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 your work and that can also cause our burn-out. 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 clients, explore ourselves and counter-transference, identify how we know when we are over-involved with our clients, and review ways to address this.

Learning Objective

• Describe the importance of separating our own issues (countertransference) from those of the clients/families in our      continuum of care.
• Identify ways in which our self-awareness is directly linked to providing services to our system involved clients in a      manner that can improve client outcomes.

1. How our stuff can interfere with client progress.
2. The  importance of supervision to help us identify and work through our own stuff.
3. How dual relationships can lead us down a slippery slope.

• Apply  today’s learning on our own stuff to our work in this field:

1. Role plays to help identify our triggers and ways to react productively to them in the moment.
2. Strategies for how to continue to identify your own triggers and ways to work on them so that they are less likely to interfere with the work or to lead to our own burn out.

Agenda 

10:00 AM – 10:10 AM  Sign In

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

10:45 AM – 11:45 AM Group work on self-exploration and who we really are.

11:45 AM – 12:00 PM BREAK (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Identifying our own triggers when working with youth and their families.

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

1:30 PM – 2:00 PM Culture: Discussing differences with clients.

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Role play practice of a variety of typical boundary struggles in our everyday work.

3:00 PM – 3:15 PM BREAK (CEUs will not be issued for this time)

3:15 PM – 4:20 PM Knowing our triggers is the start but now it is time to focus on the strategies for how to process them so that they will not interfere with our work or lead to our own burn out.

4:20 PM – 4:30 PM 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 CEUs for LCSWs and MFTs as required by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences & is provided by Fred Finch Youth Center, CAMFT Provider #045295.