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Moving Toward A Strength Perspective: A Case Study Of Counselor Change, Candis Carr

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

According to their mission statement, employees of the Family and Youth Counseling Agency, Inc., (FYCA) operated on the assumption that all individuals possessed the ability to solve their own challenges and live full and healthy lives when support was available. In practice, however, agency counseling reflected a deficit-based, hierarchical framework, wherein counselors expanded on clients’ deficits and failings, defined the goals of counseling, and regarded counselors as more knowing than clients about how best to change. By discrediting the client’s voice, counselors failed to put into action the agency’s guiding principle.

To develop a strength-based practice, counselors met on a …