Explore every episode of Creating a Family: Talk about Adoption & Foster Care
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Are you thinking about adopting? Today we will talk about Adoption Options in 2022. This is the first of a two-part series on What is Happening in Adoptions. We will talk with Jackie Zerbe, Domestic Adoption Supervisor with Vista Del Mar Adoption Agency, Debora Phillips, founding CEO of Children’s Connections, Inc., and Viviane Martini, Family Coordinator with Hopscotch Adoptions, an international adoption agency.
In this episode, we cover:
What is happening with domestic infant adoption in the US?
What is happening with adoptions from foster care?
What is happening with international adoptions?
How has the pandemic impacted adopting in the US?
What are some of the shifts in adoption in the last 5 or so years?
What are some of the changes you anticipate for 2022 and beyond?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How is adoption and fostering changing? We talk with April Dinwoodie, a transracial adoptee and thought leader in the field of adoption. She is host of two podcasts: Navigating Adoption and Born in June, Raised in April: What Adoption Can Teach the World!
In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the shifting realities that you see in adoption?
Decline in international adoptions.
What do you see happening with domestic infant adoptions?
Increase importance on openness.
What can adoption teach the world?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you or your child faced adoption related struggles? Do you think therapy might be helpful? We discuss how to find and choose an adoption competent therapist with Kelly Raudenbush, a child and family therapist and the director of Sparrow Counseling, providing specialized therapeutic services for foster and adopted children and their families.
In this episode, we cover:
What type of professional can provide therapy?
What’s the difference between being adoption competent and adoption informed?
Why is competency in adoption issues important?
What do we mean be an “adoption competent therapist”? What makes a therapist adoption informed?
Is adoption competence the same as trauma competence?
How can you tell if a therapist is competent to handle adoption issues? Are there specific trainings that provide adoption competency?
Creating a Family provides a list of ways to find an adoption competent therapist on our Adoption Therapy section.
How to find a therapist with lived experience of being adopted?
Is one type of therapeutic model of treatment more effective for adoptive children and families? Theraplay, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Narrative therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
Should therapy with adopted kids on adoption issues involve just the child, or the child and the parent?
How can a parent determine if the therapist is a good fit for the child and family? What questions should they ask?
What is home-based therapy and what are the advantages to this type of therapy for adoptive and foster families.
Is therapy via tele-health or via teleconferencing as effective for adoptive families? How to know if it will work for your family? Ways to make it more effective.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the followi
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What causes miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss? What is the best treatment and what are the controversies in the diagnosing and treating of miscarriage? In this episode, we talked with Dr. Lora Shahine, Reproductive Endocrinologist and Director of the Recurrent Pregnancy Program at Pacific NW Fertility and clinical faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, and author of the book Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss.
In this episode, we cover:
What is miscarriage? What other names do medical professionals use?
Does the name change depending upon when in the pregnancy it occurs?
What is a biochemical pregnancy and is it a “miscarriage”?
When does miscarriage become “recurrent pregnancy loss”?
How common are miscarriages? How common is recurrent pregnancy loss?
Who should you see?
What is the role of the male in miscarriage and recurrent pregnancy loss?
Common causes and treatment
What are the common causes for first trimester miscarriage?
What are the common causes for recurrent pregnancy loss?
How to diagnosis the cause of recurrent pregnancy loss?
How to treat/prevent recurrent pregnancy loss?
What should patients do to reduce their chance of a miscarriage?
Understanding the controversies in treatment of recurrent pregnancy loss.
Inherited Thrombophilia
Methylene Tetrahydrofolate Reductase (MTHFR)-how our body processes folate
Luteal Phase Defect and progesterone treatment
Infection
Thyroid
Immune system & immune treatment for RPL
Aspirin treatment
IVF as treatment for recurrent pregnancy loss
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you suspect (or know) that your child was exposed to alcohol or drugs during pregnancy? We discuss tips for how to best work with these children with Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a professor at Duke University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Center for Child and Family Health.
In this episode, we cover:
How does prenatal exposure to alcohol or drugs affect children at different ages?
Oftentimes adoptive, foster, and kinship families may not know specifically if their child was exposed in pregnancy to alcohol or drugs? How can a parent determine if their child was prenatally exposed?
What are some of the more common signs, symptoms, and behaviors a parent might see at different ages?
Birth to age five
Elementary age
Tweens and adolescence
Young adults
Parents, teachers, and other adults working with these children often don’t think about prenatal exposure because of the lag in time between the exposure and when the more disruptive symptoms appear. At what age do you see parents and kids beginning to struggle more?
What are some of the common misdiagnoses that these children receive?
How do the attention and focus issues common with kids who have been exposed to alcohol and drugs differ from ADHD? Is ADHD medication effective to improve attention in prenatally exposed kids?
Is it common for children with prenatal exposure to be uneven in their abilities? For example, average to above average in verbal skills but substantially below average in other areas.
What do we mean by “executive function” or “higher level thinking skills” and how does prenatal exposure to alcohol and drugs impact this?
We hear from parents that one of the most frustrating symptoms is not being able to learn from their mistakes. Doing the same thing even though they have been told not to. Not learning from cause and effect. Is this common with kids who have been exposed to alcohol and drugs during gestation?
What are some practical tips for working with kids with prenatal exposure to help them thrive at home and at school?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
The impact of prenatal exposures to alcohol and drugs is not something that kids outgrow and the transition into adolescence and adulthood can be particularly tricky. We talk about this transition with Kathy Hotelling, a licensed clinical psychologist who specializes in Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders and is the co-founder of NCFASDInformed.org. She is also the mother to a 27 year old with FASD.
In this episode, we cover:
Tell us a bit about your story as the mother of a child with FASD.
Does the impact and symptoms of prenatal exposure to alcohol change as the child ages?
