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InsightPros.Com

Empowering parents and local therapists with troubled teens to have greater influence upon the private residential care process.

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The Strong Model

of Interaction and Intervention

About Michael Behning and Strategic Insight Management

The Author

The Strong Model was developed, and has been refined by its author, Michael Behning. In addition to being the founder of Strategic Insight Management (also known as InsightPros), he is an outspoken critic of poorly managed treatment programs. Yet unlike many such critics, he perceives program weakness much as he sees individual weakness. In most organizations, as in most people, the potential for tremendous, value-based strength exists.

Part of Mr. Behning's mission is to assist a small number of treatment programs in a lengthy, unrelenting pursuit of excellence, based upon Strong Model theory. Moreover, his desire to help parents disocover strength and insight within themselves, their families, and their communities, so that they may more effectively help their troubled teens, has motivated him to develop his workshops, as well as assist in the establishment of therapeutic, in-home intervention services.

The Author's Background

Mr. Behning aggressively asserts the importance of his education and background in business (MBA, corporate trainer, and personnel manager), and the evolution of that background in the treatment industry (instructor, Transitional Director, and Executive Director), for without his education and experience, The Strong Model would never have become what it is. (See Origins of the Strong Model.) He regularly refers to the system as a therapeutic management model.

An Industry and a Society in Need

The need of such a model in the treatment industry is critical, for neither the functions of therapy nor academics provide, on their own, the essential mechanisms for organizational management and leadership. However, the model itself, with its naturally simple ability to outline training objectives and insight, is valuable not only to the organization, but to students and their parents. It provides a framework of insight that produces, as one mother put it, "Ah-Hah!" moments, in which thinking errors are instantly, and surprisingly corrected.

Though he initially faced scrutiny for his obviously arrogant intrusion into the therapeutic industry, virtually every therapist, regardless of the education level, who has seen the model, and has heard Mr. Behning instruct on its principles, has applauded its clarity and value in helping parents, teens, and therapeutic organizations. In fact, rather than distancing themselves from this heretic, numerous therapeutic professionals have actually aligned themselves with him in seeking to develop intervention programs to assist parents and families beyond the scope of traditional residential treatment. Parents and children need more. Increasingly we will see preventative help, providing ever-more effective home and community-based intervention programs and education.

Expanding the Concept

A key to this expansion is Mr. Behning's refusal to prevent others from using his model. In fact, he has openly asked others to study its dynamics, listen to his instruction, add their own expertise, and engage in expanding its presence as quickly and naturally as possible. He neither requests nor requires royalties for its use. He asks only that acknowledgement of its original author be made, and its name (The Strong Model) maintained. However, he will not provide his "personal stamp of approval" on any program, practice, or institution without seeing how it has been adapted, implemented, and taught to the organization.

Parents and professionals can meet with Mr. Behning in any of his scheduled workshops throughout the country. In addition, as he speaks or conducts additional workshops or book-signings, schedules of these events will be posted on this website and in its newsletter, "Demanding Strength." In other words, if you want to know more, it won't be difficult to become familiar with Mr. Behning. His interest in you and your needs has brought him to this point. How far will your interest and needs take you?

Other Points of Interest

  • Mr. Behning served for 8.5 years in the military as a combat engineer and an intelligence analyst.

  • Although he used to speak Spanish fluently, he now admits he's a little rusty. "Give me a week among Spanish-speakers," he says, "and I'll be fluent again."

  • He is the author of the Science Fiction novel, "Henchman of Souls, Book 1: Shades of Life." The next two books in the series, "Henchman of Souls: The People Before" (a precursor to the series), and "Henchman of Souls, Book II: Come the Deceiver," are nearly complete, and will be released at his convenience.

  • Michael Behning is a certified workaholic. It's not a joke. He needs help.

  • Mr. Behning has been very accurately described as follows: "For someone who loves people as much as you do, you're the biggest hermit I know." The observation is absolutely correct. Mr. Behning loves people, and he loves his privacy.

  • Politics ..... Hmm ..... Although his closest friends seem entertained by his political stances, most people, regardless of their political persuasion would probably be offended by him. Don't get him going on politics. Stick with the reality of actually helping people and society, and he's happy.

    Want to know more? Study this website. Although you're free to attempt contact with Mr. Behning outside the mechanisms set up by this site, you will likely fail. The best way to learn more about him (personally), and his concepts, is to find a way to attend a workshop, or to visit a treatment program while he is training.