Establishing a positive working alliance during formal parenting assessments in a family residential treatment (FRT) program: Parents' perspectives on what is helpful

The working alliance between families and professionals within the context of child protection faces substantial challenges from a variety of factors. At the same time it plays an important role in accomplishing positive outcomes. To gain insight into what might contribute when establishing positive alliances between parents – undergoing formal parenting assessments – and family coaches, we interviewed 22 parents about their experiences with a Dutch family residential treatment (FRT) program. The majority of parents considered the approaches used in the program effective. A central theme identified concerns the importance of a connection between parents and coaches. Characteristics of professionals that promote this sense of connection include humanity, respectfulness, availability and responsiveness, and good communication skills. A sense of connection can help parents develop a relationship of trust in which they eventually feel safe enough to share their stories, insecurities, questions, emotions, and thoughts, all of which play an important role in achieving positive change within the family. Especially, parents valued individual conversations with coaches with whom they felt connected. They identified several strategies applied by the FRT-professionals as having helped them to make changes in parenting. We organized the key themes into a conceptual model for establishing positive working alliances promoting change.