Awareness of our Own Reactions and Countertransference when Supporting System Involved Youth and Their Families

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW & Kimberlin Leon, ASW

Training Description

Examine the reasons why you chose to support system involved youth and families. They can be a “double-edged sword”— by being both the very things that make us excellent at supporting them and they can also cause our burn-out. Explore how our own “stuff” impacts our efforts to support system-involved youth and their families and, if you work with others who support system involved youth, how to support each other. Discuss self-disclosure with system involved youth and families, explore ourselves and countertransference, identify how we know when we are over-involved with system involved youth we support, and review ways to address this.

Learning Objectives

1. Describe the importance of separating our own issues (countertransference) from those of the youth and families in our continuum of care.

2. Identify ways in which our self-awareness is directly linked to providing support to our system-involved…