Training Workshops Offered by Creative Treatment Solutions
(each can be tailored for 2 or 3 hours sessions)
NOTE: Workshops can be designed for parents and professionals not
involved in the foster care system, as well.
1. Parenting the Teenage Brain: Promoting Safety, Independence and Identity - Participants develop a better understanding of the current research on adolescent development and how the teen brain works in relation to their behavior and interacting with parents and authority figures, as well as learn how to use natural and logical consequences (both positive AND negative) to help parents and teens achieve their desired goals. Specific strategies for improving communication with teens and responding to challenging behaviors will be presented and discussed.
2. Weathering the Storm: Parenting Children with Attachment Problems (for Foster Parents) – Based on Attachment Theory and child development, this workshop is designed to help foster parents understand the barriers that keep foster children from experiencing the love that foster parents genuinely feel for them. Specific behaviors to enhance relationships with and promote good behaviors among foster children are also offered.
3. Navigating the Storm: Managing the Placements of Children with Attachment Problems (for case management staff) – Based on Attachment Theory, child development principles and reducing disrupted placements in foster care, this workshop offers case managers a practice philosophy that supports and validates the difficult job that they, and foster parents, do on a daily basis. Group activities promote the use of individual case scenarios in helping case managers find effective solutions to common problems.
4. Changing the Weather: Treatment with Attachment – Challenged Youth (for clinical staff/therapists) – Based on Attachment Theory, child development and proven-effective clinical techniques, this training is designed to offer an introduction to the important, and sometimes exhausting, work of doing therapy with foster children. Also included is a review of existing techniques for doing therapy with challenging youth and families.
5. Understanding and Promoting Self-Esteem – Because of their often problematic histories, foster children face unique challenges to their developing sense of “love-ability” and capability. This training explores specific techniques foster parents (who have “stepped-in” temporarily) can use to help children placed in their homes see themselves as lovable, capable young people who have strengths as well as needs.
6. Avoiding Power Struggles with Foster Children – Tired of what often seems like constant power struggles with foster children? This session explores how using behavior shaping and positive reinforcement can reduce the number and frequency of a foster child’s acting-out behaviors AND help foster parents reduce their own stress level at the same time.
7. Fostering Children with Attachment Problems – Come learn how foster parenting from a PLACE perspective can help increase positive behaviors in foster children and help you cope with sometimes difficult, and often challenging, attitudes. Be prepared to share your experiences with fellow foster parents, and have fun with your peers.
8. Helping Foster Children Handle Disappointment – Separation from parents, disappointment over empty promises and feelings of abandonment, are all issues foster children sometimes struggle with. During the holiday season, these struggles can seem overwhelming to our kids and are often reflected in their behavior. This session provides foster parents with the opportunity for discussion about how they can help foster children deal with the mixed feelings that often surface during this presumably “jolly” time, so that everyone can better enjoy the season. Specific strategies for helping foster children through difficult times (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.) are also explored.
9. Foster Parenting the Sexually Abused Child – Based on the premise that foster parents can be successful in helping foster children recover from the trauma of past sexual abuse, this workshop examines how foster parents learn can help traumatized foster children learn to trust adult caregivers. Concrete interventions for working with the special needs of sexually abused foster children are also offered.
10. Enhancing Communication in Foster Families – Open communication is a key to promoting happy, healthy relationships between foster parents and foster children. This training explores how foster parents can create an environment in their home which is conducive to encouraging positive, effective communication with their foster children. Special attention is given to foster children’s sometimes-defiant behavior and times when they refuse to follow directions.
11. Child Development: Birth to Age 11 – Children do much more than just get older and bigger: development involves the emotional, cognitive, social and moral aspects of life as well. Patterns of development and barriers to healthy development for children from birth to age 11 will be explored in this training.
12. 1-2-3 Magic – A review of Dr. Thomas Phelan’s technique for effectively parenting children ages 2 through 12. Participants in this session will view portions of Dr. Phelan’s videotape and discover ways to increase positive behavior in foster children while reducing their own stress levels.
13. Foster Parenting Adolescents – Adolescence is a time of mystery and mayhem, for both foster child and foster parent. The developmental needs of the adolescent within the context of foster care will be explored during this session, and concrete ways of reducing conflict with teenage foster children will be offered. Foster parents are encouraged to bring their favorite stories about their teens.
14. Understanding and Changing Defiant Behavior - Based on behavior shaping and positive reinforcement principles that are proven effective with difficult children, this training teaches foster parents creative techniques for reducing defiant, problem behaviors and increase desired, productive behaviors in foster children. Concrete strategies that foster parents can use everyday are also presented.
15. Separation and Loss for Foster Children - Every child in foster care has been separated from his or her family-of-origin. This session explores the affects of separation and loss on the foster child’s ability to adjust and succeed, and offers strategies for helping children cope with their feelings about being in foster care. Special attention is given to how therapy can help, as well as ways foster parents can be effective partners in their foster child’s treatment.
16. Helping Foster Children Manage Their Anger - Because of past history and life challenges, foster children may react to various issues and situations with angry, sometimes aggressive responses. This session examines the “roots and fruits” of anger, as well as how foster parents can help foster children express themselves in healthy, productive ways. Tips for dealing with the very natural feelings of frustration and anger that foster parents sometimes experience as caregivers are also offered.
17. Promoting Age-Appropriate Responsibility in Foster Children - Part of being a successful foster parent is helping foster children become more productive, responsible individuals. In this session, child development and age- and developmentally appropriate expectations for foster children are reviewed. Participants in this workshop will also explore various methods of positive parenting that promote foster children’s age-appropriate independence, responsibility and cooperation within a foster family.
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