Strength-based interventions: Moving from high-risk to high-yield

Why do people change?
How do people change?
What can staff do to increase a client’s levels of coping and resilience?
New meta-analysis makes the claim “responsive interventions rule” and this keynote address will outline how increasing the “readiness to change” and constructing a “culture of resilience” can improve the programming of helping organizations.

Consider that a problem exists within the traditional problem solving model.  Problem focused (problem solving) models dominate the helping professions.  Helping staff who use this approach can be easily duped into the “error of error correction” where more attention is paid to what brought the fall rather than what the person/family needs to do to get up and get going again.  It has been said that the most overlooked and wasted resource in helping efforts are the capabilities and strengths of individuals and their families.  Focusing on the problem and trying to “fix it” creates obstacles in our work.  What is wrong, what is missing and what is abnormal keeps our attention while strengths and healthy patterns are passed over and ignored.

This keynote address will review strength-based interventions which build solutions in a very different manner than deficit-based programming.  Join this address for a better understanding of why a “balanced” investigation (one that seeks problems and resources, failure and successes) become the most effective inquiry for composing interventions.  This keynote will also review new groundbreaking research from treatment outcome studies that focused on the ingredients to positive behavior change.  This research lends optimism and direction to our direct-practice efforts!