STARS: Facilitating Attuned Interactions (FAN) Training
Date: Oct 23rd & 24th, 2025
*Both days are required.
Time: 8:30- 3:30pmCST/ 9:30- 4:30pmEST
*This is a virtual training session. No recording will be allowed or provided.
Description: This is a training for Child Welfare workers and Foster Parents. Facilitating Attuned Interactions is a model from the Erikson Institute that promotes self-awareness of providers and increased attunement to caregivers that results in improved professional/parent relationships and improved service recipient outcomes. FAN has been a core framework for pediatricians, mental health clinicians, home visitors, and child welfare professionals across the US. The model emphasizes slowing down interactions with service recipients to increase focus on relationships, which has been shown through research to decrease the amount of time for families to reach their identified goals. FAN is a huge asset to a number of TN's workforce sectors, and we're so excited to bring this opportunity to child welfare.
Presenters:
Rachel Hanson, MS, CLC, IMH-E®
Rachel Hanson graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin with a degree in social work and a Master’s degree in Psychology with a focus in Child and Adolescent Development from Capella University. Rachel started work in community mental health working with at-risk youth providing family behavioral therapy. Currently, Rachel is the Project Manager for Healthy Start Tennessee and Tennessee Maternal Workforce Solutions Project at Centerstone. Rachel is a Resilient TN Building Strong Brains Tennessee, HOPE Champion, and FAN trainer. Rachel has a large focus for collective impact in the community to address gaps and disparities that impact families and community members. Rachel resides in Lawrenceburg, TN with her husband and three children.
Flor Abarca, BA, IECMH-E®
My name is Flor Abarca a graduate from Southern Illinois University with a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a minor in criminology. I was raised in a small college town of Carbondale, Illinois and born in Mexico. I speak Spanish fluently and hope to help AIMHI as a community liaison with my bilingual skills to reach other Spanish speaking communities in Tennessee that need the knowledge and resources that AIMHI has to offer.
My passion is to work with adolescents and children. I started as a pre-school teacher in Madison Tennessee at Kings Daughters Developmental center, that is when I knew I wanted to work with toddlers. I had challenging behavior in the classroom that expanded knowledge in behavior management by working for the Mental Health and Substance abuse at Regional Intervention Program (RIP) in Nashville. A program dedicated to teaching parents how to shape behavior with negative and positive reinforcement. I love what RIP’s mission is to help families, but I realized I wanted to help families on the broader spectrum and get into the community. I come to AIMHI to put my expertise to use and help AIMHI with its mission.