ABSTRACT
In residential treatment programs for emotionally disturbed children or adolescents, family work is often enacted by a social worker, a senior clinician, or sometimes even a child and youth care supervisor. There are any number of intervention strategies used with families whose problems are long-standing and embedded in structural patterns of communication and maladaptive relational skills. Generally, the family worker attempts to strengthen the parentchild attachment, to change dynamics that inhibit growth, and to improve relationships to promote positivity and meaning. This occurs by assisting parents to develop reasonable limits, teaching them to recognize their child’s emotional needs, and emphasizing positive communication. When family members have a new point of view and act in ways that offer unique experiences of themselves, this reframing can bring about balance, harmony, and a direction for change. This chapter discusses the role and skills enacted by family workers in the Four Phase System that helped connect parents to the treatment process and their child.
