FFT Partners is delighted to welcome Catie Boatwright to the team as a Senior Consultant!
Catie is an experienced FFT clinician, program administrator and consultant. She obtained a Masters in Marriage and Family Therapy from University of San Diego where she gained experience in private practice, school and juvenile diversion settings working with individuals, couples and families. High risk adolescents and family therapy quickly became a passion which naturally led her to New York City and the FFT model with its relational, noble and effective approach.
Her initial work was in FFT-Child Welfare in general preventive at The Children’s Aid Society. Afterwards, she transitioned to the New York Foundling to join the newly launched Families Rising Program. The Families Rising Program introduced FFT into adult criminal court as an alternative to incarceration option in New York City and intervened with adolescents being tried as adults for violent and non-violent felonies. She started as a therapist and program representative where she split her time between criminal court daily proceedings and field visits with families.
Catie maintained strong program outcomes and developed important stakeholder relationships and became part of the program expansion. She moved into leadership roles as the clinical FFT supervisor and eventually assistant vice president. Her role allowed her to contribute to the important dialogue about rehabilitation rather than incarceration in the juvenile justice world in publications such as The Atlantic, The Daily Journal and The Juvenile Justice Exchange. She held dual roles as both an assistant vice president and internal FFT Consultant and trainer at Foundling for 9 years until her transition to the Implementation Support Center (ISC). As a senior advisor in the ISC, she was able to bring her hands-on experience of successfully implementing Families Rising and support other program and agency implementations.
With over a decade of FFT practice in child welfare, juvenile justice and foster care programs in various roles from therapist to assistant vice president she brings experience and knowledge to her current role as an FFT Senior Consultant. She is driven by the desire to provide the best possible training and clinical development to clinicians as they work to provide adherent FFT with families who are truly in need of support and understanding.
"FFT allows clinicians to bring their own personality, spirit, and hearts into their work which keeps it feeling authentic and genuine. Families feel and know this difference. I believe it is a privilege to be let into families' hearts and that it is important to help clinicians know how to bring their most authentic self into the work. I find myself inspired everyday by the strength, creativity, and resilience of both our families and the clinicians who work with them." - Catie Boatwright