Strengths-Based Practice: Starting with What's Strong, Not What's Wrong

Strengths-Based Practice: Starting with What's Strong, Not What's Wrong

Published: Friday, 30 January 2026
Category: Practical Tools & Skills
Reading time: 7 minutes

Open any case file in community services and you'll likely find pages detailing what's wrong: diagnoses, deficits, risks, problems, gaps, needs. What someone can't do. Where they're struggling. What's missing.

Now look for strengths. Look for what this person is good at, what they've survived, what resources they have, who supports them, what brings them joy.

If you find it at all, it's probably a brief paragraph, an afterthought, a checkbox ticked to show you've considered it.

This isn't because workers don't care. It's because we're trained, by education, by funding models, by documentation systems, to focus on problems. We learn to see deficits, diagnose pathology, and document dysfunction.

But here's what years of evidence and practice wisdom tell us: When we start with strengths rather than deficits, everything changes.

What Strengths-Based Practice Actually Means

Strengths-based practice isn't about ignoring challenges or pretending everything is fine. It's about fundamentally reorienting where you look first and what you build from.

Instead of asking "What's wrong with you?" and trying to fix deficits, we ask:

• What's strong in you?

• What's working, even partially?

• What have you survived?

• What do you care about?

• Who and what supports you?

• What do you want, and what resources can we build on to get there?

The goal isn't to eliminate problems—though that might happen. The goal is to identify and amplify existing strengths so people can achieve what matters to them.

Why This Matters

Labels Stick and Limit

When we frame someone through their deficits—"high-risk client," "non-compliant," "difficult family"—these labels shape how we see them and how they see themselves.

Labels like these become self-fulfilling. We unconsciously look for evidence that confirms them. And the person internalises the identity we've given them.

Conversely, when we identify strengths—"resilient," "resourceful," "protective parent"—we open up possibilities.

Deficit Focus Is Disempowering

Constantly highlighting what people can't do or don't have is demoralising. It positions workers as fixers and clients as broken.

Strengths-based practice positions people as experts in their own lives with existing capacities. Our job isn't to fix them—it's to help them access and build on what's already there.

It's More Effective

Research consistently shows that interventions building on strengths are more effective than those focused solely on remedying deficits. When people feel capable and hopeful, they engage more fully in change.

It's More Sustainable

Skills and resources developed from existing strengths are more likely to persist than externally imposed solutions. People sustain what they've built themselves.

The Language Shift

Strengths-based practice starts with language. Notice the difference:

Deficit language:

• "Client has poor social skills"

• "Client lacks motivation"

• "Client failed to attend appointments"

• "Client is non-compliant with medication"

Strengths-based language:

• "Client is learning to navigate social situations and has shown increased confidence when..."

• "Client is weighing the costs and benefits of change and has identified concerns about..."

• "Client prioritised [other need] over attending appointments"

• "Client has questions about medication and is making informed decisions about their treatment"

Notice how the second set assumes capability and agency rather than deficit and dysfunction?

Identifying Strengths: A Practical Framework

Strengths exist in multiple domains:

1. Personal Qualities

• Resilience (they're still here despite...)

• Determination

• Humor

• Creativity

• Protectiveness (of children, siblings, etc.)

• Honesty

• Spirituality or meaning-making

Ask: "What are you proud of about yourself? What do others appreciate about you?"

2. Skills and Abilities

• Communication skills (even if not verbal)

• Problem-solving

• Practical skills (cooking, budgeting, fixing things)

• Parenting abilities

• Artistic or creative talents

• Cultural or linguistic knowledge

Ask: "What are you good at? What comes naturally to you?"

3. Environmental Strengths

• Supportive relationships (family, friends, neighbours, even pets)

• Safe housing or a housing goal

• Connection to community, culture, or spirituality

• Access to services or resources

• Knowledge of how to navigate systems

Ask: "Who's in your corner? What spaces feel safe to you?"

4. Survival Strategies

This is important: Even coping strategies we might see as problematic often represent strengths—they've helped the person survive.

Someone who's hypervigilant developed that as a protective response. Someone who avoids situations learned that avoidance kept them safe. Someone who uses substances found a way to manage unbearable feelings.

Reframing doesn't mean these strategies don't have costs. It means recognising the resourcefulness underneath.

Ask: "How have you survived this? What's helped you get through?"

5. Aspirations and Interests

What people care about and dream of are strengths too. They represent hope, motivation, direction.

Ask: "When things are better, what will be different? What matters most to you? What brings you joy?"

Strengths-Based Documentation

Traditional assessments often have one tiny section for strengths buried among pages of problems. Flip this:

Start assessments with strengths. Open files by documenting:

• What this person has survived and overcome

• Their capacities, skills, and qualities

• Their support networks and resources

• What they want to achieve

• What's currently working in their life

Then address challenges—but frame them as obstacles to overcome using existing strengths, not as evidence of deficit.

