Helping Our Kids Regulate Big Emotions - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we will talk about how to help our kids cope with their big feelings through self-regulation.

The instructor will be Dr. Stuart Shanker, a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Psychology at York University, the Founder of The MEHRIT Centre, and author of several books, including Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle. He is also an adoptive dad.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 5 steps to help our kids manage stress.

• Explain the difference between misbehavior and stress behavior.

• Explain what hidden stressors are.

• List 3 techniques to reduce stress.

To register: Creating a Family – HOKRBE

Talking About the Difficult Parts of Your Child's History - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how to share difficult news with your child.

Should you tell your child that her birth father is in jail or that her birth mother is addicted to drugs, or that she was conceived by rape? If so, how in the world do you share this news. In this course, we talk with Lesli Johnson, an EMDR therapist who specializes in adoption and foster care and an adult adoptee; and Susan Myers, a licensed Master Social Worker with Adoptions from the Heart Adoption Agency.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 3 reasons why parents should tell their adopted or foster child about the hard parts of their story.

• Identify at about what age parents should have shared all the information that they know.

• Explain what a Lifebook is.

• List 2 reasons why parents should not share with others the personal parts of their child's adoption/foster story.

To register: Creating a Family - TADPYCH

Suicide Awareness and Prevention - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we cover the risk factors and warning signs of suicide and what can be done to prevent it.International

The instructor is Dr. Angela Tunno, a licensed Clinical Psychologist and Assistant Professor at Duke University Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science. One of her areas of specialty is trauma-informed suicide prevention.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 3 protective factors that caregivers can do to support the youth in their home.

• List 3 ways that caregivers can safeguard their home if they suspect an acute risk for self-harm or suicide.

• Define and provide an example of a precipitant factor.

• List 2 societal inequities that contribute to increased risk for suicide.

• List 3 symptoms of depression.

To register: Creating a Family - SAP

Raising a LGBTQ+ Child or Youth - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how to provide a supportive and nurturing home for 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

There is a huge need for foster and adoptive homes for 2SLGBTQ+ youth in foster care. In this course, Holly Harridan and Dr. Shelly Ronen help caregivers understand how to support and provide nurturing homes for 2SLGBTQ+ children and youth. Holly is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Bloom Works and an applied Anthropologist with a background in queer and feminist studies. She lived with an informal kinship caregiver as a queer youth. Dr. Shelly Ronen is a Senior User Experience Researcher at Bloom Works. She has a PhD is in Sociology, and specializes in gender and sexuality.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain what it means to be an "affirming" home for 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

• Explain why 2SLGBTQ+ youth are more likely to have a foster placement failure.

• List 3 resources for guidance on how to be affirming of 2SLGBTQ+ youth.

To register: Creating a Family - R2SLGBTQ+CY

Practical Tips for Disciplining While Maintaining Attachment - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we talk with Amanda Purvis, a Training Specialist at the Karyn Purvis Center for Child Development, about practical tips for disciplining while maintaining attachment.

Amanda is a social worker, and a mom of five, some of whom have experienced early life trauma.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 2 reasons why spanking, shaming, and time-outs are not effective disciplinary techniques for children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain what the acronym IDEAL means as far as an approach to disciplining children.

• Identify two reasons to allow children to have a do-over when they have misbehaved.

• List two ways to handle triangulation.

To register: Creating a Family - PTDWMA

Practical Tips for Disciplining Children Who Have Experienced Trauma - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

How do you discipline kids who have experienced trauma? We provide 5 tips and then discuss 5 challenging parenting situations.

Our expert is Karen Doyle Buckwalter, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Registered Play Therapist and Supervisor, and co-author of "Raising the Challenging Child".

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List 5 tips for addressing challenging parent situations.

• List 3 parenting techniques to help respond to challenging behavior.

• Understand how and why to set realistic expectations of the adopted child.

To register: Creating a Family - PTDCWHET

Practical Solutions to Typical Food Issues - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn ways to address food issues that your children may have. International

Food issues are very common with adopted and foster children and are one of the most frequent concerns adoptive and foster parents have. This course will discuss common feeding and food issues, including picky eating and overeating. The instructor will be Dr. Katja Rowell, a family doctor and author of Love Me, Feed Me, 2nd edition and Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating. She has a special interest in supporting foster and adoptive parents.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain how trauma impacts feeding.

• Explain what is meant by "felt safety."

• List 5 tips for overcoming eating issues with children.

