Children in foster care come to therapy with multiple emotional challenges, including the traumas of past neglect and/or abuse, separation from family, and the ongoing difficulty of future uncertainty. Not surprisingly, children in foster care often show their emotional turmoil through behavior that causes trouble for the adults who care for them. Therapists are told to “fix” the children and make them behave.

During this workshop, clinicians will be provided with a therapeutic framework that uses components of systemic family therapy to strengthen the child's support system and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to promote his/her resilience. Information will be provided on a range of behaviors associated with the trauma of foster care placement and specific strategies to decrease them. Specific activities will be reviewed to give therapists a more useful and c omprehensive toolbox. Therapists will be given suggestions on what information needs to be looped back to foster parents, birth parents, and case workers, all with the goal of helping to shore up children during foster care placement, and to expedite time in care.

Faculty: Catherine Lewis, LCSW, MS, Faculty, Ackerman Institute; Director, Clinical Services, The New York Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children. She has held supervisory positions in several child welfare agencies.

Date: Friday, February 1, 2008
Time: 10 am to 4 pm
Tuition: $115
CE Credits: 5

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