A Relationship Based Strengths Approach to Discipline with Youth
– 2 Day Workshop
Workshop Facilitator
Stephen de Groot BA, BSW, MSW, RSW
Stephen de Groot of MYRIAD Consultation and Counselling is a clinical and organizational consultant and is the author of the Relationship Based Strengths Approach (RBSA) (2003, 2008) to social work helping. Steve specializes in the development and implementation of strengths based interventions at all levels of social services systems from planning to direct service delivery and front-line practice.
Steve has instructed in both the BSW and MSW programs with the faculty of Social Work at the University of Manitoba for 7 years and for the last 17 years has worked for a variety of organizations within the helping field. In that time Steve has occupied and continues to operate in a myriad of roles such as child welfare worker, therapist, supervisor, author, consultant, facilitator, strategic planner and trainer.
For almost two decades Steve has provided support, education and training to parents and helping professionals who live and work with children in child welfare. Steve’s approach to discipline has been informed by relational and strengths based principles and developed out of his successful practice experiences and life stories from more than 1000 teenagers and hundreds of families. Many of Steve’s successes have been with youth in care who have been identified by various service providers as “the most difficult”, “the most challenging” and/or having the “highest needs” for support and intervention.
Description of Workshop
In the past decade there has been an increase in the number of teenagers entering the care of child and family services. Many youth have had early experiences of abuse, neglect, and or exploitation and as a result experience negative valuations of themselves and adults According to the Relationship Based Strengths Approach (RBSA) there exists an inextricable link between these experiences and the difficult and challenging behaviors many teens in care present with.
Unfortunately many approaches to discipline with youth in care unintentionally result in conflict, stress relationships and, a perpetuation or exacerbation of a youth’s negative valuation of self and others. These impacts can actually foster “acting out”, or “out of control behaviors”. Overtime, “out of control” teen behavior can tax guardians/caregivers, and increase the chances of placement/program breakdowns. This does little to improve youths’ negative valuations of self and others.
The RBSA to Discipline is a highly practical and effective method for approaching discipline in a manner that simultaneously enhances relationships while fostering youth self-determination, learning and responsibility.
Participants will learn about the values and guiding principles of the RBSA. They will be guided through a process that challenges traditional and ineffective discipline approaches and constructs a strong case for utilization of this paradigm with youth in care. Participants will engage in small group work and discussion as they work to review the operationalization of the RBSA principles. More than 500 concrete examples for values in operation are offered for participants to enhance the efficacy of their practice efforts and interventions with youth.
Attendees are offered an interactive and process-oriented method for reflecting on and evaluating their own experiences with, and approaches to, discipline. They will learn about conditions that promote positive behaviour and be able to identify ineffective discipline practices. Participants will learn about the cautions to discipline when working with youth with FASD or neurodevelopmental challenges. Participants will review the RBSA process steps for approaching discipline and will have an opportunity to reflect on the material for the purposes of developing their own practice-oriented action plans.
Learning Objectives
At the conclusion of this workshop, attendees will:
- Understand the link between early experiences of youth in care and the challenges in caring for and working with them.
- Be familiar with the RBSA approach to social work helping in child welfare.
- Learn how to operationalize the RBSA principles in the context of caring for youth in care.
- Through experience and practice, develop skill in communication methods for building on strengths and enhancing relationships.
- Learn how to avoid and/or decrease resistant and oppositional behavior.
- Learn and understand how many discipline approaches are ineffective and counterintuitive to preferred ways of working and desired outcomes for youth in care.
- Learn how to promote conditions that encourage positive behaviour and how to avoid ineffective discipline practices.
- With the use of case examples, learn the RBSA process steps to effective discipline.
- Through guided exercises, initiate the development of a personalized practice-oriented action plan for dealing with difficult youth behaviors.
Target Audience
Generally, this workshop will be of interest and value to any persons working with youth in the social service field, in particular, the field of child welfare.
This particular workshop has been well received by foster parents, support workers, child protection and social workers, family preservation workers, case managers and supervisors in the field of child welfare in the province of Manitoba.
Since December 07, more than 1000 social workers, support workers, youth care workers and foster parents have been trained in the RBSA approach to discipline. All four Child Welfare Authorities in Manitoba have scheduled RBSA training for social workers and foster parents. This was done to ensure that all child welfare agencies in the province were granted the opportunity to participate in the RBSA training.
Length of Workshop
This is designed to be a 3 day workshop.
The workshop has been presented in a 2 day format; however, there is a great deal of process, group work and practice application lost in such an arrangement.
Participant Feedback
There are hundreds of written feedback forms that consistently express the incredible value and meaning the RBSA to Discipline workshop has had for participants.
Approximately 75 % of the feedback forms identify (on a likert scale) that the workshop was “...exactly what I needed”.
Approximately 24% of the feedback forms identify (on the likert scale) that the workshop “...was really helpful”.
While most of the written feedback forms are available, the following are reflective of common participant feedback and sentiments:
- This training should be mandatory for all people who work in the field of child welfare – from the executives to the frontline support workerss”
- This was the best workshop I have ever been at”
- The workshop was inspiring, motivating, and practical. I began using the material after the first day of the three day workshop. It really works! Thank you!”
- It was well-organized, easy to understand. Stephen has an incredible sense of humour that made the training fun…and went by so fast”
- The training was worth the wait. It was so informative and practical with concrete examples and real life stories. I feel more equipped to hang in there longer and make a difference with the families I work with.”