To register: Creating a Family - PSTFI

Parenting Toolkit for Harder to Parent Kids - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, Sarah Naish, the CEO of the Center of Excellence in Child Trauma and founder of the National Association of Therapeutic Parents discusses therapeutic parenting strategies for parenting harder to parent kids.International

She is the author of "The A-Z of Therapeutic Parenting" and "The A-Z of Survival Strategies for Therapeutic Parents." She is the adoptive mom to a sibling group of 5 who are now adults and she has fostered over 40 kids.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• List 5 ways to establish a secure base for our children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain the steps to use when handling an incident in the heat of the moment.

• Explain the use of natural or logical consequences and give two reasons why they are important.

• List 3 other tools for parenting harder to parent kids.

To register: Creating a Family - PTHPK

Parenting Children Who Have Experienced Trauma - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

How can we parent our children who have experienced trauma?

How can we discipline them in a way that will help them learn and grow? In this course, The instructor will be Dafna Lender, a LCSW and a certified trainer and supervisor/consultant in both Theraplay and Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. She is also an EMDR therapist. She is the author of Theraplay® – The Practitioner’s Guide and Integrative Attachment Family Therapy: A Clinical Guide to Heal and Strengthen the Parent-Child Relationship.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• List 3 ways that trauma impacts a child.

• Explain typical coping strategies sen in children who have experienced trauma.

• List 3 ways that parents can help resolve conflicts with children who have experienced trauma.

• Explain how parents can mitigate the impact of trauma on their child.

To register: Creating a Family - PCWHET

How a Parent's History with Attachment and Trauma Impacts Adoption and Fostering - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

Learn how a parent’s own experiences with relationships can impact the ones they have with their child.

Have you ever wondered why a specific behavior by your child drives you crazy? What do we as parents bring to the relationship that could be part of the problem? In this course, we talk with Dr. Patrice Berry, a licensed clinical psychologist with specialized training in adoption and foster care and over 15 years of clinical experience, about how a parent's history with attachment and trauma impacts our parenting.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain why a parents history of trauma and their attachment style impacts how they parent.

• List the four attachment styles.

• List two ways we can move towards a more secure style of attachment in adulthood.

To register: Creating a Family - HPHATIAF

Helping Internationally Adopted Children Develop a Healthy Cultural & Racial Identity - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we interview Dr. Hollee McGinnis, an Assistant Professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work who focuses on mental health and identity for international adopted people. International

She is also an intercountry adoptee from South Korea. 

This course includes these learning objectives:

• Explain why racial, ethnic, or cultural identification is important for the emotional development of a child adopted internationally.

• Explain what a healthy cultural identity looks like for an internationally adopted child.

• Explain what a healthy racial identity looks like for an internationally adopted child.

• List two tips for parents to help create a healthy racial and cultural identity.

To register: Creating a Family - HIACDHCRI

Helping Adopted Children Heal From Past Trauma and Loss - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will talk about the impact of trauma and loss on adopted kids and what parents can do to help them heal.

The instructor is Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive parent of a daughter from China.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Explain what trauma is.

• Explain why neglect can be a type of trauma.

• List 3 things adoptive parent can do to help their child heal.

To register: Creating a Family - HACHPTL

Helping Children Heal from Sexual Abuse - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will cover the long-term impacts of sexual abuse and how to help children heal. International

The instructor will be Dr. Eliana Gil is the founder of the Gill Institute for Trauma Recovery. She specializes in the assessment and treatment of trauma in children, especially those who have been sexually abused. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, a Registered Play Therapist Supervisor, and a Registered Art Therapist.

Course objectives:

• Describe the types of abuse considered "sexual abuse."

• Describe common behaviors of a child that indicate that child has been sexually abused.

• Describe the safeguards to have in place when accepting placement of a child who may have been sexually abused.

• Describe what parents can do to help children heal from sexual abuse.

To register: Creating a Family - HCHSA

Health, Emotional, and Developmental Issues Common to Children Adopted Internationally - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we will talk about the process of adoption and the common health, developmental, and emotional issues in children being adopted through intercountry adoption.

The instructor will be Dr. Kimara Gustafson, M.D., M.P.H., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Minnesota Medical School, a Faculty Member in the Division of Clinical Behavioral Neuroscience, and a pediatrician at the Adoption Medicine Clinic at the University of Minnesota.

Our second instructor is Dr. Katie Stone, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pediatrics at The University of Minnesota Medical School. She is part of the Psychology team at the Adoption Medicine Clinic providing expertise on mental and behavioral health, attachment, and social-emotional development. Her Ph.D. is in Clinical Child Psychology.

This course includes the following learning objectives:

• Understand the factors that lead to children around the world to be in state care and to need adoptive families.

• Understand the intercountry adoption process.

• Understand the common emotional, developmental, and health issues for children adopted internationally.

• Understand the common assimilation issues for internationally adopted children.

