Obtaining and Maintaining Boundaries with Foster Youth

Sonja Lenz-Rashid, Ph.D., 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. This training will also utilize case vignettes and small group sharing to dig deep into the various countertransference 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 Objectives

• Participants will be able to identify situations where they may encounter a youth testing the participants’ emotional, physical, or professional boundaries (skill building)
• Participants will apply and practice strategies (via role plays) to respond to 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

1:00 - 1:15 Introductions and Training Objectives

1:15 - 2:15 Section I: Overview of Types of Boundary Dilemmas

2:15 - 3:00 Section II: Case Vignettes and Discussion

3:00 - 3:30 Section III: Counter-transference when working with Foster Youth

3:30 - 4:00 Section IV: CT Case Vignette and Discussion; Course Evaluations

This course meets the qualifications for (3) 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.