10a. Interventions for Promoting Resilience

 

Strengths-Based Model vs. Medical Models

The next two lectures will discuss interventions for promoting resilience. We will start by looking at the Strengths-Based Model again. Elsie Jones-Smith is a prominent writer on the Strengths-Based Model, which is a key part of the resilience framework. She provides a useful summary of the Strengths-Based Model versus the traditional Medical Model. It is important to emphasize that the traditional medical model is changing and many physicians are currently being trained in more holistic analysis.

Jones-Smith (2012) notes that the Strengths-Based Model focuses on what is RIGHT about the person, rather than what is WRONG. In other words, the emphasis is on the client’s ability to survive and cope rather than simply on their symptoms or deficits. Counseling under the Strengths-Based Model is focused on possibilities rather than problems. Some characteristics of Strength-Based counseling include:

  • There is a hopeful tone, one of looking to the future, envisioning new options and possible pathways that were not considered before.

  • Trauma is viewed to contribute to possible strengths or weaknesses, not just pathology. In other words, some post-traumatic growth may develop (e.g. seeing the world differently, feeling a sense of strength or renewed connections with others).

  • Individuals, families, and communities are viewed as the experts rather than professionals (such as physicians or psychologists). Those with lived experience are the experts in their own lives – after all, they are the ones with first-hand knowledge.

  • Finally, the focus in the Strengths-Based Model is on developing strengths and finding one’s place in the family and community rather than focusing on just reducing symptoms or ‘fixing’ the problem.   

Trying to “fix” someone is directly connected to looking at yourself as an expert who knows better than your clients. It is also views the problem in a narrow lens, without seeing that other possibilities may come out of this current adversity. We will now turn our attention to a powerful framework which can promote the Strengths-Based Model – the ROPES Model.

Strengths-Based Model: Use the ROPES

Clay Graybeal (2001) wrote an excellent paper about promoting the Strengths-Based Model, which was titled Strengths-Based Social Work Assessment: Transforming the Dominant Paradigm. This paper promotes a holistic understanding of each unique client, thereby broadening your perspective. It directly opposes just using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), as a psychiatric diagnosis can be highly limiting and constrictive.  

Sometimes, clinicians see a client’s diagnostic label in a medical record even before they meet the client. They could treat the client differently based on this limited information, even though the label does not fully encapsulate the richness of the client’s unique background and context. No two clients with the same diagnosis are exactly the same. Perhaps the label was meaningful at one stage of the client’s life, but the label is not as instructive in their current circumstances.     

Many clinicians actually believe that some of the diagnostic labels in the DSM should be changed to be more empowering and less pejorative. For example, Borderline Personality Disorder may be better conceptualized as Complex Trauma Survivor.

Graybeal (2001)  emphasizes that assessment is intervention. The questions that you ask when you first meet and interview a given client sets the stage for the treatment plan that you develop. In other words, if you only fish for problems, deficits, and symptoms, then that is all you will treat, and you will set up a framework for trying to fix your client, often through medications alone. Is this a client-centered approach, you may ask, which will empower your clients and motivate them to pursue their fundamental goals and interests in life?  

Graybeal provides a useful acronym to promote Strengths-Based Assessment, ROPES, which stands for Resources, Options, Possibilities, Exceptions, and Solutions.

Image of the acronym ropes, for the Strengths-Based Assessment.

 Resources

This is a huge area to assess: You can ask the client about their strengths and resources in many domains:

    • Personal

    • Family

    • Social environment

    • Organizational

    • Community

Options

This important area focuses on the present.  

You can ask your client: “What can be accessed now?”

 

Possibilities 

This important area focuses on the future.   

You can ask your client, “What have you thought of trying but haven’t tried yet?”

 

Exceptions

You would be well-advised to ask your client about when their given problems are NOT happening. Why do you think this is important to assess? Think of your own life – have you ever had problems sleeping, for example? Have you noticed that you sleep better on some days and worse on other days? What would it be like to ask a client what makes them sleep better – rather than simply telling them what to do? What if your client says: “I notice that I sleep better if I have had a busy day, with lots of exercise.” Or what if they say, “I sleep better when I take a warm bath or have some warm milk before bedtime.”  

