Practical techniques for guiding parents through the stages of adoption and beyond

"This book makes a significant contribution to both a greater understanding of adoption and its complex dynamic constellations as well as to serving those who are or come across adoption families, many of whom count on us adoption-informed mental health professionals to clarify and facilitate the challenges they face."
--From the Foreword by Henri Parens, MD, Professor of Psychiatry, Thomas Jefferson University, Training and Supervising Analyst, Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia

"What most people don't know about adoption could fill a book--and this is the book. Finally sorting myth from science, "Working with Adoptive Parents" will give therapists, and quite a few nonprofessionals considering adoption, the real story of what it means to make this momentous choice. Better yet, it does so without letting the data speak in place of the parents themselves, in all their fear, doubt, and joy."
--Jesse Green, author of "The Velveteen Father: An Unexpected Journey to Parenthood"

Editors Virginia Brabender and April Fallon are clinical psychologists and also adoptive parents whose families are acquainted with both the uncertainty and joy of adoption. In "Working with Adoptive Parents," they offer an in-depth treatment of the distinctive needs, feelings, impulses, expectations, and conflicts that adoptive parents experience through the stages of adoption and beyond. This volume offers a comprehensive picture of adoption through an exploration of the experiences and developmental processes of the adoptive parent.

Featuring contributions from mental health professionals whose careers have focused on work with families through the adoption process, this unique book: Covers the theory, research, and practice of adoptive parenting throughout the life cycleExplores the issues unique to the adoptive mother and adoptive father as they traverse the stages of parentingOffers a close look at families with special needs childrenAcknowledges and explores the great diversity among adoptive families and the kinship networks in which they are embeddedExamines attachment issues between adoptive parent and child

Providing a framework for therapists to conceptualize their work with adoptive parents, "Working with Adoptive Parents "clarifies and facilitates the journey that many of these families face.

Providing an authoritative overview of the growing phenomena of child to parent violence - a feature in the daily life of increasing numbers of families - this book outlines what we know about it, what is effective in addressing it, and outlines a proven model for intervention. Based on non-violent resistance (NVR), the model is founded on a number of key elements: parental commitment to non-violence, de-escalation skills, increased parental presence, engaging the support network and acts of reconciliation. The book outlines the theory and principles, and provides pragmatic guidance for implementing these elements, accompanied by case studies to bring the theory to life.

Difficult behaviour in children with developmental trauma comes from a place of hurt. It is often confusing, unpredictable and painful both to the child and the people around them, and can be a form of self-protection or coping with deeply rooted fears and anxieties. Traumatized children rarely respond to traditional parenting strategies, but once you understand the impact of trauma on children you can master 'developmental reparenting' strategies which do work - by validating their feelings, boosting self-esteem and encouraging open and honest conversations. The first part of this book guides you using easy to understand language through the latest science and research relating to trauma and its impact on the brain and executive functioning. The second part forms the heart of the book, laying out 35 action charts to addresses some of the very hardest challenges for parents and carers - from inappropriate sexualised behaviour and overfamiliarity with strangers through to tantrums, food issues and deception. Written by an experienced adoptive parent who was also a qualified social worker with expertise in trauma-informed parenting, this book will be a welcome relief to any family struggling with the challenges of living with trauma in the home.

Written for busy foster carers and adoptive parents, this book provides a concise introduction to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and how to support a child with a diagnosis. It emphasises the common strengths children with ASD have, as well as offering strategies for any behavioural issues that are likely to arise, highlighting how these can be exacerbated by the care system and adoption process. The first part of the book looks at the different aspects of autism and the challenges it can pose for children and parents, providing strategies for managing difficulties at home and at school, using social stories, and reducing sensory input in a child's environment. The second part looks at issues that arise for fostered or adopted children, including placement transitions, contact, and explaining the past. It concludes with helping parents to think about self-care.

Foundations for Attachment Training Resource is a six-session programme to help parents and carers to nurture attachments with their child. It is designed specifically for those caring for children whose capacity to emotionally connect has been compromised as a result of attachment problems, trauma, and loss or separation. Informed by attachment theory and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP), it consists of three core modules: * Understanding Challenges of Parenting * Therapeutic Parenting * Looking After Self It includes relevant theory and process notes for trainers, and a range of activities supported by electronic resources with downloadable activity sheets and handouts. This is a complete resource containing everything you need to run the sessions, and is perfect for any professionals involved in training foster carers, adoptive parents and kinship carers.

