When I worked with adolescents in a therapeutic community that has sadly now closed as have the other run by the NHS, when I had heard a particularly harrowing tale of what one of the young adults had been through, I would often ask, “What gave you the strength to get through that?” Often drawing on the strength inherent in an individual is far more useful than asking for more detail of difficult times or making suggestions of my own.
fightorflights 
When I worked with adolescents in a therapeutic community that has sadly now closed as have the other run by the NHS, when I had heard a particularly harrowing tale of what one of the young adults had been through, I would often ask, “What gave you the strength to get through that?” Often drawing on the strength inherent in an individual is far more useful than asking for more detail of difficult times or making suggestions of my own.
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