How Solution-Focused Therapy Strategies can Improve Support for System Involved Youth and Families

Nicole Kelly, PsyD & Nancy Acosta, PsyD

Training Description

Solution-focused therapy strategies are becoming more popular within mental health and social service organizations as some services are becoming shorter in duration. Solution-focused therapy strategies focus on solutions rather than problems and can be extremely helpful within efforts to support parents of youth in foster care since there are time limits to demonstrating progress needed for their child being reunified with them and return home. The training will provide an overview of solution-focused interventions as well as key concepts and strategies for implementing solution-focused interventions within efforts to support system-involved youth and families.

Learning Objectives

· Participants will be able to explain solution-focused interventions

· Participants will be able to identify one solution-focused strategy

· Participants will be able to ask youth and or their caregiver about the miracle question

Agenda

1:00-1:15pm  Welcome

1:15-2:45pm  Solution-focused overview

· Describing solution-focused therapy

· Ideal candidates for solution-focused therapy

· Goals of solution-focused therapy

· Key concepts

· Goal development

· Pre-session change

2:45-3:00pm  Break (CE hours will not be offered for this time)

3:00-4:45pm  Implementing solution-focused interventions within efforts to support system-involved youth

· Previous solutions

· Exceptions

· Future-oriented vs past-oriented questions

· Compliments

· Experiments

· Miracle question

· Vignettes

4:45-5:00pm  Wrap-up & Closing

Meet Our Trainer

Nicole Kelly is a clinical psychologist who has worked with trauma survivors for 14 years. She currently consults with agencies on trauma-informed care, programming for commercially sexually exploited youth, vicarious trauma, and leadership development. Nicole has been training multidisciplinary audiences on trauma-related topics since 2015 and provides guest lectures at local universities on human trafficking.

Nancy Acosta is a bilingual therapist who has 7 years of experience working with trauma at a sexual assault center. She has provided services to children and adults in various settings including outpatient community mental health centers, college counseling centers, crisis centers, and in an integrated behavioral health setting. She has completed training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing Therapy as well as Cognitive Processing Therapy. She has experience providing training and supervision to doctoral level graduate students in trauma related topics including crisis intervention, vicarious trauma, and grounding techniques. In addition to developing a training manual for a student training program at a rape and crisis center, she also has experience supervising practicum students and providing support to staff and advocates. Nancy has experience working as a behavioral health consultant with multidisciplinary staff to improve recognition, treatment and management of behavioral problems and conditions.

This course meets the qualifications for (3.75) 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.