We all carry around with us our pet theories about what intervention is working with the youth and families we work with — in which situations, with what balance of freedom and control, and as a result of which discipline or team member’s input. For example, the recreation worker may feel (deep down inside, of course) that no matter what the social workers or the child and youth care workers or the administrators may be doing with a client, it is really the recreation program which is having the significant impact.

Maybe it is natural that we need to be reassured that the work we have been doing today is significant and helpful.
But to ascribe our effectiveness to a single philosophy or method or individual, is to miss the complexity of what happens when a child or family is brought into contact with an agency such as ours.

In our practice today, we will be aware that we are influenced and supported by a particular body of theory. But be aware too that our experience and learning today will modify that theory — and the theory we all work with tomorrow will be different. It will be a synthesis of the inputs and insights of all of our colleagues, as well as those of the youth themselves. If tomorrow’s theory is not different and new, then theory is a dead thing.

If we, as individuals and teams, can be open to understanding and learning from whatever we do and whatever happens today, then from tomorrow there is new power in tools like theory and team and profession.