Are the impacts different depending on whether the child has been exposed prenatally to alcohol or other drugs, such as opiates, methamphetamines, marijuana, etc?
We talk about the primary impacts of FASD and prenatal drug exposure and the secondary impacts? Give us some examples?
How can parents help prevent some of the secondary impacts?
How does puberty impact children with prenatal exposure?
How does your parenting need to change as your prenatally exposed child reaches adolescence and adulthood?
How to prepare your child to launch into adulthood?
What resources are available to help parents navigate this journey?
Often times adoptive, foster, and kinship parents do not know for certainty that their child was exposed prenatally to alcohol and drugs. How should they proceed?
Is it important to have your child officially diagnosed with FASD?
How do you get your child diagnosed?
What is the Registry of Unmet Needs or the Medicaid Waiver list and how do you get your child on this registry or list?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We cannot take the availability of infertility treatment for granted. Learn more about what is happening around the US that might impact treatment of the disease of infertility. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Sean Tipton, Chief Advocacy, Policy and Development Officer, American Society for Reproductive Medicine and Barb Collura, Executive Director of Resolve, the national infertility association.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
“Too often we are focused on the child’s behavior instead of the child. We are concerned about solving problems rather than cultivating the relationship.”
A child’s behavior is a clue for us parents to understand what is going on inside the child.
No one-size fits all approach to child rearing. What’s most important isn’t the rules, but the child. We must understand how our parenting is landing on our child. Personalize our parenting.
Three pathways to the mind-body platform.
Body budgeting.
The distinction between behaviors that seems to be defensive but are actually protective.
How do you approach tantrums in a preschooler?
How to co-regulate with our child and why?
How to build resiliency in our children?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What are the microaggressions or stigmas in the world of adoption and how do they impact adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents? We talk with 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.
In this episode, we cover:
What are microaggessions in general and how do they apply to adoption?
These microaggressions apply to all members of the adoption kinship network (adoptees; adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings; first/birth parents/grandparents).
Where do some of the unconscious attitudes and stigmas toward adoption come from?
Common microaggression themes for adoptees:
biology is best/normative is based upon the belief that biological ties are superior, more permanent, and more authentic than ties formed through adoption or foster care
bad seed adoptees or damaged goods
grateful adoptees, a third theme, refers to the idea of adoptees as both lucky and privileged to have been adopted
cultural limbo and invalidation of heritage
What are some of the microagressions against birth parents?
What are some of the microaggressions against adoptive parents?
Lack of intent to hurt.
How can microsaggressions impact the mental health?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Adopting an older child is a big transition for everyone involved and poses a unique set of challenges. Learn more about things to consider when adopting an older child as host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national foster care & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Celeste Snodgrass, MSW, LCSW, and Director of Clinical Services at Holt International and Danielle Kaiser who has a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling and is a behavioral therapist and Foster Family & Adoptions Social Worker with Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you experienced a miscarriage? What type of genetic tests should you consider to prevent another miscarriage? We will talk about Genetics, Genetic Testing, and Miscarriage with Kim Skellington, a laboratory genetic counselor with CooperGenomics providing pre-test and post-test counseling to patients regarding genetic testing, and Dr. Rachel Gerber, a board-certified Reproductive Endocrinologist and Infertility Specialist with RMA NY.
In this episode, we cover:
What causes a woman to miscarry a pregnancy?
How common is miscarriage?
What is considered Recurrent Pregnancy Loss (RPL)?
How common is recurrent pregnancy loss?
Basic introduction to DNA, genes, and chromosomes.
Genetic Testing of Products of Conception
What can go wrong with the genes of a fetus that would likely result in a miscarriage?
What genetic tests on the products of conception are available after a miscarriage to determine the cause?
At what point does a doctor consider genetic testing of the products of conception to determine the cause of the miscarriage? After the first miscarriage? Second? Third? How does a woman’s age impact this decision?
How are the products of conception tested? What are patients told to do?
Genetic Testing of Embryo
What is preimplantation genetic testing?
Distinction between PGT-A, PGT-M, PGT-SR?
Is PGT effective at preventing miscarriage? What does the research currently show?
Are mosaic embryos more likely to miscarry?
Genetic Testing of Parents
What parental chromosomal abnormalities can cause a miscarriage?
What is a chromosomal translocations and can that cause a miscarriage?
Is there a gene or genes that has been found that makes it more likely that a woman will miscarry a pregnancy of a chromosomally normal fetus?
If a woman’s mother had multiple miscarriages, is she likely to have miscarriages?
Can these genetic anomalies by found by Parental karyotyping?
What is the prognosis for women trying to get pregnant after having had recurrent miscarriages?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Is your child "more"...more intense, more defiant, more everything and in general, just harder to parent? We talk with Dr. Chuck Geddes, the founder of Complex Trauma Resources where he developed the Complex Care and Intervention (CCI) program to support foster and adoptive children. He is the author of Children and Complex Trauma: A Roadmap for Healing and Recovery.
In this episode, we cover:
What makes a child harder to parent?
The importance of recognizing what we parents bring to the relationship.
Difference between trauma and complex trauma.
Tantrums, meltdowns, or hissy fits are a common part of child development, but some kids have them more than others and they are more intense. What factors contribute to some children being more susceptible to tantrums?
At what age in normal child development are tantrums most common?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you considering adopting or fostering a baby who was exposed to opioids prenatally? 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.
In this episode, we cover:
What drugs are included in the category of opioids?
Opioids are a class of drugs that include the illegal drug heroin, synthetic opioids such as fentanyl, and pain relievers available legally by prescription, such as oxycodone (OxyContin®), hydrocodone (Vicodin®), codeine, morphine, and many others.
Methadone and suboxone?
How does prenatal exposure to opioids affect a fetus?