Similarly, let’s say you have a teen client who skips class all the time. What if you ask the client to look closer and tell you if there are certain classes that they DO attend more than others. Help me to understand what makes you want to attend that class? What is it about that class or teacher?  

You can ask your client, “When is your main concern NOT happening? Why is that?”


Solutions

I cannot emphasize enough how vital it is to help clients find their own solutions, which are meaningful and appropriate to them, based on their age, culture, and background. Clients will be more likely to buy into solutions that they believe in and that resonate for them. Just to be here – talking to you in your office – means that they are willing to try. Perhaps a teen will tell you about an after-school or intramural program that is important to them. Or perhaps an adult will tell you about their faith community or a parent support group that they enjoy.

You can ask your client: “What are you doing that you would like to continue doing?”

 

Strength Characteristics and Indicators

Elsie Jones-Smith (2012) has done a lot of work to elucidate exactly what strengths are and how you can ask clients to talk about them. Too often, we use the word ‘strengths’ in an empty or vague way. Jones-Smith notes that a strength is something from which you derive intrinsic pleasure. In other words, you do not engage in a strength activity simply because you get paid for it or receive praise from others. Rather, you do it because you find it personally rewarding and meaningful. A spiritual strength to meditate and to be still, for example, is not something that you get paid for. However, the rich benefits derived from cultivating patience are ample and constitute their own significant reward.    

Strengths consist of knowledge, talents, and skills. Knowledge includes facts and lessons learned. You may have a talent for cooking (e.g. using different spices or improvising with whatever food is left in the fridge). You may have a skill in picking up languages. You may have a deep awareness of how you learn best. Some individuals learn best from visual information (e.g. writing things down in color-coding or index cards), others benefit from auditory information (e.g. talking out loud), and still others may be more kinesthetic (e.g. learning best when physical activity is involved).     

You must be able to engage in the strength consistently. It’s not really a strength if several conditions have to be in place for the strength to be revealed.

Jones-Smith makes an interesting comment, I wonder if you agree with her. She believes that you excel when you try to maximize your strengths, not when you try to fix your weaknesses. In other words, rather than trying to be a perfect, all-around student, Jones-Smith would recommend that you push your key talents and skills to the limit—find your niche—explore your creative side rather than suppress it.

You may be surprised by the answers that you receive from your clients in response to the "Strengths Questions" listed above. For example, they may not talk about school or work experiences. They may talk about their love of spending time alone, reading, writing a poem or short story, drawing, or meditating. They may talk about their love of sports, teamwork, or playing in a band. They may talk about their deep love of helping their younger sibling(s) with their homework or teaching them how to read or tie their shoelaces. They may talk about their love of learning – not just in school – but in museums or art galleries, or through traveling. They may talk about how much they love caregiving for an older relative with dementia or a child with a developmental disability. The point is that the client is the expert and they know themselves best – but they may be doubting themselves and need some help in tapping into their strengths.  

Client Bill of Rights

Elsie Jones-Smith (2012) has put together an excellent resource for all clients – whether you are young or old, rich or poor, or from indigenous or settler background. The following list is a Bill of Rights for all clients in the helping professions. I encourage you to think about each item and how applicable it is to diverse populations.

I have a right to:

  • Be treated with dignity and respect

  • Be considered a collaborative partner in the counseling process

  • Request clinical assessment of my strengths, not just my weaknesses

  • Be viewed as a person capable of changing, growing, and becoming positively connected to my community

  • Have my culture and ethnicity included as a strength

  • Request services that honor, respect, and take into consideration my cultural beliefs

Illustration of a bill of rights scroll

 

Chart of all the strengths

 

References

Jones-Smith, E. (2012) Theories of Counseling and Psychotheraby: An Integrative Approach, Sage Publications. Newbury Park, California.

Kent, M., & Davis, M. C. (2010). The emergence of capacity-building programs and models of resilience. In J. W. Reich, A. J. Zautra, & J. S. Hall (Eds.), Handbook of adult resilience (p. 434). New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.