The prospect of adopting a child can be both exciting and overwhelming. There are many different types of adoption and choices to be made in pursuing an adoption. Your options for adoption will depend on the needs and interests of an adoptable child or youth as well as what is important to your family. These factors may include your flexibility around the characteristics of the child you wish to adopt, your feelings about contact with birth family members, your resources, and how long you are willing to wait for your child. This book discusses the options available for different types of families and provides guidance for adopting a child.

Assessing prospective adoptive parents, foster carers, kinship carers and special guardians is an extremely complex task, and one that happens within a pressurized time frame. Currently, assessments draw substantially on interviews, which can generate a lot of information but little analysis to enable professionals to establish a meaningful understanding of parenting capacity. Children with histories of trauma, loss and hurt need to join families in which parents exhibit the ability to be good at relationships, are able to manage their own stress and bond with the child in their care. Now fully updated and expanded to cover the assessment of kinship carers and special guardians, this book combines the latest findings from neuroscience with research on what makes good assessments and provides guidance and tools for making thorough, analytical and effective assessments. With contributions from leading experts including Dan Hughes, Jonathan Baylin, Kim Golding and Julie Selwyn, it will provide you with the information you need to ensure the best possible chance of placement success.

'A dark, gritty, and compulsive read' Daily Express Nineteen-year-old Sally is battered and bruised, and lying in the hospital once again. It's nothing new, it's happened before and it'll happen again. But when DI Laura Kesey introduces Sally to a new social worker, she finds hope at a local women's domestic violence refuge, where she's surrounded by women just like her. But then a man is mowed down in a hit and run. Soon a second suspicious death follows. Both deaths link back to the refuge. Has Sally found a safe place or a new danger? *Please note this is a re-release of The Sisters*

Die Arbeit beschaftigt sich mit einer praktisch sehr relevanten, in der wissenschaftlichen Auseinandersetzung bisher eher wenig beachteten Problematik des Familienrechts - der Abwagung der rechtlichen Belange des Pflegekindes, der leiblichen Eltern und der Pflegeeltern. Hierbei wurde insbesondere der Versuch unternommen, unter Berucksichtigung der tatsachlichen und rechtlichen Seite einen Reformentwurf fur den Fall der Adoption des Pflegekindes durch seine Pflegeeltern zu entwickeln."

Positive and practical, this guide is designed to offer a route to recovery from grief and loss after adoption or long-term foster care. Children growing up in adoptive families or foster care often have complicated feelings about the loss of their birth parents - feelings which become all the more complex as they gain independence and become young adults, and which can endure throughout their lives. Common life events such as entering new relationships, building a family or losing a loved one can give rise to difficult questions about their own childhood and identity. In this book, Renee Wolfs provides an accessible explanation of the feelings of loss and grief commonly experienced by adults who grew up in adoptive families or foster care, and how debilitating they can be. She provides grounded advice and strategies to aid recovery and provides the reader with a useful tool: The Circle of Connecting. The Circle provides strategies for healing from loss, spanning all seven elements of your life: your body, mind, heart, environment, past, present and future. This book is essential reading for older teens and adults who need help in addressing feelings of grief and loss, as well as those who support them including adoptive and foster parents, social workers, counsellors and therapists.

Many people say being a parent is the toughest job there is. John DeGarmo, foster and adoptive parent, tells us just how tough it can be, having parented over 40 children. At times he and his wife, Kelly, have cared for up to nine children at a time, many with severe trauma and learning difficulties. Love and Mayhem is an honest and open account of the struggles, sadness and joy that comes with the job of being a parent to a traumatized child. From the sleepless nights with babies withdrawing from drug-addiction, to the heartbreak when a child moves on to another home, and the loving chaos that comes with a large and blended family, John DeGarmo fights for the many children who have come through his home. Ideal for foster families, general readers, fostering agencies and social workers who are looking for a true to life memoir of what it really is to be a foster parent.