How can you tell if the baby is born dependent on opioids?
What are the symptoms of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)?
How common is testing of the newborn or mother?
What impacts the severity of the withdrawal symptoms an infant might experience?
timing of the mother’s most recent intake of opioid
maternal metabolism
placental metabolism
infant metabolism and excretion
maternal taking of other substances, including cigarettes, alcohol, cocaine, hypnotics sedatives, and/or barbiturates
How is NAS treated in the hospital?
What can parents expect at the hospital when a baby is born dependent or was exposed prenatally?
What can parents expect when they first bring the baby home?
How can parents help soothe a baby going through withdrawal?
How can parents help a baby going through withdrawal with sucking?
What can parents do to help their baby exposed to opioids sleep through the night?
Any additional tips for dealing with and helping a baby who was exposed to opioids?
Long term impacts.
Does being born dependent predict the degree the child might be impacted?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What do you need to know about health insurance coverage for infertility? How do you know if your policy covers treatment or diagnosis of infertility and what can you do to maximize your coverage? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility education and support nonprofit interviews, Davina Fankhauser, the foremost expert on policy related to benefits for fertility treatment and preservation, and Dr. Dan Potter, a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist with HRC Fertility.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk with a panel of birth moms about their adoption experience. What is the adoption experience for birth mothers and what do they think of some of the controversies in adoption, such as pre-birth matching, adoptive parents at the hospital, adoptive mother breastfeeding, etc.
In this episode, we cover:
Tell us what your child’s adoption looks like.
What are your ideas on:
Options counseling being provided by adoption agencies—is there a conflict of interest.
Pre-birth matching
Some have stated that an infant should go into temporary or foster care for a time (usually 1-2 months) between birth and placement as a revocation period.
Fundraising for adoption
Adoptive parent breastfeeding.
What did you look for in adoptive parents?
There is a lot of talk in adoption world about subtle and not so subtle forms of coercion that could influence a mom’s decision to place.
Hopeful adoptive parents attend doctor appointments.
Adoptive parents being present at the birth and at the hospital?
How involved do you think adoptive parents should be at the hospital?
Openness:
How was openness described to you before the adoption.Does the reality of open adoption match what was promised.
Benefit and limitations of post adoption contracts. (Did you understand open adoption wasn’t enforceable (may depend upon the state)?)
Ethical adoption practices that expectant parents considering adoption should know about.
Tips for birth parents and adoptive parents to look for in adoption agencies to make sure they are choosing an ethical agency as to how they treat expectant and birth parents.
Importance of separate legal counsel for birth parents.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you conceived through donor conception or are you considering this? Join us for the fascinating dive into disclosing (or not) this information to your child. We will talk with Dr. Patricia E. Hershberger, Associate Professor at the College of Nursing and Affiliate Professor at the College of Medicine, Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology, at the University of Illinois in Chicago.
In this episode, we cover:
How common is donor conception in the US? In other countries?
What percentage of parents in heterosexual couples tell their child of their donor conception?
Is there a difference in the percentage of parents disclosing donor conception with children conceived by donor sperm, donor egg, or donor embryo?
Is there a difference in the willingness to discuss surrogacy with children?
What does the research show about how many parents that say they are going to tell actually do tell by age 5 or age 10 or age 15?
Is there a difference of opinion in the professional field on whether children should be told? On whether professionals should counsel patients to tell their child?
The impact of over-the-counter genetic testing on parents’ willingness to disclose donor conception and infertility professionals’ willingness to encourage disclosure.
Genetics study in school also raises questions
Is telling more common in same sex couples?
What are the motivating factors for parents who have told?
What reasons do parents give for not telling their child?
Is unresolved grief over their infertility (if infertility was a factor) a motivating factor for not telling?
Research has found that there are two general approaches behind when to tell children about their conception by donor sperm, egg, or embryo: “seed planting” and “right time”.
What is the average age that parents tell their child about their conception via donor sperm, egg, or embryo?
What word do parents use to describe the donor to the child? Does this word differ based on whether the parent is in a heterosexual partnership, a same-sex partnership, or is single?
How do parents talk about donor conception? If a two-parent household, which parent usually tells?
Is there a general story-line that parents use when disclosing donor conception to the child?
What does the research show about how donor conceived children feel about donor conception? Does it impact the quality of family functioning in a positive or negative way?
Use of children’s books.
What role could infertility professionals, especially nurses, play in disclosure decisions for infertility patients?
Should nurses, or other professionals, encourage disclosure?
How can they support following through on disclosure of donor conception?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What over-the counter medications can impact fertility--both for women and men? What non-prescription drugs should you avoid when in fertility treatment or pregnant? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility education and support nonprofit interviews Dr. Kathleen Tucker, an embryologist and reproductive physiologist with 25 years of experience.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Representative Marjorie Margolies had a busy career as a journalist, author, Congressional Representative, professor, and founder of Women’s Campaign International all while raising 11 kids by adoption, birth, sponsorship, and marriage. She is the author of a new memoir And How Are the Children.
In this episode, we cover:
How did each of your children join your family?
How did you “blend” children that came to you in different ways, with different backgrounds, and different ages?
What were the biggest challenges?
Did some of your children struggled? How much do you think the way they came to your family impacted their struggles?
What did you learn along the way?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Foster youth or children who have been in the foster care system make up over 80% of children being sexually exploited. What can you do to prevent this from happening to your child? We talk with Audrey Morrissey, Co-Executive Director of My Life My Choice, a survivor-led nonprofit fighting sexual exploitation of youth.
In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the different forms that sexual exploitation can take?
What is included in sexual trafficking?
Internet exploitation.
How does grooming take place.
Are foster children disproportionately represented in the sexually exploited population?
Are children who have experienced trauma over represented?
Seeking love and connection.
