Foster Care Training

One of the things I hear so often when supervising interns, residents and the RPT’s in training is how hard it can be to work with parents. As a parent myself, I often find myself cheering on the parents. Why? Because PARENTING IS HARD. Practice setting the tone for working with children AND explore ways to gain parent’s trust from meeting #1. This training will cover regulation and attachment, therapeutic powers of play, working directly with parents, how to support parents outside of school, family therapy options, and how parents can help their children at home. Helping children begins with regulation and attachment. Before helping a child regulate and build secure attachments, we must first understand our own attachment style and how to regulate our own body. Through play, we can help children develop emotional wellness, effective communication, positive social relationships, and personal strength. Working directly with parents is an art. It is important to build a trusting relationship while also speaking to the problem that parents are seeking help for. Creating boundaries, effective communication, and empowering parents are critical skills in working with parents outside of our workplace. Providing options for effective family therapy is a great way to ensure we are helping the family become a cohesive unit. Lastly, parents can be great healers for their children if we give them the tools. Parent coaching, tips for calming the nervous system, and educational resources are great ways to help parents gain the skills to continue providing a positive healing space for their children at home.