To register: Creating a Family - HEDICCAI

Healing After Abuse and Neglect - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we talk with the late Dr. Karyn Purvis, author of The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family, and the founder and Director of the TCU Institute of Child Development, about how to help children from hard places heal.

*This course was recorded with the late great Dr. Karyn Purvis in 2015. While it does not meet our current sound quality or replacement after 5 year standards, we include this course for those who value the importance of being instructed by Dr. Purvis herself.

This course covers the following topics:

• Why is parenting abused children different from traditional parenting?

• What are the 3 most important things you should do during the first 6 months home with a newly adopted child?

• How can we discipline our children while still remaining connected and create attachment?

• How can we help a child who has tantrums whenever he hears the word “no,” or is told he can’t do something?

• How long should parents stay home (if possible) after adoption?

• How can parents be proactive with children who have experienced abuse and neglect in order to help them and to improve behavior?

• Parenting kids adopted from foster care and internationally can be hard on the marriage and especially when one of the parents is the one getting educated on the type of parenting these kids need and the other one has not “bought into” it yet. How to help both parents get on the same page.

• How should parents handle criticism (implied or direct) about their parenting style when they are trying to follow the empower to connect style?

• What are some practical tools for encouraging attachment?

To register: Creating a Family - HAAN

First Six Months with a Baby Exposed to Opiates - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

What do you need to know about fostering/adopting a child that may have prenatal exposure to opiates?

In this course, we talk with Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a faculty member in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health. Her research focuses on improving the outcomes and increasing resilience in children who have experienced trauma, including prenatal exposure.

This course covers the following topics:

• List common opioids that a baby can be born dependent on.

• List 3 symptoms of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

• Explain 3 techniques for soothing a baby with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

To register: Creating a Family - FSMBEO

Connected Parenting: Understanding TBRI®️ (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we interview Lisa and Emmelie  about connected parenting and understanding how to use TBRI®️ with your family.

The next step in understanding Trust-Based Relational Intervention®️ is the new book, The Connected Parent, by Dr. Karyn Purvis and Lisa Qualls, with great assistance from Emmelie Pickett.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Understanding the foundations of attachment.

• List ways to implement Trust-Based Relational Intervention®️.

• Understand how to cope with chronic fear in your children.

• Describe how to discipline the TBRI®️ way.

• Understanding how sensory issues can be confused with attachment issues.

To register: Creating a Family - CPUTBRI

Coming to Terms with Infertility Grief Before You Foster or Adopt - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course, we will cover how to move from infertility treatment to adoption and how to say goodbye to the child you were trying so hard to conceive.

The instructor will be Carole LieberWilkins, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has specialized in reproductive medicine, adoption, and family-building options since 1986, and is the co-author of the book, Let’s Talk About Egg Donation. Carole serves on the Advisory Board of the US Donor Conceived Council and is an active American Society of Reproductive Medicine Mental Health Professional Group member. She is also a mom through adoption and egg donation.

This course covers the following topics:

• Explain two differences between genetic parenting and adoptive parenting.

• Explain how to say goodbye to the child you never had.

• List two things to consider before deciding to stay in fertility treatment while trying to adopt.

• List two ways to find a mental health provider specializing in infertility.

To register: Creating a Family - CTIGBYFA

Using Positive Childhood Experiences to Help Our Children Heal - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will cover how to use positive childhood experiences to help lessen the lifelong effects of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and build resilience.

The instructor will be Dr. Robert Sege, the founder and director of the HOPE National Resource Center at Tufts Medical Center. He holds a MD degree from Harvard Medical School and a PhD degree in biology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• List the four building blocks for positive childhood experiences.

• List two examples for each PCE building block.

• Explain the ages when children are most receptive to the impact of positive childhood experiences.

To register: Creating a Family - PCEHOCH

Navigating Conversations About Body Image With Your Teen - Creating a Family Adoption and Foster Care Education

In this course we will cover body image and weight for today's teens.

The instructor will be Dr. Charlotte Markey, a professor of psychology and chair of the Health Sciences Department at Rutgers University, and a research scientist who has published over 100 scholarly articles and chapters about mental health issues. She has been conducting research on eating behavior and body image for over 25 years. Dr. Markey is the author of The Body Image Book for Girls, Being You: The Body Image Book for Boys, and most recently, Adultish: The Body Image Book for Life.

This course covers the following learning objectives:

• Identify 3 risk factors for teens that may develop an eating disorder.

• Explain how different genders struggle with body image.

• List 3 protective factors parents can add to a child's life that they see struggling with body image.

• Understand the impact of social media and mainstream media on body image and identity development.

To register: Creating a Family - NCBIWYT