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. In this training, we will discuss self-disclosure, explore ourselves and countertransference, identify how we know when we are over-involved, and review ways to address this.

Learning Objectives

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

• Identify ways in which our self-awareness is directly linked to providing services to our system-involved youth in a      manner that can improve outcomes.