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

 Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

Examine the reasons why you chose to work in this field. They can be a “double-edged sword”- by being both the very things that make us excellent at our work and that can also lead to compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. Explore how our own “stuff” impacts our work with system-involved youth and their families and, if you are a supervisor, how to support those you supervise with all of this. Discuss self-disclosure with system involved youth and families, explore ourselves and countertransference, identify how we know when we are over-involved with those we support, and review ways to address this.

Learning Objectives

· Participants will be able to identify 2 reasons why is important to separate our own issues (countertransference) from those of the youth and families we support within in our continuum of care.

· Participants will be able to identify 2 ways in which our self-awareness is directly linked to providing support to our system-involved youth and families in a manner that can improve their outcomes.

· Participants will be able to identify 2 strategies for how to identify triggers and address them so that they are less likely to interfere with efforts to support system-involved youth/families.

Agenda

10:00-10:15AM  Sign In

10:15-10:45AM  Section I: Defining the relationship between our own stuff, and the tendency to step over ethical boundaries.

10:45-11:00AM  Personal exercise on self-exploration and who we really are.

11:00-11:15AM  Discussion and sharing with large group regarding our personal exploration.

11:15-11:45AM  Small group work regarding what is coming up for us in terms of transference, countertransference and our survival instinct to make assumptions about others. Large group discussion of sharing from small group work.

11:45AM-12:00PM  BREAK (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

12:00-12:15PM  Q&A consolidation of learning so far.

12:15-12:45PM  Small group exercise regarding assumptions that we make about each other just based on our “covers”. Sharing of the assumptions that we believe others might make about us.

12:45-1:00PM  Identifying our own triggers when working with system-involved youth and their families.

1:00-1:30PM  LUNCH (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

1:30-2:00PM  Culture, countertransference and assumptions. What are these and how do we discuss them with clients.

2:00-2:30PM  Identifying our countertransference, and then figuring out how to differentiate this from the feelings of the “person of the support”. They are different.

2:30-3:00PM  Watch clips from Short-Term 12. Discuss how the people in these clips handled their own stuff!

3:00-3:15PM  BREAK (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

3:15-3:45PM  What are our triggers, how do we feel when triggered, and how do we NOT react to our triggers in the moment when with our system-involved youth.

3:45-4:15PM  Ways to identify our own stuff, and how to work on it in an ongoing way.

4:15-4:30PM  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. Dr. Parkinson has spent most of her career working with system involved youth in our Continuum of Care (foster care, juvenile justice, mental health and the kids struggling in our school systems). She is a certified PCOMS evidence-based practice trainer. Pamela currently works as a child/family consultant to CBO’s in the Bay Area and 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.