About Visit Coaching
Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching is fundamentally different from supervised visits.
Instead of being a monitor, the coach is actively involved in supporting a parent to build on their family strengths and make their time together rewarding for their children by meeting their unique needs. The coach facilitates safe reunification by assisting parents in attuning to each of their children.
For an in-depth read on the Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching approach and philosophy, download the following: (PDF)
Visit Coaching / Family Time Coaching
Supports parents in articulating their children's developmental and separation-related needs
Encourages parents to give their children their full attention at each visit
Appreciates a parent’s responsiveness to their child and coaches them to enhance how they tune into their child’s unique needs
Helps parents cope with their feelings, and keep their anger, sadness, and hopelessness out of family time
Prepares parents for their children’s reactions
The Visit Coaching Story
The Administration for Children’s Services in New York City contracted with Dr. Marty Beyer to provide Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching training for private foster care agencies. Their publication of her Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching manual in 2004 led Easterseals Vermont to invite her to train their staff, and Dr. Auguste Elliott, together with a statewide work group, unfolded Family Time Coaching as the first statewide implementation of Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching.
Dr. Beyer continued to provide the 3-day Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching training in states across the country. Dr. Elliott joined with Dr. Beyer in expanding the training to more child welfare agencies and providers. To date, they have provided training in 26 states, primarily in individual counties or providers, and the Chickasaw Nation. Three state child welfare agencies have initiated multiple Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching sites: Connecticut contracted with regionally-based providers in most of the state, Montana has launched a statewide implementation with 18 providers, and Maine has a pilot project they anticipate expanding statewide.
The effectiveness of Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching has been documented. The National Council on Crime and Delinquency’s research on San Diego coaching providers is impressive. Arizona’s Cradle to Crayons program has documented positive results of a combination of Family Time Coaching, parent-child therapy, and trauma treatment with the 0-3 population. Easterseals Vermont has inspiring qualitative results from their ongoing Family Time Coaching parent satisfaction study. See Outcomes→
Marty Beyer, Ph.D. is a national child welfare and juvenile justice consultant and the developer of Visit Coaching/Family Time Coaching. In addition to her work in New York City, she assisted Alabama and Oregon in implementing strengths/needs-based child welfare practice and serves on the Katie A. Panel in Los Angeles. Her child welfare publications include “Exploring Options for Better Visiting” (CWLA’s Children’s Voice, with Meghan Williams), “Visit Coaching: Building on Family Strengths to Meet Children’s Needs (Juvenile and Family Court Journal), “Visit Coaching with Children and their Incarcerated Parents,” and “One Child and Family at a Time: Strengths/Needs-Based Service Crafting.”
S. Auguste Elliott, PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist-Doctorate, Registered Play Therapist Supervisor and Child Parent Psychotherapy Supervisor. In her work as Senior Director of Clinical, Training, and Evaluation Services for Easterseals Vermont, she has been instrumental in that state’s 10-year implementation of Family Time Coaching as statewide policy and best practice (see Vermont state practice guidance). Easterseals Vermont is the primary state contractor for family centered practices and provides statewide training in the Family Time Coaching model. In addition to developing extensive skills sets and training modules for Family Time Coaching, Dr. Elliott and Easterseals Vermont have maintained a commitment to seeking input from parents involved in the program, including quarterly satisfaction surveys and end of service individual interviews, findings of which are used to improve practice and training. Dr. Elliott serves on the national board of The Association for Successful Parenting (TASP), which is committed to enhancing the lives of families when parents have learning difficulties.