Therapeutic Residential Care For Children and Youth takes a fresh look at therapeutic residential care as a powerful intervention in working with the most troubled children who need intensive support. Featuring contributions from distinguished international contributors, it critically examines current research and innovative practice and addresses the key questions: how does it work, what are its critical "active ingredients" and does it represent value for money? The book covers a broad spectrum of established and emerging approaches pioneered around with world, with contributors from the USA, Canada, Scandinavia, Spain, Australia, Israel and the UK offering a mix of practice and research exemplars. The book also looks at the research relating to critical issues for child welfare service providers: the best time to refer children to residential care, how children can be helped to make the transition into care, the characteristics of children entering and exiting care, strategies for engaging families as partners, how the substantial cost of providing intensive is best measured against outcomes, and what research and development challenges will allow therapeutic residential care to be rigorously compared with its evidence-based community-centered alternatives. Importantly, the volume also outlines how to set up and implement intensive child welfare services, considering how transferable they are, how to measure success and value for money, and the training protocols and staffing needed to ensure that a programme is effective. This comprehensive volume will enable child welfare professionals, researchers and policymakers to develop a refined understanding of the potential of therapeutic residential care, and to identify the highest and best uses of this intensive and specialized intervention.

How do you give your adopted or fostered child the best opportunities to grow up to be happy, healthy and successful? In this accessible book, psychologist and trauma expert Dr. Sue offers simple advice to those supporting children aged 7+. She explains why adopted or fostered children can often experience self-esteem issues, the impact it can have on their lives, and offers everyday strategies to help the child to move beyond their trauma and develop healthy self-esteem. Ideal for foster and adoptive parents as well as professionals supporting children and families, this book reveals the powerful role you can play in your child's well-being.

Across Europe young people in public care are around five times less likely to attend tertiary education than those who have not been in care. This book provides a comprehensive account of why this shocking discrepancy exists and outlines ways to address the imbalance. Drawing extensively on a substantial three-year long European Union funded research project led by the authors, this book examines the participation of young people in care in further and higher education in Europe. It provides a historical and legislative overview of the topic and in-depth national case studies look at the situation in England, Denmark, Sweden, Spain and Hungary. The authors set out clearly what we can learn from these cross-national comparisons and how to create more equal opportunities for children and young people in care. This important book will be essential reading for researchers and policy makers working on child welfare or young people in care, including government and local authority policy-makers, managers of children's and education services, school governors, and academics working in the fields of education, sociology, psychology, social work and social policy.

Foster children are more likely than other children to be involved in risky activities online due to backgrounds of neglect and abuse, an absence of supportive adults, lower self-esteem, and greater exposure to drugs and alcohol. Covering all the dangers of online technology that your foster child might encounter, from cyberbullying and "sexting", to child grooming and online hoaxes, this book pays particular attention to dangers unique to foster families, such as the difficulties internet access poses for maintaining formal arrangements for contact with birth families. DeGarmo equips foster parents and professionals with strategies to keep foster children safe online, giving tips on establishing expectations for internet usage, advice on how to prevent inappropriate contact and protect personal information, and explaining the importance of "netiquette". An indispensable guide to negotiating online dangers, this is required reading for all foster families as well as residential child care workers, social workers and other professionals working with children in care.

Kinship care - the care of children by grandparents, other relatives or friends - is a major part of foster care, yet there are distinct issues that arise in care involving family rather than 'stranger' foster carers. This book takes an in-depth look at what goes on 'inside' kinship care. It explores the dynamics and relationships between family members that are involved in kinship care, including mothers, grandparents, siblings and the wider family. Chapters also discuss issues such as safeguarding, assessment, therapy, encouraging permanence, placement breakdown, support groups, and cultural issues. The final part of the book looks at kinship care from an international perspective, with examples from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States. Drawing on a range of theoretical perspectives and with contributions from different branches of kinship care, this book provides an invaluable overview of the issues involved and how to provide effective support. It will be essential reading for all those working in the kinship care field, including social workers, therapists, counsellors, psychologists and family lawyers.

