Boundaries and Counter-transference When Serving Foster Youth: Best Practices

Sonja Lenz-Rashid, PhD, LCSW

Training Description

The training workshop will take a developmental approach, focusing on the various emotional and physical boundaries that inevitably arise with working with youth and children in foster care, and systems-involved youth. This training will also utilize case vignettes and small group sharing to dig deep into the various counter-transference experiences we may face when working with youth in foster care. It will also cover how counter-transference may impact the assessments we do and interventions we use.

Learning Objective

• Participants will be able to identify situations where they may encounter a foster youth testing the participants’ emotional, physical, or professional boundaries (skill building)
• Participants will apply and practice strategies (via role plays) to respond to foster youth who are testing various professional boundary scenarios (skill building)
• Participants will learn about how trauma, and being involved in the child welfare system, may impact a foster youth's experiences with professional boundaries (knowledge building)

Agenda 

9:30am-9:45am Introductions and Training Objectives

9:45am-10:45am Section I: Overview of Types of Boundary Dilemmas

10:45am-11:00am Section II: Case Vignettes and Discussion

11:00am-12:00pm Section III: Counter-transference when working with Foster Youth

12:00pm-12:30pm Section IV: CT Case Vignette and Discussion

Meet Our Trainer

Dr. Sonja Lenz-Rashid is an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at San Francisco State University. Dr. Lenz-Rashid has over 25 years of experience in direct service and administrative practice in non-profit community-based organizations serving at-risk youth and she is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. In 2005 she co-founded the Guardian Scholars Program at San Francisco State, a supportive program for undergraduate students with a history of foster care. She is currently the program’s Clinical and Evaluation Consultant. She is also a clinical trainer at various non-profits serving foster youth in the Bay Area.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.0) 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.