4R FOUNDATIONS WORKSHOP
Working Effectively With System-Involved Youth
A 3-hour interactive training for professionals working with system-involved, high-risk, and treatment-resistant youth.
Presented by Riley Cochran, LPC, LAC | Resolute Counseling Center
Accountability that builds ownership, not just compliance
A practical lens for assessing resistance.
At its core, the workshop gives participants a practical lens for assessing resistance — including oppositional, defiant, avoidant, shut-down, and non-compliant behavior — so they can determine what may be driving the behavior and choose a response that is both trauma-responsive and accountability-focused.
By assessing the influence of relational and environmental trauma, attachment disruption, dysregulation, learned protective strategies, relational mistrust, and individual choice, professionals can maintain clear expectations while matching accountability and intervention to what is actually driving the resistance.
The aim is behavioral change that is more likely to generalize beyond the immediate interaction or system requirement.
The 4R Framework
Participants examine different expressions of resistance and practice responses that hold boundaries, expectations, and consequences while reducing unnecessary power struggles and preserving the working relationship.
Recognize
Assess what resistance may be communicating and differentiate among trauma responses, protective strategies, unmet needs, dysregulation, relational mistrust, and intentional non-compliance.
Reflect
Notice the meaning we assign to behavior and how our own reactions, assumptions, and relational patterns influence the interaction.
Regulate
Increase our capacity to hold a young person’s distress, wounds, resistance, and intensity without becoming reactive, punitive, avoidant, or disconnected.
Respond
Choose intentional responses that protect the relationship while preserving clear boundaries and meaningful accountability, increasing the likelihood of ownership, engagement, and lasting change.
WHAT YOU’LL WALK AWAY WITH
Core Learning Objectives
- Develop a practical lens for assessing resistant, oppositional, defiant, avoidant, and non-compliant behavior before determining the most effective intervention.
- Assess how relational trauma, environmental trauma, attachment disruption, chronic stress, and relational safety can shape behavior.
- Identify common forms of resistance — including opposition, defiance, escalation, shutdown, avoidance, disengagement, testing, and relational conflict — and understand how each may require a different response.
- Recognize how challenging youth behavior can activate professionals and influence decision-making, communication, and intervention.
- Apply Recognize → Reflect → Regulate → Respond to real-world interactions with system-involved youth.
- Apply trauma-responsive strategies while maintaining clear expectations, appropriate consequences, and meaningful accountability.
Designed for Real-World Systems
The workshop is designed for professionals whose roles require them to balance engagement with enforcement, support with expectations, and trauma-responsive practice with accountability.
It is especially relevant when repeated non-compliance, oppositional or defiant behavior, disengagement, escalation, or relational conflict create pressure to choose between maintaining the relationship and enforcing expectations. The 4R Framework is designed to help professionals do both more effectively.
Who it’s for: Probation, pretrial/CYDC, diversion, juvenile justice, community-based programs, behavioral health, schools, case management, youth outreach, and other professionals serving high-needs youth.
YOUR FACILITATOR
Riley Cochran, LPC, LAC
Riley is a Denver-based licensed therapist and Executive Director of Resolute Counseling Center. He has spent his career working with high-risk and system-involved youth across inpatient, outpatient, home-based, community, and crisis stabilization behavioral health settings.
His work focuses on trauma, attachment, anger, aggression, substance use, and high-risk adolescent behavior. Riley’s training approach translates clinical concepts into practical tools for real-world systems.
FOR ORGANIZATIONS
Bring 4R Foundations to Your Team
Organization Investment: In-House
3-Hour Workshop
$750 – $1,500
Depending on audience size and organizational needs.
Includes: One 3-hour facilitated workshop; preparation and reasonable customization; training materials and presentation development; follow-up resource recommendations.
Conference presentations: Pricing and arrangements determined by the conference or hosting organization.
Built to Support Continued Skill Development
Foundations establishes a shared lens, language, and set of practical skills that can stand on its own or support deeper organizational learning over time.
For teams seeking continued development, the 4R approach can be expanded into focused half-day or full-day workshops and longer-term training and consultation partnerships centered on your organization’s specific challenges, populations, and practice needs.
I’m interested in bringing this training to my organization
FOR INDIVIDUALS
Join an Upcoming Training
Not coming with a team? Tell me which format fits you and I’ll reach out when a training is scheduled.
