Assessing Strengths

What are strengths

Saleebey (2006) asserts that “[a]almost anything can be considered strength under certain conditions” (p. 82). Some strength can be found in:

  1. What people have learned about themselves and others
    People learn from the challenges they endure as well as from their accomplishments. Resiliency seems to spring from the interaction between those internal and environmental resources and the risk factors that the person is facing.
  2. Personal qualities, traits, and virtues
    when going through adversity, people may become aware of some talents, assets, or resources. In other cases, people develop new strengths and resources in order to meet their challenges. Some examples are creativity, spirituality, humour, caring, and the like.
  3. What people know about the world around them
    Knowledge comes from different sources, including education, culture, and actual experience. While learning about our world, we develop skills and abilities. For instance, a client might know much more about the housing system than we can ever hope to learn. However, too often this knowledge is subjugated. We will identify it only if we observe and ask.
  4. Talents people have
    frequently, you will find that people have surprising talents, such as singing, writing, painting, telling stories, and so on. Many times people do not even mention those talents because they do not seem relevant to what we are discussing. If we do not ask, we remiss the opportunity of mobilizing these strengths. Although these talents may not be connected to the clients’ aspirations, they give us more resources and tools to assist individuals in fulfilling those aspirations and reaching their goals.
  5. Cultural and personal stories and lore
    these strengths are sources of stability, guidance, a sense of belonging, and a place in the world. Narratives, myths, and cultural stories can be a source of identity, meaning, and inspiration through adversity.
  6. Pride
    When people overcome deterrents, bouncing back from adversity, they develop a sense of pride and accomplishment. It is the “survivor’s pride” described by Wolin and Wolin (1994), which is waiting to be discovered, usually behind a curtain of shame.
  7. The community
    There are many assets in the communities that should be included in the assessment, such as physical, interpersonal, and institutional strengths. People can benefit from giving as well as receiving, since this enhances their membership and empowerment.
  8. Spirituality
    Canda (2006) describes spirituality from a holistic approach, which involves and transcends the biological, psychological, social, cultural, or political aspects of a person. It is also related to finding meaning and experiences that may manifest in peak experiences, cosmic revelations, and the like, which invite us to explore the mysteries and complexities of life. Spirituality is a powerful source of strength and resiliency that may convey hope and belief in the possibility of a positive future for the clients. Thus, we should listen to our clients when they refer to spirituality and we should dare to respectfully explore their beliefs and practices. Again, it is important to focus in what is important for the client.

Strengths-based assessment

Cowger (1994) and Saleebey (1997) provide clear guidelines for a strengths–based assessment:

  • Give primacy to the clients’ perspectives,
  • Believe the clients
  • Discover what the clients want, their aspirations, goals, and dreams,
  • Direct the assessment toward personal and environmental strengths,
  • Make the assessment of strengths multidimensional,
  • Discover the clients’ uniqueness,
  • Use language the clients can understand,
  • Avoid blaming,
  • Avoid cause-and-effect thinking,
  • Avoid diagnosing and labelling

Discovering strengths

There are many different questions that can be used to discover internal and external strengths. For a more complete reference, see Saleebey (2006) and De Jong and Miller (1995). Nevertheless, strength-discovery questions are endless.

  1. Survival questions: How have you managed to overcome/ survive the challenges that you have faced? “What have you learned about yourself and your world during those struggles?” (Saleebey, 2006, p. 87)
  2. Support questions: Who are the people that you can rely on? Who has made you feel understood, supported, or encouraged?
  3. Exception questions: “When things were going well in life, what was different?” (Saleebey, 2006, p.87)
  4. Possibility questions: What do you want to accomplish in your life? What are your hopes for your future, or the future of your family?
  5. Esteem questions: What makes you proud about yourself? What positive things do people say about you?
  6. Perspective questions: “What are your ideas about your current situation?” (Saleebey, 2006, p.87)
  7. Change questions: What do you think is necessary for things to change? What could you do to make that happen?

A word of caution is necessary here. Any strengths-based assessment must proceed from the belief in the client and it should not become a verdict or sentence for the client. Repeating these questions or filling out a strengths-based form does not mean that you are working from the Strengths Perspective. A profound belief in the client’s potential is intrinsic to any strengths-based assessment. Thinking about strengths begins with the understanding what goals and dreams the person has; reflecting on the possibilities and hope in their lives. In this process, they can discover or develop new possibilities for themselves and change toward a better quality of life.

References Saleebey, D. (Ed.). (2006). The Strengths Perspective in social work practice (4th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Strengths Assessment Worksheet

Rapp and Goscha (2006) include seven life domains in their strengths assessment: daily living situation, financial/insurance, vocational/educational, social supports, health, leisure/recreational, and spirituality. These life domains are related to three temporal orderings: past (“What have I used in the past?”), present (“What’s going on today? What’s available now?”), and future (“What do I want?”).

This tool is not similar to other assessment tools and the process of developing a strengths assessment is also unique, since it has the intrinsic purpose of “amplifying the well aspects of the individual” (p.102).

For a complete description of the tool as well as the process of conducting a strengths assessment, please see Rapp and Goscha (2006, p. 99).

References

Rapp, C. A., & Goscha, R. (2006). The strengths model: Case management with people with psychiatric dissabilities (2nd ed.). New York: Oxford.