Module 11: Lesson 1

Use the Four Core Skills Checklist to Enhance Your Troubleshooting and Dress Rehearsal Learning Curve

Worksheet

FST Digital Advanced Training Course12 FST Techniques to Become a Family Trauma Expert

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Lesson 1Use the Four Core Skills Checklist

to Enhance Your Troubleshooting and Dress Rehearsal Learning Curve

Troubleshooting and Dress Rehearsals are Steps 1-5 in Phase IV and your pre-session preparation of the FST Treatment Model.

Use this Lesson #1 worksheet as a quick reference guide when you watch the Primetime Live case example with the single-parent mother.

It is essential to see the top four skill deficits or reasons why proper troubleshooting and dress rehearsals are needed in Lessons #2 and #3 of this module and Chapters 10 and 11 in your Resource Book.

As illustrated in your video lesson, your clients will do well if they can, but they often lack skill mastery in these four core areas:

1. Problem Solving

2. Timing

3. Delivery

4. Softness

Pre-Session Preparation for Phase IVType up and Laminate Playbooks; Create Troubleshooting Countermoves Checklist; Ensure Key Villagers Present

Phase IV: Troubleshooting and Dress RehearsalsStep 1: Present Finalized Playbooks and Locate and Close Loopholes

Step 2: Present the Troubleshooting Countermoves Checklist

Step 3: Co-Create the Troubleshooting Countermoves Checklist

Step 4: Conduct Role-Plays/Dress Rehearsals and Enactments

Step 5: Implement Playbooks

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The first core area is problems in the area of troubleshooting, and the last three are in the area of dress rehearsals or role-plays.

In this worksheet you will:

• Use the four core deficit checklist to identify these areas with your family.

• Be encouraged to re-watch the Primetime Live Video using the four core deficit area checklist to sharpen your skills in identification.

Two Action Steps#1 – �The�Four�Core�Deficit�ChecklistUse the following core deficit checklist as an internal assessment to “see” your client or family member’s skill deficits problems in the following areas:

Troubleshooting Deficits ` Core Deficit #1: Poor Problem Solving or Troubleshooting

Check this box if you see that a parent or child cannot see “what will you do if scenarios?” if something in the playbook goes wrong or the child throws an unanticipated curveball. The family is like a “deer in headlights.”

For example, if the parent wants to do a pre-arranged body checks for self-harm, and the child refuses, the parent is frozen and has no countermove.

Primetime Live Illustration

Or in the Primetime Live example, when the boy says, “The is no room to stack the dishes,” the mom shows an inability to troubleshoot. She does not have the skills to say something like, “OK, no problem. Let’s put the dishes on the big table or what do you suggest son (in a calm voice)”. The counselor did not help the mother learn these problem-solving skills. As a result, the mom was inflexible instead of flexible and creative.

Dress Rehearsal or Role Play Deficits ` Core Deficit #2: Poor Timing

Check this box when your parent or child (without practice role-plays or dress rehearsals) does not recognize the timing of when best to deliver an intervention.

For example, if the parent delivers a consequence, and their child reacts negatively. The parent just keeps arguing and doesn’t realize the best course of action is to exit calmly or how this is done with finesse.

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Primetime Live Illustration

Or in the Primetime Live example, the mom’s timing of stating “let’s talk” only comes after her son holds a knife to this throat. She does not know the timing of how to self-soothe her son at the onset of tension or conflict. And instead, she waits until the conflict has escalated out of control.

` Core Deficit #3: Poor Delivery

Check this box when your parent has a playbook of new tools but delivers it in the same ineffective communication style as before.

A lecturing or nagging parent still lectures and nags. Or a parent who is still critical with the same angry or belittling voice tone. The idea of “it’s not what you say but how you say it” is still a foreign concept.

Primetime Live Illustration

Or in the Primetime Live example, when the mom says, “Go get your Gameboy.” And her son responds, “We’re supposed to talk.” And the mother responds, “There’s no talk, I always win.” The mother received a tool from her therapist of “taking away electronics” for chore refusal. But she delivered the negative consequence with a “hammer” and no finesse because the mother did not have the skills.

` Core Deficit #4: Poor Softness or Nurturance

Check this box if you see a parent who only can discipline with the hard side of hierarchy and does not use a soft and calm tone of voice to demonstrate a soft side of hierarchy. The parent may have a written playbook but cannot deliver it with softness or nurturance. They are unable to give words of encouragement or affirmation like “I am proud of you.” They are good at catching their child doing something wrong, but not something right.

Primetime Live Illustration

Or in the Primetime Live example, after the boy takes a knife to his throat and the mother calls her boyfriend and says, “You need to tell Joe bye because he is the one who loves you.” Or throughout the conflict, the mom demonstrates no empathy and only a harsh and sarcastic voice tone. We see generational trauma very evident here. The mother likely never saw or received nurturance as a child, so without dress rehearsals and practice, she simply does not know what to do.

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#2 – �Re-Watch�the�Primetime�Live�Video�in�Lesson�#1�and�Use�the�Four�Core�Deficit�Area�Checklist�(6:39–7:26)

✔ Re-watch the Primetime Live Video and use the four core deficit checklist to highlight areas you see.

✔ I provided some examples to jump-start your learning. But there are many more!

As you get your senses more fine-tuned, you are ready to go on to #2 and #3 worksheets to help your parents or clients acquire the necessary troubleshooting or dress rehearsal tools.

Success MilestonesAfter you complete this worksheet, look for these success milestones in your practice:

✔ Seeing the Core Deficits is Critical – When you can use the Primetime Live example to hone your skills to “see” the deficits, you are then better equipped to “see” the solutions.

✔ Your Eyes are Softer – If you see a parent at face value, like the Primetime Live mom, you tend to think the worst and that this mother is unmotivated or untreatable. But when you see the mom from the lens of not having the skills, your “eyes soften,” and so does “your heart.” From this position of softness, new possibilities for change emerge, and the family will feel this shift. And so will you.

Big Ideas: Lesson 1 VideoWhy�are�Troubleshooting�and�Dress�Rehearsals�So�Important?

✔ Troubleshooting and Dress Rehearsals are in Phase IV of the FST Model

✔ After an overview of the FST flowchart, you will see the main reason why these techniques are crucial to your FST Trauma practice.

✔ The reason is that your clients will do well if they can but often have skill deficits in the four areas of (1) problem solving; (2) timing; (3) delivery; and (4) softness

✔ Without skills in these areas, your FST playbook will fail every time.

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Case�Example:�What�Happens�Without�Troubleshooting�and Dress Rehearsals

✔ You saw a case example of what can happen when your parents have a playbook but no troubleshooting or dress rehearsals.

✔ In this case, the mom has a behavioral contract on the negative consequences for not doing chores. But the mom is still left with the core skill deficits in (1) problem solving, (2) timing; (3) delivery; and (4) softness. And to make matters worse, no professional counselor to actively help her acquire these skills.

✔ It is a set up for failure on an epic scale. The mom out has just enough to be even more dangerous. And the irony is that the therapist sees it as all mom’s fault and do not see their role in this treatment failure.

✔ I offer up a summary of the top three things that I would have done differently with this case and use the back door concept of experimentation.

Please Note: Materials that are included in this course may include interventions and modalities that are beyond your authorized practice as a mental health professional, case manager or parent support liaison. As a professional, you are responsible for reviewing your scope of practice, including activities that are defined in law as beyond the boundaries of practice in accordance with and in compliance with your professions standards.