Strengths-based Facilitation Model

The Parents Plus Programmes are  strengths-based  and solution-focused. This means that the focus is on building on parent and child strengths and finding solutions that fit with the goals and preferences of individual families.

All Parents Plus facilitators are trained in a strengths-based style of group delivery

This means that facilitators are encouraged to:

1. Focus on parent identified goals and outcomes for their families.
2. Adopt a ‘non-expert’ stance and focus on drawing out parents’ own knowledge
3. Focus on parent identified goals and outcomes for their families.
4. Avoid blaming parents and instead focus on what they are doing right and where they are successful.
5. Encourage parents to compassionately understand their own needs as well as those of their children.
6. Avoid over-teaching the parents in the group and instead, facilitate parents on a journey of self-discovery about themselves and their children.
7. Build on a sense of community and draw on the group members to support and inform one another.

The Parents Plus strengths-based model is described in the textbooks, Becoming a Solution Detective (Sharry, Madden, & Darmody, 2012). Solution Focused Groupwork (Sharry, 2007) and Counselling Children, Adolescents and Families (Sharry, 2004).