Biographies

Biography – Brief

Chris Trout's insights are grounded in a rich, thirty-year hands-on exploration of  the transformative power of strengths - in special education, family mediation, youth development and, most profoundly, parenting and his own personal journey. Now a highly acclaimed speaker and author, Chris has inspired thousands of youth and adults from coast to coast and his weekly Strengths Ezine and Strengths Blog reach thousands of readers in more than a dozen countries around the world.

Biography – Long

Chris Trout, author of Reflecting Strengths: Transformative Lessons from Resilient Youth, knows well the practical challenges of maintaining a strengths-focus in the face of day-to-day realities with youth, adults, organizations and systems. Over the course of 30 years, he has explored these ideas as an educator, a music therapist, a family mediator, a prevention specialist, an executive director and as a parent. Perhaps this is why readers and audiences so often comment that Chris “put into words what I knew to be true. He has clearly 'walked the talk'.”

Chris' experiences have ranged from front-line therapeutic work in institutions and special needs schools to community-based prevention and outreach. One of Chris’ great joys has been the conception, creation and execution of many new strengths-focused programs in diverse settings. These have been wonderful opportunities to “experiment,” to find out what these ideas look like in challenging settings and with challenging people. As a prevention educator, Chris trained hundreds of youth peer listeners, parents and professionals each year and co-founded a nationally recognized model for the use of story-telling in prevention. As the founding Director of the Mission Possible Teen Center in Westbrook, Maine, Mr. Trout brought the concept of "growing strengths in the midst of chaos" to life through the creation of a youth designed teen center in one of the most economically and socially challenged neighborhoods in Southern Maine. And his creation of the Youth Resiliency Project in Portland, Maine provided the opportunity to explore what "strengths-focused" program design looks like across highly diverse populations, ranging from neighborhood-based afterschool programs for immigrant and refugee youth, to peer mentoring in both urban and rural schools.  In 2004, Chris left 27 years in education and social services to create Strengths in Focus, with a mission to share these transformative ideas internationally through speaking, writing, teaching and mentoring.

Chris has inspired thousands of youth and adults from coast to coast and through his keynotes and seminars, and authors both the Strengths Ezine and Strengths Blog, with a worldwide readership that includes transformative people like you in places like New Zealand, South Africa, Tajikistan, the UK, Mexico, Canada and, of course, the US.

In all he does, Chris speaks from a solid foundation of in-the-trenches experience informed by research and colored by humor and personal insight. The result is an authenticity and clarity that makes the message “where we focus, grows” come alive as both personal and practical.