The New Social Worker Vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 2012 | Page 19

to accurately capture the emotions
and imagery present within a removal
experience in addition to helping
promote a mindset conducive to the
topics I would be discussing within the
training session.

familiar to me. Based on my interactions with many children in the
residential facilities, I chose to lead
Foster Parent Support Group Training
for Children’s Division and Division of
Family Services in the Johnson County
area. My training discussed common
topics related to foster parenting, such
as: foster parents’ interactions and
ability to understand and empathize
with foster children previously living in
environments addicted to chaos, common behaviors of foster children and
ways of reinforcing positive alternatives, foster parents’ potential risk for
vicarious trauma (witness to hearing
about someone’s trauma and abuse
can cause personal trauma over time
through accumulation), appropriate
ways of reacting to a child’s behaviors
and maintaining healthy boundaries,
burnout prevention, and the effects of
compassion fatigue.

The Foster Parent Support Group
Trainings were primarily attended
by foster parents and the Children’s
Service Worker for the division where
I was presenting. During several of
my training sessions, I was privileged
to welcome foster children who were
accompanying their foster parents. This
allowed for conversations that truly allowed for insight into the mindset of a
foster child in the child welfare system.

Prior to beginning discussion about
my main training topics, I wanted to
grasp the audience’s attention with a
first-person narrative I wrote from the
view of a child being removed from his

or her parents’ custody. The narrative
was primarily intended to evoke emotional responses exhibiting empathy
for the trauma a foster child faces when
removed from parental custody.

After completion of the narrative,
I observed nonverbal behaviors of the
group members and prompted discussion among the audience members by
inquiring about the emotions aroused
by the “Foster Child Removal Experience.” During some training sessions,
the exercise brought some foster
parents to tears as they responded,
saying, “I’ve never thought about how
traumatizing it would actually be to be
removed from my parents and home.”
Other reactions from foster parents
included: “This really helps me to see
how I really don’t know what my child
has gone through when she tells me,
‘You’ll never understand and nobody
ever does!’” Many of the foster parents
also reported that the narrative made
them feel more empathetic toward
their foster children and helped them
to realize where some common behavioral issues may originate.

Foster children in attendance
stated the narrative described “exactly
how I felt when it happened,” and
accurately depicted “how scared I was
and all the questions that were going through my head.” The responses
of the foster parents, combined with
the reactions of foster children present during the narrative experience,
truly helped to confirm the success of
my intent for the exercise, which was

Joseph P. Berry, BSW, is a graduate of the
Department of Social Work at the University of Central Missouri. He is currently
employed at Spofford Home, an adolescent
residential treatment facility, as a behavior specialist, where he works with children who have behavioral and emotional
disturbances. Joseph has also been employed
and volunteered at a number of facilities,
including Crittenton Children’s Center,
Johnson County Children’s Division, Trinity Nursing and Rehabilitation Center, and
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