Working with Youth and Adults: Strategies to Foster Hope and Resilience in Others and Ourselves

Friday, March 11, 2005
With Robert B. Brooks, Ph.D.

Location: Freeport -

Harraseeket Inn 162 Main Street Freeport, Maine

Program Description: In this workshop Dr. Brooks will outline a strength-based approach for working with both youth and adults in a variety of settings (e.g., homes; outpatient therapy; residential; inpatient; schools). As a central focus he will articulate the characteristics of a "resilient mind set" and describe strategies for nurturing this mind set in others. He will also review a framework to assist clinicians, educators, other professionals, and parents to become increasingly "stress hardy" in order to avoid disillusionment and burnout. Many case examples will be used.

About the Speaker: Dr. Robert Brooks is on the faculty of Harvard Medical School and has served as the Director of Psychology at McLean Hospital. He has a part-time clinical practice and has lectured and written extensively on the themes of motivation, self-esteem, self-discipline, parenting, family relationships, hope, and resilience. Among his books, he is the author of The Self-Esteem Teacher and co-author of Raising Resilient Children; Nurturing Resilience in Our Children; and The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence, and Personal Strength in Your Life, which focuses on resilience in adults.

Educational Objectives: Participants will be able to describe the following:

• The role of mindsets in determining our expectations and behavior.
• The importance of empathy for forming alliances with others.
• The characteristics of a "resilient mind set."
• The features of "stress hardiness" and how to develop these features within ourselves and others.
• The impact we have as professionals and the importance of a "charismatic adult" in our own lives and the lives of others.
• The need for a strength-based approach in which we help to identify and reinforce each individual's "islands of competence."