Sexual exploit of boys?
What can parents do to protect their children from sexual exploitation?
What resources are available to parents and young people?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What is the future for parent support groups and are online support groups here to stay? How can we make them better? We talk with Dr. Jay Miller, Dean and Dorothy Miller Research Professor at the College of Social Work, University of Kentucky. He is a former foster youth and is now a prolific researcher in what works to support foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
In this episode, we cover:
The Virtual Interaction Pilot Program at the University of Kentucky
How to create a sense of community and relationship building with online parent support groups?
How many is too many participants in online groups?
What platform is best? Zoom? Microsoft Teams? Google Meet?
What day of week and time of day is best for participation?
Are there differences between urban vs. rural support groups?
How to increase engagement in meetings?
Do hybrid parent support groups work?
What is the future for foster, adoptive, and kinship parent support groups?
Do you see a difference in support groups for kinship parents?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
In this episode, we talk with Dr. Tia Jackson-Bey about Racial Disparities in Reproductive Medicine. Dr. Jackson-Bey is a Reproductive Endocrinologist with RMA of NY. She speaks frequently on reproductive justice and increasing access to fertility care and she is a member of the Americian Society for Reproductive Medicine Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Taskforce.
In this episode, we cover:
What biological reproductive health conditions that can impact their fertility are Black women more prone to.
Tubal or uterine abnormalities
PCOS
Fibroids
Racial Disparities in Infertility Treatment
African American women are more likely than white women to experience infertility and wait longer to seek care.
Women of color are less likely to access fertility treatment.
Racial Disparities in Other Reproductive Health Issues
Contraceptive use
Pap tests
Mammograms
Maternal mortality
Preterm birth
Low birth weight
Uptake of human papillomavirus vaccination
What are some of the social and structural challenges that contribute to these racial and ethnic disparities?
What can infertility nurses do to reduce racial disparities in reproductive health care?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you considering adopting a baby? On today's show we talk about the legal and medical risk factors you need to consider. We talk with Amy Wallas Fox about the legal risk factors in infant adoption. Ms. Fox is an attorney partner of Claiborne Fox Bradley Goldman, a North Carolina and Georgia law firm and a fellow in the American Academy of Adoption and Assisted Reproduction Attorneys. We talk with Dr. Lisa Prock, MD, MPH, about the medical risk factors in infant adoption. Dr. Prock is the Director of the Developmental Medicine Center and Associate Chief in the Division of Developmental Medicine at Boston Children's Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
In this episode, we cover:
How can a hopeful adoptive parent find a baby to adopt in the US?
What is the difference between an adoption agency, adoption attorney, adoption facilitator, and adoption consultant?
What is meant by an adoption-friendly state? Is there a state that is better than others to try to find an expectant mom who may want to place her child for adoption?
What are the different time periods that expectant parents or birth parents have to change their mind?
Adoption is covered by state law.
Is it possible for a birth family to get the child back after an adoption is complete?
What are some of the legal issues with birth fathers—both identified and unidentified?
How does the Indian Child Welfare Act impact legal risk in adoption?
What are some red flags that an expectant mom may not go through with the adoption plan and decide to parent?
What are the most dangerous drugs or substances that an expectant woman can use during pregnancy as far as impact on the fetus and baby?
What is the impact of alcohol on a fetus and baby, both short term and long term?
What is the impact of opiates (prescription and non-prescription) on a fetus and baby, both short term and long term?
What is the impact of methadone or suboxone on a fetus and baby, both short term and long term?
What is the impact of heroin on baby, both short term and long term?
What is the impact of methamphetamines on a baby, both short term and long term?
Long term impact of prenatal exposure to cocaine or crack?
If the birth mother stopped using drugs and stopped drinking when she found out she was pregnant, will the baby be spared the worst of the impact?
What are the risks to the baby if the mother has Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C, HIV, syphillis?
Is ADHD inheritable? Is there a gene for ADHD?
Do certain mental illnesses have a genetic connection? What is the likelihood that the child will have depression, anxiety, bi-polar, schizophrenia, or other mental illnesses if the birth parents had the illness?
Should adoptive parents worry if the expectant mom has not had prenatal care?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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How can churches support kids in foster care and prevent children from entering foster care? Join us for our discussion with Jedd Medefind, President of the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) and Amber Knowles, the Executive Director of The Riverside Project (formerly Fostering Family).
In this episode, we cover:
We call it a foster care “crisis”. What does that term mean? What are the needs of foster children?
What is each organization doing to help engage churches in caring for foster kids?
What are ways people of faith can help improve the world of fostering if they know that they aren’t able to actually get licensed to foster?
How can churches provide support for people once they are parenting kids from foster care—either through fostering or adoption?
How can churches work to support birth families to help once the child has been reunified or to help stabilize them so that children don’t end up in care?
How can faith communities get involved with supporting foster families and foster kids?
The Jockey Being Family® Back to School Bash events will take place during the weekend of August 5-7th, 2022. These gatherings are geared towards foster and adoptive families with children 5-14 years of age. This is a chance to celebrate, educate, and empower families with a fun-filled and informative event as they prepare to head back to school for the upcoming year. Jockey Being Family® Foundation will provide grants for up to $3,000 to eligible organizations to help bring a Back to School Bash to your community. Together, we can be a much-needed support network for foster and adoptive families across the country. Email JBFBSB@jockey.com for additional information.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What type of assistance or subsidies are available for parents adopting a child from foster care? Who determines the amount of a monthly adoption subsidy and how can parents negotiate for a fair amount? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national foster care & adoption education and support nonprofit, interviews Josh Kroll, Project Coordinator for the Adoption Subsidy Resource Center at the North American Council on Adoptable Children.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk with Ryan Hanlon, with National Council for Adoption, about the largest survey of adoptive parents ever conducted. We talk about who adoptive parents are, the needs of the kids adopted, and so much more. In the episode, we cover:
Who is adopting in the US? How are they similar and how do they differ from the general population of parents in relation to income and education level?
