Frequently Asked Questions about the Strengths Perspective
Isn’t the strengths perspective just positive thinking or reframing in another guise?
No. It is based on the hard work of helping clients and communities build something of lasting value from the human and social capital
within them and around them. There is little else from which to create possibility band prospects where none seemed to have existed before.
Aren’t you ignoring the real problems that people have when they come to seek your help?
No, what we are after is a balance between understating and appreciating the real troubles and ordeals that people have and
the discovery, recognition, and use of their assets, abilities, and resources in moving toward a better life on their terms.
How can I work from a strengths perspective, if my agency and colleagues are dedicated to proceeding from a problem and deficit framework?
We don’t think you have to. You, as a competent professional have the right and the obligation to regard your clients and your work in a manner
that is most likely to lead to positive change and to be consonant with social work values. The strengths perspective offers you that opportunity
in a variety of ways-from assessment to process to commitment.
How can I or why should I give up the disease or deficit model when it is so widely spread and respected in our
society and in our professional fields of work?
You first must critically examine the effect, institutionally and individually, of using the disease model in your work. Our belief is that you will find
that it makes it difficult for you and the client to work collaboratively, optimistically, and affirmatively on the client’s life situation. The problem
approach can foster what Gergen calls “self-enfeeblement” by informing the client that the problem “is not circumscribed or limited in time and space to
a particular domain of his or her life; it is fully general”, and therefore, dominant and sweeping.
How does practicing from a strengths perspective change what I do?
In the first place, it provides a more constructive and upbeat approach to your work. Secondly, it allows you to fully live the values of your
profession in your daily work. Third, it affirms the client by placing great importance on what they know, how they have managed to survive, and
how they want their world to be different. Finally, it allows us to suspend disbelief in, and skepticism, and doubt about our clients thus energizing
us, and relieving us of the responsibility of naming that which has made the client ineffective, hurt, and troubled.
Quote
“Every contact with a person can be an opportunity for building hope, increasing confidence, and taking steps to create a better life.”
Charles Rapp and Richard Goscha
The Strengths Model
