TransformAction International

Other Trainings

The Use of Daily Life Events in Working with Families

Working with families, from a CYC perspective, involves engaging with them as they life their lives, wherever that ‘living’ may occur – in their home, the community, the school, the group care centre. A CYC approach to working with families does not involve the traditional 50 minute office based approach where people reflect on the past week and plan for the next. Rather it involves helping people (families) to live their life differently, as they are living it.

This training explores how we might use everyday life events while working in the world of the family. Based on the Characteristics of a Child and Youth Care Approach, it can be either a one-day follow-up training to the foundation training or it can be offered as a two-day stand-alone training. It is appropriate for all who work with families either in a program or in the family home and community.

At the completion of this training, participants will:

Be able to articulate a framework for thinking about how to engage with families, in their world, or in ours.
Demonstrate an understanding about how to use Daily Life Events therapeutically with families.
Know how to use a CYC Approach to working with families.
Demonstrate enhanced skills in engaging with families

The content of the training includes:

1. An overview of a CYC Approach to working with families
2. An overview of a CYC Approach
3. A demonstration of the skills involved in engaging families, and family members
4. Practice in ‘family engagement’

Read this article from Relational Child and Youth Care Practice, Vol 26, No.4

For information about with families training in your area, please contact us at info@transformaction.com

Reflective Practice

“For the potential of relationship based practice to be fully realised practitioners must develop their reflective capabilities” (Ruch 2004)

“Effective Practice is Reflective Practice” (Thom Garfat, 2011)

Thirty years ago the term ‘reflective practice’ was coined and one of the defining characteristics was seen as “the capacity to reflect on action so as to engage in a process of continuous learning”. Reflective Practice has also been referred to as

(i) a process of drawing on knowledge, awareness, observations, and past experience, considering it in the present, & using it to inform current and future actions, and
(ii) a means of self-examination that involves looking back over what has happened in practice in an effort to improve or encourage professional growth.

This one day TransformAction International training explores this most necessary process and skill, as it relates to our ability to remain fully informed, focused and intentional in our daily life and interventive moments with youth and families. The training will focus on the various stages that require reflection (as identified by Donald Schön).

Reflection-for-action – planning and pro-activity for future action. (e.g., planning an intervention)
Reflection-in-action – thinking on your feet in the present. It should be conscious, critical and give rise to experimentation. (e.g., during intervention)
Reflection-on-action – thinking about events after they have occurred (e.g., post-intervention)

The training focuses us on ‘what is occurring’, inside (self issues) and outside (non-self issues), who is being affected and considering all the options available in any situation.

This training programme builds on the ‘creativity’ theme which runs through all TransformAction International trainings and encourages participations to draw from their ‘personal wells’ of knowledge, expertise and values.

For information about this training please contact us at training@transformaction.com

A Daily Life Approach to Intervention Planning

The individualized intervention plan provides us with the framework for our daily interactions with youth and their families as well as an overall direction for our work with them. This plan not only identifies goals, but may also form a therapeutic contract between care givers, young people and family which includes the responsibilities of each in the process of change. The individualized plan also connects the youth and family's past experiences to the present and sets the stage for their future.

The therapeutic use of everyday life events creates the opportunity for the direct care practitioner to make moments meaningful and to connect those meaningful moments to the overall goals established with young people and families.

When these moments are directly linked to the Intervention Plan, care givers have the opportunity to think, in advance, about what types of moments may be useful in helping young people and families reach their goals. With a reflection on the ‘themes’ by which people live their lives care givers become more focused in their daily interventions and interactions.

Using a framework of Themes, Needs, Goals, Strategies and Indicators, This will identify the elements of both content and process associated with developing an individualized intervention plan training and focus on how we can integrate our knowledge about how to use daily life events to facilitate positive change, into our Intervention Planning Process.

For information about this training please contact us at training@transformaction.com