What are the primary motivations for parents to adopt? Does it differ based on domestic infant adoption, international adoption, and foster care adoption?
What type of special needs or diagnoses do adopted children have?
How well are adoptive parents meeting these needs?
How are adopted kids doing in school?
What degree of openness or contact with birth families is common for infant adoption, intercountry adoption, and adoptions from foster care?
How do adoptive parents view their relationship with birth families?
How common are attachment issues in adoption and what factors contribute to attachment problems?
How are parents meeting the needs of transracially adopted children?
How satisfied are adoptive parents with the decision to adopt? Knowing what they know now, would they do it again?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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One of the hardest parts of being a kinship caregiver is navigating the relationship with the child's birth parent. We talk with Dr. Joseph Crumbley, a social worker, family therapist and author of “An Overview of Kinship Care”.
In this episode, we cover:
Creating a Family listening sessions with kinship caregivers in rural counties.
What are some of the complicating factors in the relationship between kinship caregivers and the child’s parents?
Grandparents and other caregivers sometimes feel that the child’s parents will threaten them with taking the child away if they do something that the parent disapproves of.
How to not enable the child’s parent but still have a relationship.
How to set healthy boundaries for the caregiver’s and child’s best interest when you have years of experience not setting healthy boundaries?
How to handle others in the family who interfere with the boundaries you’ve established?
I don't know if this is a question, but I really struggle with getting my kids opportunities to see their mom and siblings. All other siblings have been reunited, and I gather it's painful for their mom to see the two that were adopted by us (she surrendered her rights). Although we live relatively close to them, we have only managed 2-3 visits a year, mostly because of long periods of no responses to my texts or last-minute cancellations of planned visits. Sometimes our adopted kids can't even remember their siblings' names and it just breaks my heart. I'd love for them to have a closer relationship, but I have only limited control.
How to handle the anger, shame, guilt you feel at the child’s parents?
How to support co-parenting when the child’s parent is still not in a healthy place?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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How can white parents raise anti-racist children in this time of violence against people of color and protests. We talk with Dr. Ann Hazzard, a clinical child psychologist who was on the faculty at Emory University in Atlanta and co-author of Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice; and Dr. Joy Harris, a Full-time Lecturer at Princeton Theological Seminary and co-author of The ABCs of Diversity: Helping Kids (and Ourselves!) Embrace Our Differences.
In this episode, we cover:
Embrace Race.org. Founded by black and mixed race parents to provide resources for raising black children.
One Talk at a Time https://www.caminoslab.org/onetalk Providing support for Latinx American, Asian American, African American, and Black youth and their families to have conversations about race and ethnicity. They have a separate section for Black, Asian, and Latinx parents.
What is the difference between not being a racist and being anti-racist?
What is wrong with saying and believing any of the following: "love will conquer all", “we are all one race-the human race", and “colorblind is best”.
Tip 1. Talk about Race
Racism thrives in silence. Why are many white parents silent on raise in general and within our families?
When do children start recognizes racial differences?
When should white parents start talking to their kids about race?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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How can you help you child succeed at school? We talk with Heather Forbes, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and the owner of the Beyond Consequences Institute. She specializes on the impact of trauma and is the author of Help for Billy and Classroom 180.
In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the specific issues that parents of foster and adopted kids need to consider when their children go back to school?
Tips for helping kids transition into the new year.
Is it better to address potentially sensitive issues up front before they happen, when they might not even happen, or wait to see if it comes up? For example, family tree assignments.
What are some other potentially triggering school assignments for foster or adopted kids?
How much of your child’s story should you share with your child’s teacher? How to balance the desire to keep your child’s history for them to decide who knows and sharing sensitive information with the teacher to help them work with your child.
How to address the issue of your child’s past trauma and how it affects the way they behave?
Why is it important to have a trauma-informed school?
What can parents do to help their school and their child’s teacher become more trauma informed?
A disproportionate number of adopted and foster kids have been prenatally exposed to alcohol and drugs. How does this exposure impact their education and time at school?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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What do teachers know about adoption? What are the misperceptions? We talk with two researchers on this topic: Dr. Hal Grotevant, the Rudd Family Foundation Chair in Psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and Dr. Abbie Goldberg, a Professor of Psychology and current Director of Women’s & Gender Studies at Clark University.
In this episode, we cover:
How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of trauma?
How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of attachment?
How knowledgeable were teachers in understanding the impact of adoption?
How knowledgeable were teacher sin understanding the impact of prenatal exposure?
Was there a perception that adopted kids were “troubled”?
What did they know about open adoption?
How accepting were teachers to the idea of modifying assignments to reflect diverse families, including those formed by adoption?
Do teachers know whether kids are adopted? Do they need to know? Do they feel comfortable asking this information?
Did teachers present lessons that included the diversity that adoption represents?
Does teacher training, either formal or in-service training, often include information on adoption?
What can parents do to help their child’s teacher be more adoption-aware or adoption-sensitive?
Where can listeners get more information on your research?
The “Teachers and Adopted Children” Survey and the Factsheet for Teacher can be found here.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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We talk with Dr. Julie Lamb about Endometriosis and Adenomyosis. Dr. Lamb is a board-certified reproductive endocrinologist practicing at Pacific Northwest Fertility in Seattle and Bellevue and serves as clinical faculty at the University of Washington.
In this episode, we cover: Endometriosis
What is endometriosis?
What are the symptoms of endometriosis?
What is the cause of endometriosis?
Is there a genetic link to endometriosis?
What factors increase your risk of developing endometriosis?
Does having endometriosis make you at greater risk for cancer?
