Using strengths perspective?

Question

Can anyone give the advantages of using a strengths perspective rather than only identifying needs and problems in the assessment process?

Answer 1

People make mistakes and we shouldnt always dwell on them.  You could have a genious, but he gets assessed badly for something he did wrong... what about all the good things he could do or has done.  I think it would be more positive to not dwell on the problems, people need the chance to grow and learn and if you only focus on the negative, that wouldnt happen.

Answer 2

In the helping professions, we have an unfortunate tendency to look only at the individual's "problems" and focus on those, because we're focusing on what we want to "fix."   Of course, this often makes our clients feel abnormal, inferior, and inadequate.

Let's say an adolescent male is assigned to you.  In your assessment, you could write down that this adolescent has social deficits, lags academically, has involvement with the juvenile justice system, lacks an adequate family support system, and has chronic health problems.  (Whew.)

Or, from a strengths perspective, you could write that this adolescent male is nice-looking, has talents in athletics and music, has a strong vocational interest in construction trades as well as some existing job training from summer jobs, and evidences strong motivation to work with teachers/mentors/mental health professionals who might help him turn his life around.

If you only include the first list of needs & problems in your assessment, you end up with a skewed picture of the client.  Hope this helps.