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Digital Seminar

Adoption and Mental Health: Must-Have Strategies for Navigating Trauma, Loss, and More with Clients of All Ages

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Speaker:
Jeanette Yoffe, MA, MFT
Duration:
6 Hours 17 Minutes
Copyright:
23 Jul, 2025
Product Code:
POS150206
Media Type:
Digital Seminar
Access:
Never expires.
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Description

Adoption, though a source of joy, is often accompanied by complex emotions, attachment struggles, and profound questions of identity …

… from young adult adoptees navigating feelings of loyalty and love while deciding whether to explore their cultural roots and biological heritage

… to adoptive parents grappling with the complexities of adoption as they recognize their child’s unspoken grief and the expectations they had for parenting.

Without the specialized knowledge required to navigate the complexities of adoption, therapists may unintentionally invalidate or minimize client’s experiences or decisions, leading to disenfranchised grief, ongoing uncertainty, and missed opportunities for healing.

Watch Jeanette Yoffe, a child psychotherapist, author, and expert in the areas of adoption & foster care, to discover how to navigate the invisible threads of separation trauma and birth family loss, support transracial and transcultural adoptees with identity integration, and open meaningful, age-appropriate dialogues about adoption.

You will learn:

  • Tools to assess the effects of in utero trauma, separation trauma, and attachment disruptions caused by adoption
  • Creative therapy techniques to address the 9 core vulnerabilities faced by adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents
  • Attachment-based interventions to support healthy bonding and secure relationships
  • Step-by-step guidance for identity discussions within transracial and transcultural families
  • Skills to build trust and navigate boundaries in open adoption relationships
  • Support strategies for clients during complex reunions or reconnections

With evidence-based techniques, you’ll learn to empower families and individuals through therapeutic interventions tailored to their unique experiences, transforming your clinical practice into one of true adoption competence. Purchase now.

CPD

Additional Info

Access for Self-Study (Non-Interactive)

Access never expires for this product.

For a more detailed outline that includes times or durations of time, if needed, please contact cepesi@pesi.com.


Objectives

  1. Analyze the neurobiological impact of in utero trauma, separation trauma, and attachment disruptions in adoptees.
  2. Choose attachment-based interventions to support secure relationships and repair ruptured attachments in adoptive families.
  3. Identify the nine core vulnerabilities experienced by adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents.
  4. Utilize age-appropriate therapeutic strategies to help adoptees process identity integration, grief, and loss at different developmental stages.
  5. Determine culturally responsive techniques to support transracial and transcultural adoptees in navigating identity and belonging.
  6. Develop best practices for guiding clients through open adoption relationships, birth family reunions, and genetic testing decision.

Outline

Adoption in the 21st Century
  • Adoption terminology
  • The 8 types of adoption
  • Genetic testing, adoption records, and more
  • Limitations of the research and potential risks
Separation Trauma and the Grief of Relinquishment
  • What we know about in utero trauma
  • The neurobiology of separation trauma
  • Attachment and abandonment: Brain changes
  • Trauma and grief of relinquishing mothers
  • Infertility, foster parenting, and other pre-adoptive experiences of adoptive parents
Identify and Target the 9 Core Vulnerabilities for all Members of the Adoption Constellation
  • Identity integration
  • Grief and loss
  • Rejection and abandonment
  • Shame and guilt
  • Control and autonomy
  • Fear and trust
  • Secrecy and transparency
  • Belonging and connection
  • Integration and healing
Attachment-Based Interventions
  • Overview of attachment styles
  • Build attachment to foster attunement and responsiveness
  • Strategies for nurturing trust with adopted children
  • Techniques for repairing ruptured attachments
  • Tools for parent self-regulation
  • Activities to enhance family bonding
Interventions for Each Age and Stage
  • Recognize adoption-specific challenges at developmental milestones
  • Age-appropriate adoption language and talking points
  • Activities to address feelings of rejection, anger, or confusion
    • Adopted Parts of Me
    • Bird in the Nest
    • Puzzle Within
    • Angry Heart
    • Sensory Memory Smoke Detector Cards
  • Interventions from ACT and CBT to support self-worth and foster resilience
  • Activities to address identity questions and curiosity about birth family
    • Ghost Kingdom: Exploring my Imagined Life
    • Suitcase of Memories
    • Lifebook Creation
    • Adoption Genogram
  • Navigate school and peer conversations about adoption
  • Creative and play-based therapies to address loss and grief
    • Grief Mailbox
    • Tracks of My Tears
Adoption Counselling: Best Practices
  • Recognize adoption as a lifelong process
  • Navigate openness and transparency in adoption
  • Transracial and transcultural family dynamics
  • Search and reunion: Prepare for all potential outcomes
  • Up-to-date research in trauma, grief, and adoption dynamics

Target Audience

  • Psychologists
  • Psychiatrists
  • Counsellors
  • Social Workers
  • Psychotherapists
  • School Social Workers
  • School Counsellors
  • Marriage and Family Therapists
  • Case Managers
  • Child Welfare Attorneys
  • Other Mental Health Professionals
  • Educators

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