How is endometriosis diagnosed?
Is a definitive diagnosis necessary before treatment?
How is endometriosis treated?
When should laparoscopic surgery to remove the endometriosis lesions be considered for the treatment of endometriosis?
When should hysterectomy be considered for treatment of endometriosis?
What are endometriomas?
What method is best for removing endometrial lesions: laser, electrical pulse, or other?
Is it possible to cure endometriosis?
What options are available to treat endometriosis on the fallopian tubes?
How does endometriosis affect fertility?
Does endometriosis affect the success of infertility treatment?
Adenomyosis
What is adenomyosis and how does it differ from endometriosis?
Adenomyosis vs. Fibroids
What are the symptoms of adenomyosis?
Is there a genetic link to adenomyosis?
How is adenomyosis diagnosed?
How is adenomyosis treated?
Does adenomyosis affect the success of infertility treatment?
General
More common in Black or Asian or Latina women?
Lupron
Can endometriosis be treated through diet or lifestyle changes?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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We talk with a panel of former foster youth about their stories and what helped them survive their trauma and succeed in life.
In this episode, we cover:
What were the two most important things in helping you heal and ultimately thrive after your years in foster care and early life trauma?
Was their one or two people in your life who helped you overcome? What did they do to help?
Why do you think you became a survivor when others in similar positions did not?
If you are parents, how has your trauma from your early years impacted your parenting?
While you are successful and are “survivors” do you still carry some of the baggage from your childhood?
What advice would you give foster, adoptive, and kinship parents to be most helpful to the children in their care?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We know our kids have experienced trauma, but how can we help them overcome this trauma to become healthy happy adults. We talk about resilience and overcoming an adverse beginning with Dr. Julian Ford and Dr. Amanda Zelechoski. Dr. Ford is a clinical psychologist and Professor of Psychiatry and Law at the University of Connecticut where he directs two Treatment and Services Adaptation Centers in the National Child Traumatic Stress Network. Dr. Ford is past President of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies and has published more than 250 articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 10 books. Dr. Amanda Zelechoski is a licensed clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in trauma. She is a professor of psychology and Director of Clinical Training at Purdue University Northwest.
In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the different types of events/situations that can be traumatic to a child?
Do different types of trauma affect children differently? Short term but intense trauma. Long term trauma at the hands of a primary caregiver. Neglect? Witnessing domestic violence? Prenatal trauma?
Why does early life trauma make it harder for kids to succeed at life?
What are some signs of trauma by age of child? Preschool? Elementary? Middle and High School? (learning, physical health, mental health, trouble with the law, etc.)
How to help our kids overcome their traumatic background and thrive?
How to rewire the neurons?
Triggers
Emotional regulation.
What can parents do to help their kids bounce back from their early life trauma?
What is the key element to resilience?
How can parents encourage resilience?
What role does temperament or personality play in resilience to trauma?
How long does it take for kids to “heal” from trauma?
Are there specific types of therapy that are more effective than others for helping children overcome trauma? Does it differ depending on the type of trauma?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How can epigenetic changes affect your fertility or the health of your child conceived by fertility treatment? We talk with Dr. Jason Franasiak, a board certified Obstetrician Gynecologist, board certified Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialist, board certified High Complexity Laboratory Director in Embryology and Andrology, and lead physician of RMA’s Marlton Clinic and Lab in South Jersey. He has authored and contributed to over 100 peer reviewed publications, published chapters and abstracts. He serves on the Editorial Board for Fertility and Sterility and the British Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
In this episode, we cover:
What is epigenetics?
What factors can influence or affect the epigenome?
Can we “see” epigenetic changes?
How do epigenetic factors impact our health?
What are the genetic and epigenetic factors associated with female infertility?
What are the genetic and epigenetic factors associated with female PCOS?
What are the genetic and epigenetic factors associated with endometriosis?
What are the genetic and epigenetic factors associated with primary ovarian insufficiency?
What are the genetic and epigenetic factors associated with male infertility?
How could epigenetics affect modifications in invitro fertilization and invitro embryo development?
Imprinting disorders
Do environmental factors affect epigenetics?
What are epigenetic disorders?
Are children conceived by IVF more likely to have epigenetic disorders?
Can epigenetic changes be heritable across generations?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Adoption dissolutions or disruptions are a tragedy for everyone--the child, the parents, and the family. What can we do to prevent them from happening, how do we know when they are inevitable and what to do if an adoption failure becomes inevitable? We talk with Dr. Richard Barth, Dean and Professor at the University of Maryland School of Social Work, and researcher in the area of adoption and adoption dissolution and disruption. Also joining us is Stephen Hayes, a litigator for more than 35 years with Grady, Hayes & Neary specializing in adoption and foster care. He is a member of the Academy of Adoption & Assisted Reproduction Attorneys and has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America and Wisconsin Super Lawyers. Our host is Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national foster care & adoption education and support nonprofit.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk today with Dr. Gina Samuels about Trauma and Transracial Adoption. Dr. Samuels is an Associate Professor at the University of Chicago's School of Social Service Administration and In-Coming Director at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She is an adult transracial adoptee. She has a newly published article in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect tilted “Epistemic trauma and transracial adoption.”
In this episode, we cover:
How do you define trauma? What is complex trauma?
What is epistemic trauma and how does it differ from the trauma caused by abuse or neglect or witnessing violence?
The article, “Epistemic trauma and transracial adoption”, asks how might the theory of epistemic injustice highlight conditions endemic to the experience of adoption, and specifically transracial adoption, that mark a distinct type of trauma? How does this apply to all adoption and how specifically to transracial adoption?
The article posits that the condition of being transracially adopted can represent intersectional minoritized statuses.
What are some other life experiences that can result in epistemic trauma and intersectional minoritized status? Mixed race? First generation immigrant?
