Foster Care Training

Healthy boundaries support healthy relationships. All relationships are dynamic and complex, and trauma symptoms are a complicating factor. This training considers ways to make positive connection in relationships with children, youth, and families who are involved in systems of foster care, child welfare and juvenile justice. Awareness practices and creative activities will provide experiential learning, exploring dynamics of inner and outer, distance and closeness, engagement and disengagement. We’ll review regulation and consider how rhythm and pattern can be used to structure interactions during a single meeting and over time. We’ll discuss ways to create collaborative frameworks for relationships and practice skills for communicating our needs and our limits. Visual case examples will show a variety of art activities related to boundaries. Information is based on years of clinical experience as well as current research in neurobiology and trauma treatment. Practices will be relevant to a wide variety of ages and relationships, including therapy; advocacy; case management; social work; and to some extent, foster parenting and other forms of care.