Creative Thinking and Talking in Residential Care

This paper describes an interdisciplinary discussion of a difficult child in residential care, as a case study for practicing creative thinking. While methods for problem solving in residential treatment are primarily guided by theoretical supposition, this paper offers a rationale for approaching treatment as a widely open exercise in creativity rather than the limiting reliance upon conventional but unexamined premises. Two applications are considered: the way care workers think (our assumptions) and the way we talk (the power of words at creating outcomes).