Example comparison:

Deficit-focused: "Client presents with extensive trauma history, diagnosed PTSD, struggles with daily functioning, isolated, unemployed, frequent crises."

Strengths-based: "Client has survived significant trauma and is seeking support to build the stable life they want for themselves and their children. They're deeply committed to their kids and protective of their well-being. Client has maintained housing for 8 months, has developed coping strategies including art and walking, and is motivated to build skills in emotional regulation. Seeking employment and community connection."

See the difference? Same person, same situation—but one narrative opens possibilities, the other closes them.

Strengths-Based Goal-Setting

Traditional care planning often focuses on reducing problems: "Client will reduce anxiety." "Client will improve social skills."

Strengths-based goals are:

• Framed positively (building something rather than reducing something)

• Connected to what the person wants

• Building on existing capacities

Instead of: "Client will reduce isolation"
Try: "Client will reconnect with [specific community/activity that they've expressed interest in], building on their interest in [whatever that is]"

Instead of: "Client will comply with treatment"
Try: "Client will explore treatment options and identify what feels most aligned with their goals"

Notice how the second set maintains agency and builds from the person's existing interests and capacities?

Common Pitfalls

1. Toxic Positivity

Strengths-based doesn't mean ignoring genuine suffering or pretending everything is fine. Acknowledge pain and hardship—then identify the strengths evident in how someone is navigating that hardship.

2. Strengths as Band-Aids

Don't use strengths to avoid addressing systemic issues. "You're so resilient" shouldn't be code for "therefore you don't need adequate resources."

3. Artificial Cheerleading

Finding strengths isn't about false praise. It's about noticing and reflecting genuine capacities, even small ones.

4. Ignoring Context

Strengths exist within contexts. Someone might have enormous strengths that aren't visible in your office but shine in their own environment.

5. Making Strengths Compulsory

If someone doesn't want to identify their strengths, don't force it. Some people have been so beaten down they can't see them yet. That's okay. You can see them until they're ready to.

Strengths-Based Conversations: Practical Questions

Discovery Questions

• "What would people who care about you say you're good at?"

• "What's something you've done that you're proud of?"

• "How have you managed to cope with [difficult situation]?"

• "What do you do when you need to relax or feel better?"

• "Who would you go to for help? What makes them trustworthy?"

Future-Focused Questions

• "When things are going well, what does that look like?"

• "What would be different if this problem was solved?"

• "What would you be doing more of?"

• "What are you looking forward to?"

Exception-Finding Questions

• "When is the problem less of a problem?"

• "When have you felt more hopeful?"

• "Tell me about a time when things went better?"

• "What was different then?"

When It Feels Hard

Sometimes identifying strengths feels difficult:

When someone is in crisis: Even in crisis, strengths exist. The fact they reached out is a strength. Their protectiveness of family. Their honesty about struggling.

When you're frustrated: If you're finding it hard to see strengths, that's information about your own state, not theirs. Take a break, get supervision, and come back.

When someone has caused harm: People who've done harmful things still have strengths. This doesn't excuse harm, but it does recognize full humanity.

When systemic barriers are overwhelming: Strengths don't erase the reality of poverty, discrimination, or lack of services. But they do provide building blocks for advocacy and change.

The Bigger Picture

Strengths-based practice is ultimately about dignity and equity. It challenges the expert-knows-best model that has dominated helping professions and positions people as capable, resourceful humans navigating difficult circumstances.

It doesn't mean resources aren't needed—they absolutely are. It doesn't mean challenges disappear—they don't.

But it means we start from a different place. We look first at capacity, not deficit. We build from what's there, not what's missing.

And in doing so, we partner with people rather than positioning ourselves above them.

Key Takeaways

• Strengths-based practice asks "What's strong?" not just "What's wrong?"

• It's more empowering, effective, and sustainable than deficit-focused approaches

• Strengths include personal qualities, skills, relationships, survival strategies, and aspirations

• Language matters—frame challenges as obstacles to overcome using strengths

• Strengths-based practice isn't toxic positivity; it acknowledges hardship while identifying capacity

Reflection Questions

• What strengths do you bring to your own work?

• When you read client files, what's the ratio of deficits to strengths documented?

• What makes it hard to adopt strengths-based language in your workplace?

• Think of a current client—what three strengths could you identify and build from?

Further Learning

Want to embed strengths-based approaches throughout your practice? The Community Workers Hub offers:

• Strengths-Based Planning and Goal-Setting - Practical tools for assessment and care planning

• Collaborative Care Planning with Clients - Co-creating plans that honour client expertise

• Motivational Interviewing Skills - Working with ambivalence while honouring autonomy

Join The Hub to access courses designed for the real world of community services.

Sarah Smallman is the founder of The Community Workers Hub, bringing decades of experience in strengths-based, person-centred community work.