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

CPD

Planning Committee Disclosure - No relevant relationships

All members of the PESI, Inc. planning committee have provided disclosures of financial relationships with ineligible organizations and any relevant non-financial relationships prior to planning content for this activity. None of the committee members had relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies or other potentially biasing relationships to disclose to learners.  For speaker disclosures, please see the faculty biography.

Handouts

Speaker

Jeanette Yoffe, MA, MFT Related seminars and products

Yoffe Therapy

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Jeanette Yoffe, MA, LMFT, earned her master’s in clinical psychology from Antioch University in 2002, specializing in adoption and foster care. With over 20 years of experience, she focuses on treating individuals with serious psychological issues stemming from abuse, neglect, adoption, or multiple foster placements.

As the founder of Celia Center, a Los Angeles-based non-profit, Jeanette supports all members of the foster care and adoption community, including birth parents, adoptees, and professionals. She is also the clinical director of Yoffe Therapy Inc., offering mental health services to families connected by foster care and adoption.

Jeanette’s personal journey as an adoptee and former foster child fuels her passion for this work. She has published resources like her one-woman show and children’s books on Amazon and has a YouTube channel named Jeanette-ically Speaking speaking about foster care, adoption and mental health. Learn more at www.jeanetteyoffe.com.

 

Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Jeanette Yoffe is the founder and executive director of Yoffe Therapy, Inc and Celia Center, Inc. She receives royalties as a published author. Jeanette Yoffe receives a speaking honorarium and recording royalties from PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Jeanette Yoffe is a member of the Foster Care Alumni of America, the American Adoption Congress, the Concerned United Birthparents, and the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

Additional Info

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 terminology
• The 8 types of adoption
• Genetic testing, adoption records, and more
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

• 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