Systemic and Interpersonal Trauma in Foster Care

 Earn 5 CE Contact Hours

Many parents whose children enter foster care in the United States carry histories of both systemic and interpersonal trauma. Separation from their children is often experienced as another trauma, prompting survival strategies such as rage, defensiveness, or withdrawal in interactions with service providers.

This workshop explores a therapeutic approach that attends to both systemic and interpersonal trauma. Focusing solely on parenting “deficits,” without acknowledging the larger systemic forces shaping foster care placement—such as racism, inadequate resources, and inequitable child welfare policies—creates an incomplete narrative. This perspective can prolong foster care placements, deepen worker-parent impasses, and heighten parent-child estrangement.

By integrating contextual and relational factors into working hypotheses about current family struggles, practitioners can engage with parents collaboratively and respectfully, naming oppressive systemic conditions while addressing safety and caregiving concerns. This dual awareness allows service providers to more effectively meet children’s emotional needs and support the goal of family reunification. Video examples of therapeutic practice will demonstrate these concepts in action.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Participants will identify contextual factors that influence therapeutic engagement and family functioning.
• Participants will challenge deficit-based narratives by integrating systemic context into therapeutic conceptualization and interventions.
• Participants will observe therapeutic interventions that address systemic and relational trauma during family therapy sessions.

Who Should Attend:

Mental health professionals, social workers, therapists, counselors, and child welfare practitioners who work with children, parents, and families involved in the foster care or child welfare system. This workshop is particularly relevant for clinicians, family therapists, and service providers seeking a deeper understanding of how systemic and interpersonal trauma shape family dynamics, engagement with services, and pathways toward family reunification.

Meet Catherine Lewis:

Catherine Lewis, LCSW, MS, is the Director of Ackerman’s Foster Care and Adoption Project. Ms. Lewis has extensive experience working with families who have experienced trauma and has served in leadership positions at several New York City social service agencies. She has presented nationally and internationally on the best practices of working with families. Ms. Lewis maintains a small private practice in New York City and Westport, Connecticut, working with families, couples, and children. Ms. Lewis is an active member of TEAM Westport, a town-appointed committee dedicated to improving diversity, equity and inclusion in the community.