Your Feelings Make Sense: Using Validation to Build Client Rapport and Improve Interview Outcomes

From the initial contact with child welfare personnel/law enforcement to the closure of the case, participants’ voices, feelings, and perspective are often ignored at the expense of expediency and efficiency. Validation techniques allow system partners to honor the experience of those they serve and stay in the moment with them. It is a way of showing that the system cares and understands their feelings just the way they are, without fixing or changing them. This webinar will cover the differences between emotional, behavioral, and cognitive validation and how to use them effectively in client contact to elevate voices, disrupt harm, and promote healing.

Presenters:

Elissa (Ellie) Duncan, JD, CWLS, grew up in East Texas and headed west for school. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California, Santa Barbara and her Juris Doctorate at the University of San Francisco School of Law with a certificate in Public Interest Law. Ellie moved to Sacramento to be a dependency attorney at Children’s Law Center. She practiced as both an attorney and attorney supervisor for twelve years, representing children in all aspects of dependency cases and is currently an Attorney III at the California Department of Social Services. Ellie received her Child Welfare Law Specialist Certification from the National Association of Counsel for Children in 2020 and her Compassion Fatigue Certification in 2022.

Christina Milburn, JD, CWLS, was born and raised in Western Colorado and attended the University of Colorado, Boulder for her undergraduate degree. She then earned her Juris Doctorate degree from the University of Arizona. Christina has been practicing law for twenty years. She has practiced as a civil rights litigation attorney and dependency attorney and attorney supervisor representing both children and parents in child welfare proceedings and is currently the training attorney at Children’s Law Center of California. Christina received her Child Welfare Law Specialist Certification from the National Association of Counsel for Children in 2012, her Trauma Informed Workplace Trainer Certification in 2020, and her Compassion Fatigue Certification in 2021.

This webinar is free for NACC Members. Members, please log in when you register for this event. This webinar is $45 for non-members. This course has been accredited by the Colorado Board of Continuing Legal and Judicial Education for a maximum of 2 units of general credit.