'A dark, gritty, and compulsive read' Daily Express Nineteen-year-old Sally is battered and bruised, and lying in the hospital once again. It's nothing new, it's happened before and it'll happen again. But when DI Laura Kesey introduces Sally to a new social worker, she finds hope at a local women's domestic violence refuge, where she's surrounded by women just like her. But then a man is mowed down in a hit and run. Soon a second suspicious death follows. Both deaths link back to the refuge. Has Sally found a safe place or a new danger? *Please note this is a re-release of The Sisters*

When you decide to foster, you are faced with many difficult decisions, dilemmas and questions: How do you navigate the daily struggles of foster parenting? How can you nurture bonds with your foster child who is angry, sad, and defiant? How can you prepare to step back when it's time to let go? Foster Parenting Step-by-Step is a concise how-to guide to fostering that summarizes what to expect as a foster parent, and gives immediate practical solutions. It outlines the different stages of a fostering relationship, raising common issues encountered at each age and how to tackle them. It also explains the impact of trauma on your child: how this can show itself through challenging behavior and how to respond to it. This book will provide fostering parents with the skills and knowledge to support the needs of the children in foster care. It will be invaluable not just to foster parents but also to those professionals supporting foster placements.

UNIVERSAL STORIES OF LONGING AND BELONGING Our quest for origin and, by extension, identity is universal to the human experience. For the twenty-five contributors to "Somebody's Child," the topic of adoption is not--and perhaps never can be--a neutral issue. With unique courage, each of them discusses their experience of the adoption process. Some share stories of heartbreak; others have discovered joy; some have searched for closure. "Somebody's Child" captures the many unforgettable faces and voices of adoption. The third book in a series of anthologies about the twenty-first-century family, "Somebody's Child" follows "Nobody's Mother" and "Nobody's Father," two essay collections from childless adults on parenthood, family and choices. Together, these three books challenge readers to reexamine traditional definitions of the concept of "family."

Fostering is vitally important: the majority of looked after children are fostered, yet these children are often left out of the agenda and their voices are not heard. This book sets out a child-centred approach to foster care which argues against thinking about children purely from a psychological perspective and instead places children's views, rights and needs at the centre of care. It sets out the theory behind working in partnership with children who are fostered, and discusses children's views about fostering systems and living with foster carers. The book then outlines how to put the theory into practice, offering models, processes and best practice examples. Practical advice is given on establishing effective communication and good working relationships between practitioners, carers and foster children. This insightful book aims to promote better services and outcomes for fostered children, and will be essential reading for social work practitioners and students.

The decision whether or not to reunify a child in care with their birth family is one of the most serious taken by children's services, and often involves considerable risk. This book examines the long-term consequences of this decision for children who entered public care for abuse or neglect. It compares the experiences and progress of children who remained in care or returned to their birth families up to four years after the decision was taken. It covers how the decision is made, the factors taken into account when making it and provides important suggestions for effective decision-making. It compares the progress made by the children in relation to their safety, stability and emotional well-being. The book demonstrates that, contrary to common belief, long-term care can be a positive option for maltreated children. This book provides important messages for reunification policy and practice in relation to maltreated children. It will be essential reading for social work practitioners, researchers and policy makers.

Barby Keel is used to all manner of creatures arriving at the door of the Barby Keel Animal Sanctuary where she lives and works, deep within the Sussex countryside. Nothing can prepare her for the arrival of Teddy, however, a neglected, traumatised puppy who is dumped at the gates of the sanctuary in a filthy box, terrified and desperate for someone to love. Despite his scruffy appearance, Barby can't help but feel a spark of affection for the overgrown puppy. But with Barby living in a caravan along with her four other dogs, she knows in her heart of hearts that Teddy deserves a more stable forever home. Wiping away tears, she waves Teddy away to his new life with a young couple, knowing that she's done what's best for the animal. But barely a few days later, Teddy is returned to the sanctuary, his new family unable to cope with his boisterous behaviour and his ever-growing size. Barby tries desperately to re-home him, but Teddy is rejected over and over again by his new foster families. Anxious and terrified of being separated from her, Barby is now faced with the impossible task of working through the traumas of Teddy's past to help the young dog. But when she receives the devastating news that her beloved younger brother has received a shocking diagnosis, Barby's life as she knows it is thrown into disarray. Can the love of a gentle giant help Barby through the unimaginable? And will Barby's unwavering devotion set Teddy free from the suffering he has endured?