What are ways in which transracial adoption is traumatic? Racism? Adoption based microaggressions? Racial microaggressions?
What are ways in which the institution of adoption aid in this epistemic trauma?
“Hermeneutical smothering”—the deployment of dominant meanings that drown out, distort, or obscure one's own meaning making processes. How does this apply in adoption? How does it apply in transracial adoption? (How adoptees experience racism; how adoptees experience adoption)
“TRA does not adopt children out of racism. In fact, TRA can place children right in the center of it.” Being transracially adopted, also amplifies a person of color's proximity to whiteness, and to the meanings of race and racism that exist within in these spaces.
The feeling of being more fully understood with other transracial adopted people.
How can we do better?
The Creating a Family Facebook Support Group had an interesting discussion from all sides of the adoption triad (adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth parents) of the following quote: “Adoption loss is the only trauma in the world where the victims are expected by the whole of society to be grateful.” ~Rev. Keith C. Griffith
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Transracial adoption affects all parts of the adoption triad. We will talk today with a transracial adoptee and his birth mom and adopted mom. We will include tips for adoptive parents raising transracially adopted or fostered child.
In this episode, we cover:
Adoptee’s experience with transracial adoption
Preschool
Elementary years
Middle and high school years
Code switching
Feelings
Identity formation
College
Adulthood
Reunion with birth family
Birth Father?
Birth Mother’s experience with reunion and transracial adoption
Her role in identity formation
Her feelings on reunion
Adoptive Mother’s experience with transracial adoption
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Are you considering donor egg or sperm? When should you consider these options? What choices do you have and what are some of the psychological hurdles you need to consider? We talk with Dr. Angela Leung, a reproductive endocrinologist at Reproductive Medicine Associates of New Jersey; and Dr. Poonam Sharma, a Licensed Psychologist specializing in reproductive issues.
In this episode, we cover:
Sperm Donation:
What are the possibilities of getting pregnant when the male partner has an abnormal semen analysis? Does it depend on whether sperm count, motility, or morphology are abnormal?
When should patients consider sperm donation from a medical standpoint?
How and when should medical providers bring up the possibility of using donated sperm? Does it matter that the “patient” is usually the female partner?
What are some of the psychological issues that may arise for the female partner using a sperm donor?
What are some feelings the male partner commonly experiences?
What type of impact does “asymmetry of parenthood” in which there will be a biological motherhood and social fatherhood have on couples?
How do these issues differ if the patient is part of a heterosexual couple, a lesbian couple, or a single parent?
Egg Donation:
When should patients consider egg donation from a medical standpoint?
What medical conditions make egg donation appropriate?
How and when should medical providers bring up the possibility of using donated eggs? Who on the medical staff is the one that usually introduces the topic?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the female partner?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the male partner?
What type of impact does “asymmetry of parenthood” in which there will be a genetic father and biological mother who is carrying but not using her own eggs?
Donor Selection:
What are some general medical considerations when selecting any type of donor? (i.e., egg or sperm bank vs. live donor)
What advice would you give intended parents about psychological considerations when selecting a donor?
Do medical providers or mental health professionals talk with patients about the use of anonymous vs. open donors/identified donors?
What issues to consider when using known/directed donors? (i.e., friends, relatives)
Should you tell the child?
Embryo Donation:
When should patients consider using donated embryos?
How to discuss this option with patients?
What are some of the psychological considerations for the intended parents?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk today with Sarah Naish, the CEO of the Center of Excellence in Child Trauma and founder of the National Association of Therapeutic Parents. 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.
In this episode, we cover:
Why are some kids harder to parent and why especially are kids who have experienced trauma, including prenatal trauma, often harder to parent?
Understanding the cause of the behavior is the root of parenting harder to parent kids.
Establish the basics to make their lives predictable so they can feel safe and grow and heal. The elements for establishing this base:
Routines
Establish yourself as a safe base-empathetic and nurturing but in control
Respond to the child, not to the child’s demand
Be honest about their story, contact, etc. – be factual, but don’t fill in the gaps
Establish strong, clear boundaries- what to do when these boundaries are crossed?
Use natural or life consequences
Our kids may not recognize cause and effect.
Early trauma, including prenatal exposure, can hinder a child’s ability to recognize cause and effect
Our kids may be developmentally younger than their chronological years which also impacts understanding.
Natural consequences help children recognize that they can make an impact on the world-helps them make sense of the world
Combine natural consequences with nurturance.
How to handle incidents when they happen. PARENTS model.
Pause-to allow you to respond with intention not emotion.
Assess-is anyone in danger or serious damage.
Reflection-quick reflection to identify the trigger.
Empathize rather than ask questions
use empathetic commentary-
respond to their feelings rather than the behavior.
Nurture-examples of nurturing in the heat of the moment.
Think about next action to take.
What strategies might I use to resolve this? Do you need to do anything else?
How can we avoid this situation in the future?
Self-care
Other parenting strategies for harder to parent kids. Other tools for your toolkit.
Identify your triggers.
Set realistic expectations.
Use silliness or playfulness.
Remove the audience.
Help kids show they are sorry rather than demand they say they are sorry.
The phone strategy.
Watch what the child is doing rather than what she is saying.
Payback time.
Admit it when you made a mistake.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professio
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you ever thought about becoming a foster parent? If so, this is the podcast for you! We talk with Arnie Eby, the Executive Director of the National Foster Parent Association and a foster parent for 22 years; and Angie Jones, a licensed clinical social worker and the Intensive Service Foster Care Recruiter and Trainer at Vista Del Mar, an agency placing foster children.
In this episode, we cover:
What is the goal of the foster care system?
How to become a foster parent?
What are the typical requirements for becoming a foster parent?
What disqualifies you to become a foster parent?
What type of pre-service training is involved?
