Adam Ashraf
Treatment Team Leader, North Cottage
Trillium Parry Center for Children
October 2008 marked Adams sixth year at the Parry Center, having worked all of that time in the North Cottage.
This building is devoted to residential clients in the Secured Children's Inpatient Program as well as other pre-adolescent
clients. Adam graduated from the University of Oregon, majoring in psychology. "I've always been interested in people
and what makes them tick," he relates. "I did a lot of coaching and summer camp work with kids and have always enjoyed
working with children. I had a pretty good idea that I wanted to work with children professionally as I was going through
my degree program."
Adam points to some of the challenges of working with younger children in treatment. "Sometimes it's harder for the younger
kids to process expectations. Developmentally, they can't always articulate what they're feeling or what they want." The
residential treatment environment poses other challenges, Adam relates. "It's a real challenge to keep the treatment milieu
consistent, but very important," he states.
Adam notes that on the rewards side, "you may see just a little progress day-to-day, but over time you often see big changes."
Adam goes on to state, "I don't expect to get thank-you's from the kids, but we do often get cards--even cookies!--from parents
of the clients who appreciate the hard work of the staff and the progress of their child. We also do have some clients that
keep in contact with the program after discharge. It's great to hear how well some are doing, particularly the ones that faced
huge challenges when admitted."
Adam plans to return to school in the next year or so to pursue a Master's of Social Work degree. He's not exactly sure what
role professionally he wants to pursue from there, but knows he wants to do clinical work with children in some capacity.
