Family Historical Information Gathering and Life Cycle Development within Efforts to Support System-Involved Youth

Pamela Parkinson, Ph.D., LCSW

Training Description

We can’t know how to develop plans to support system-involved youth if we don’t understand fully the youth’s context including family relationships, historical trauma, and intergenerational influences. Learn how the history of the biological families of our system-involved youth impacts their current functioning and how a family’s life cycle developmental challenges are intricately related to a youth’s own developmental challenges and attachment issues. We will review the importance of creating family trees and timelines with families in order to learn about their life experiences and other important values. This information guides our case planning and service provision of all kinds. Without context, we cannot possibly understand what the behaviors of youth in the Continuum of Care mean or how we might go about healing the pain and achieving positive outcomes.

Learning Objectives

Participants will be able to:

·        Explain the Family Systems Theory and…