Family Historical Information Gathering and Life Cycle Development within Efforts to Support System Involved Youth

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

We can’t know how to develop plans to support system involved youth if we don’t understand fully the youth’s context including family relationships, historical trauma, and intergenerational influences. Learn how the history of the biological families of our system involved youth impacts their current functioning and how a family’s life cycle developmental challenges are intricately related to a youth’s own developmental challenges and attachment issues. We will review the importance of creating family trees and timelines with families in order to learn about their culture/stressors/life experiences and other important values. This information guides our case planning and service provision of all kinds. Without context, we cannot possibly understand what the behaviors of our kids in the Continuum of Care mean or how we might go about healing the pain and achieving positive outcomes.

Learning Objective

• Review Family Systems Theory and the Importance of Historical/Cultural context when supporting youth.             
• Identify child development theories and learn the 4 questions of Pain in the Heart Theory, which was developed while working with youth in out of home placement and in the juvenile justice system. 
• Identify 3 strategies for examining the impact of family life cycle development on youth attachment 

Agenda 

9:30AM - 9:40AM  Sign In

9:40AM – 11:00AM  Section I: Systems theory and the importance of family history/culture in understanding the symptoms of our system involved youth. Small group break-out discussions.

11:00AM – 11:15AM  BREAK (CE Hours will not be issued for this time)

11:15AM – 12:30PM  Section II:  Building the family tree with the family in the room! Also, small group practice.

12:30PM – 1:00PM  LUNCH (CE Hours will not be issued for this time)

1:00PM – 2:30PM  Section III: Review of a few child development theories and family life cycle development: How these impact the youth’s development and attachment issues.

2:30PM – 2:45PM  BREAK (CE Hours will not be issued for this time)

2:45PM – 3:50PM  PITH theory introduction and break out groups to apply the day of learning.

3:50PM – 4:00PM  ADJOURNMENT

Meet Our Trainer

Pamela Parkinson, PhD, LCSW, is a clinical psychologist and clinical social worker, whose specialty area is working with youth and their families with an emphasis on the importance of family engagement and on the healing of traumatic attachment ruptures in work with youth, especially youth who we serve in our continuum of care: child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health and the school systems. Dr. Parkinson is also a certified PCOMS evidence-based practice trainer. She currently works as a child/family trainer and consultant to CBO’s in the Bay Area and Pamela has worked in level 14 residential, NPS, hospitals, and a variety of community-based settings including outpatient clinics, schools, diversion, kinship, etc.

This course meets the qualifications for (5.5) BBS CE Hours for LCSWs, LMFTs, LPCCs, and LEPs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.