Workshops for Professionals

Dates for these workshops will be announced. Consultation and supervision on these issues in general and how they relate to specific cases is available now.

Ages and Stages in adoption: Implications for Parenting

This workshop for adoptive professionals will address the adoptive parents' journey and how that affects their dealing with both the adoption process and adoptive parenthood.  How the parents experience their own adoption issues has major impact on how they help their children to deal with their adoption issues in the different ages and stages that the children go through in understanding adoption.

Beginning with when parents first consider adoption, moving on to their experience of the adoption process, and finally exploring and identifying the simultaneous issues that parents and children experience in relation to the ages and stages of children's understanding of adoption issues will be discussed. 

You will learn:

• How to understand the psychological issues of adoptive parents who become parents in the context of complex loss and emotions.

• What the specific issues are for parents who adopted domestically.

• What the specific issues are for parents who adopted internationally.

• Why understanding the adoptive parents journey is critical to educating adoptive parents about talking to their children about adoption.

• How to help adoptive parents to understand the ages and stages their children go through in understanding adoption.

The Challenges of the Agency-Client Relationship in Adoption: Managing Expectations and Realities

This workshop is for adoption agency staff and adoption professionals who would like to have a better understanding of the mindset of prospective adoptive parents and how this mindset often interferes with forming optimal relationships with the adoption agencies, dealing with the adoption process and focusing on learning about the adoptive parenting they are about to embark on.  

You will learn: 

• How to understand the mindset of prospective adoptive parents who are becoming parents in the context of complex loss and emotions
• How to improve the client-agency relationship to increase the clients' trust in and communication with the agency.  
• How to manage the psychological issues that make it difficult for clients to take in pre-adoption education while in the process of adopting.     
• The HOW and WHEN agencies can give clients information that they will really absorb
• The WHO can provide adoption education that clients can really take in. 

Everyone agrees on the content that prospective adoptive parents need to learn but there has been inconsistent success with managing their expectations and their understanding of the realities of the adoption process and adoptive parenting.  The goals of this workshop are to help you to improve your success in preparing clients to become successful adoptive parents and to minimize the risk of adoption disruptions

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