering from the effects of racism, poverty & trauma. Narrative Therapy is different from other therapeutic techniques in that it directly takes up the question of power that social workers, therapists and others in the helping professions hold. This is particularly useful for working with youth who have often felt oppressed, marginalized or discounted by their engagement with social service systems. This training provides a comprehensive way of approaching the problem of trust that often arises between youth and service professionals and will provide anyone who works directly with youth a way to engage honestly and directly in short or longer term interactions.

Clinicians will learn playful techniques for engaging with clients around the difficult problems they face. The workshop will be experiential, and participants will walk away with some real world tools to use with clients. This is not a lecture – come ready to participate!

Participants will

• Gain an understanding of why you might want to use narrative tools with foster youth and their families/caregivers.
• Learn some basic language and ideas that are fundamental to narrative therapy.
• Experience of what it’s like to use narrative tools.
• Understand how to hold power as a clinician to positively impact youth buy-in in therapy/ support services
• Learn ways to engage youth that support trust
• Help clinicians know how to be more effective in engaging youth in services