Description
Helping Families
This program entails a multifaceted approach to helping adoptive families in trouble. Trainees learn how to work with parents, children, and teens in parallel small groups, using a variety of educational and therapeutic techniques.
Parent Group
The parent group covers relevant issues such as
- separation and loss
- models of grief, fantasies and triggers
- the attachment process and problem behaviors
- handling anger and stress (the child’s and their own)
- communication and control issues
- identity
- school dilemmas
- developmental stages of adoptees
- adult adoptees leaving home and visiting
Children’s or Teen’s Group
Topics in the children’s and teens’ groups include
- self-perception
- fantasy family versus actual family
- material possessions versus emotional support and love
- the effects of separation and loss upon their emotions and behaviors
- how feelings and beliefs about their birth family affect their current functioning
- anger management
- building a positive identity
- improving family relationships
2 Day Training
The first day focuses on core issues and strategies for parents.
The second day is devoted to working with children and teens to help them recognize and work through feelings which are leading to difficulties at home, in school, and with peers.
Leaders are supported with practical guidance and checklists for preparing the site, contacting participants, and gathering materials. Instructions for each session are provided, along with handouts, worksheets, visual aids, resource lists, and evaluation forms.