Meet Chris
Chris Trout, is an international speaker, teacher, writer and coach who has touched the lives of thousands around the world. He is also a father, writer, story-teller and lover of transformative ideas, fascinating people and great jazz. He lives in South Portland, Maine (US) with his 13-year-old dancer/actress/writer/dreamer daughter, Zoe; artist and 20+ years life partner, Suzanne; and proud computer geek/computer science major son, Alex.
Chris is founder and president of Strengths in Focus, with a mission to explore and share strengths-focused transformative ideas with fellow seekers. To meet Chris is to experience the humor, authenticity and joy that infuse his work. To learn about him, you can check out The Buzz About Chris. his Professional Journey, and a more formal Professional History.
Quick Profile
- Founder & President of Strengths in Focus
- Highly respected professional speaker, teacher and trainer throughout the United States and Canada
- Co-creator of nationally recognized prevention model based on the power of story-telling
- 27 years of direct work with children, youth and families in diverse settings
- Author, Reflecting Strengths: transformative lessons from resilient youth
- Author, Reflecting Strengths: The Workbook, a guide to strengths-focused personal and professional development
- Author, Strengths Ezine, a weekly online ezine with readers in more than a dozen countries worldwide
Professional Journey
While some folks know the direction of their lives from the start, Chris discovered his only through the rearview mirror.
Over the course of 27 years, he had worked as a special education teacher's aid, registered music therapist, director of an undergraduate degree program at a small private college, serial program developer, program director, family mediator, prevention specialist and executive director. Lots of different titles, but the common thread is that Chris was always a teacher and program developer; one of those "what's next?" types who was always ready for a new challenge, a better way, a new way of looking at things.
At age 18, Chris was introduced to a 4-year-old girl with cerebral palsy and incredibly intelligent brown eyes. While everyone else saw severe disability, no language and a body that would not work, he couldn't stop thinking about what was behind those eyes - and how to tap it. This innate way of seeing remained a driving force throughout his diverse career working with institutionalized children and adults, language delayed children, autistic children, adults in day treatment, college students, teens of every socio-economic description, families, and many remarkable colleagues exploring their own journeys.
For Chris, a great lover of music, his work was also always about improvisation: meeting people where they were, seeing through the clutter to their underlying strengths, incorporating these into something new and remarkable, adding his own ideas, and starting the process all over again. He could never "get with" static programs and strategies or flavor-of-the-month fads. He wanted to be in relationship: watching, listening, responding to each new opportunity to make that genuine connection that changed everything.
As the mid-century mark of his life approached, Chris decided it was time to live one of his dreams: to work from home as a writer, speaker and explorer of transformative ideas. While the foundation of Chris' thinking is grounded in the research of pioneers like Martin Seligman and Marcus Buckingham, they were simply messengers who listened to the teachings of folks who had faced adversity and not only survived, but thrive. Now, through Strengths in Focus, Chris continues this joyful and exhilarating journey.
Professional History
Chris' resume begins at the age of 19, when he was recruited as an assistant teacher working with multiply-handicapped pre-schoolers. The following year, he created the school's first music program, drawing on the work of internationally known therapists, Paul Nordoff and Clive Robbins. After training as a Music Therapist at the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh and completing his clinical training as Wassaic Developmental Center in New York, Chris joined the Creative Arts Therapy team at Laconia State School in New Hampshire. By then, Chris had already conducted numerous workshops at conferences, the University of Eastern Michigan and at numerous social service agencies. The next few years saw Chris working with language delayed children in Staten Island, NY and as Senior Music Therapist in the adult day treatment program at the largest United Cerebral Palsy Center in the nation. He was then recruited by Molloy College as Director of its undergraduate program in Music Therapy, where he redesigned the curriculum, expanded the clinical internship program and doubled its size.
A move to Maine in 1988 also brought a shift in focus. As a Prevention Specialist for a youth drug and alcohol treatment and prevention agency, Chris coordinated a peer listening program with more than 400 participants in over 20 schools. Annually, he facilitated up to seven three-day youth training retreats, conducted large school assemblies and facilitated innovative parenting workshops. It was here that Chris co-created an innovative and nationally recognized prevention model built on the power of story-telling. After a year of family mediation work, Chris became the founding Executive Director of the Mission Possible Teen Center in Westbrook, Maine. Rather, he became ED of a dream. With little money and no facility, Chris was charged with making this dream reality. He recruited a diverse 21-member youth board to guide the creation of this new center in one of the most socio-economically challenged neighborhoods in southern Maine. Less than a year later, a 7000 square foot facility, staffed by 35 volunteers, opened to 150 youth/day. The strengths-focused design of the center and the incredible level of community support resulted in consultations with eighteen other communities seeking to create their own teen programs.
Finally, Chris was recruited by the People's Regional Community Center, a large social service agency focused on poverty, to bring his vision to their work. There he created and was Director of the Youth Resiliency Project, with initiatives ranging from afterschool programs for largely immigrant youth living in subsidized housing projects, to a model statewide network of peer programs that grew ten-fold in two years. Throughout, Chris was a tireless teacher, workshop facilitator, speaker and advocate for the seeing and growing the strengths that youth use every day to survive. Looking once again for that new challenge, Chris realized a lifelong dream with the creation of Strengths in Focus. Since 2004, Strengths in Focus has grown from a few local workshops and ezine subscribers to an organization that reaches thousands of people of every description in more than a dozen countries around the globe. It has truly lived its central tenant, "where we focus, grows."