How long does it usually take to become a licensed foster parent?
Who licenses foster parents?
What types of questions should parents ask when deciding on which agency to work with?
What are the different levels of licensing for foster homes?
Do foster parents get paid?
Can you foster if you rent your home or apartment?
Does one parent have to be at home if they want to have infants or young pre-school aged children placed with them?
How much control do foster parents have on which child is placed with them?
What is expected of foster parents when a child is placed with them?
Can you travel with a foster child? Out of state? Out of the country?
What is shared parenting or co-parenting?
What type of support should foster parents expect from the agency they are licensed through?
Is it possible to adopt your foster child?
How do you foster and adopt?
How much control do foster parents have on visitation, medical treatment, mental health care, and reunification?
How to cope with the grief when a foster child leaves?
Where can foster parents turn for support?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you think your child or your family would benefit from counseling? How do you find the right therapist and how can you tell in advance if they will be a good fit for your family? We talk with Debbie Riley, a Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist and CEO of the Center for Adoption Support and Education.
In this episode, we cover:
What type of professional can provide therapy to an adopted or foster child or family?
What’s the difference between being adoption competent and adoption informed?
Why is competency in adoption or foster issues important?
What do we mean be an “adoption competent therapist”? What makes a therapist adoption competent?
Is adoption/foster competence the same as trauma competence?
How can you tell if a therapist is competent to handle adoption or foster issues? Are there specific trainings that provide adoption competency?
Creating a Family provides a list of ways to find an adoption competent therapist on our Adoption Therapy section.
Is one type of therapeutic model of treatment more effective for adoptive children and families? Theraplay, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Narrative therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), etc.
Should therapy with adopted kids on adoption issues involve just the child, or the child and the parent?
What is home-based therapy and are there advantages to this type of therapy for adoptive and foster families.
How can you find a therapist that will provide therapy within the home? (One source is http://www.familycenteredtreatment.org/)
Is therapy via tele-health or via teleconferencing as effective for adopted children? For families? How to know if it will work for your family? Ways to make it more effective.
How can a parent determine if the therapist is a good fit for the child and family? What questions should they ask?
How many sessions to try?
When to seek a therapist?
How to find a therapist with lived experience of being adopted?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What's IVF like for the male partner? We spend a lot of time talking about the experience of infertility treatment for the person going through treatment, but what about their partner? We talk with Keegan Prue, the author of "The IVF Dad." He and his wife Olivia went through two rounds of IVF and suffered two miscarriages before welcoming their daughter.
In this episode, we cover:
Tell us your story to parenthood.
The imagined role of the male partner: strong, supportive, and not needing support.
Media messages about men that impact how they can respond to infertility: men take action to fix problems, showing emotion makes you weak, real men don’t ask for or need help, real men are virile, being a father is part of what makes you a man.
What are some things that you learned that the male partner can do to improve the quality or quantity of sperm.
What are some common emotions men or those supporting a person trying to get pregnant might feel when they start infertility treatment: anger; embarrassment; jealousy; fear that is won’t work; worry (over costs, impact of the treatment on their partner and their relationship), feeling less manly.
How can the supporting partner take care of themselves during treatment?
The partner’s role in giving the shots. What are some common feelings they experience?
Tips for staying connected with your partner through the stress of fertility treatment.
Dealing with miscarriage yourself while supporting your partner.
The role of infertility nurses. You wanted to nominate your infertility nurse for sainthood. What did she do that made the stressful experience of infertility and its treatment more bearable for you as the male partner.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you getting ready to adopt or have just adopted? Do you wonder what the experience will really be like and what you can do to prepare? Join our conversation with Dr. Jennifer Bliss, LCSW and Director of Adoptions and Foster Care at Vista Del Mar and Family Services in Los Angeles; and Molly Berger, MSW and Adoption Social Worker at Adoption Center of Illinois.
In this episode, we cover: Domestic Infant Adoption:
Process
Typical stresses adoptive parents feel
Lack of sleep
Not deserving to complain
Feeling like a babysitter
Not feeling love at first site
Impact of infertility struggles on transitioning into parenthood
Stresses with parenting a child with neonatal abstinence syndrome
Stresses with open adoption
Older child adoption through foster care or international adoption:
Process
Typical stresses adoptive parents feel
Unrealistic expectations of the child and of yourself
Love at first site
Feeling like a babysitter
Language issues
Cultural issues
Parental attachment styles-How the way we were parented influences how we parent.
Challenging behaviors
Sibling issues
Change is stressful and adding a child to your family is a huge change regardless of how the child joins the family. What can newly adoptive parents do to prepare in advance and to cope in those first few months?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you ever thought about adopting a child from abroad? What does it take and what type of kids are available? To learn more, listen to our interview with Robin Sizemore, Executive Director of Hopscotch Adoptions, who has worked in the international adoption field for 27 years and Debbie Price, Executive Director of Children’s House International and who has worked in international adoption for 28 years.
In this episode, we cover:
Outline of the typical international adoption process.
What type of kids are available for international adoption?
What is the youngest child available?
Is it possible to get a young healthy child or baby?
International adoption regulations.
What governmental entities are involved in international adoption?
How to decide on what country to adopt from? Will the country accept you? Does the country place children that you think your family is a good fit for?
What are some of the country-specific requirements for adoptive parents?
Can adoption agencies have different or more stringent requirements than the foreign or US government?
What are the health risks for children adopted internationally? What type of special needs do children have?
What type of care do children have before adoption? Institutional vs foster care.
How to find children abroad who are waiting for adoption? How to adopt a child on a waiting child website?
How much information will you have on the health of the child when you receive a referral?
How big of a risk is it that a country will close down to international adoption once you apply? How do you mitigate the risk of losing the money you invested?
What to look for in an international adoption agency?
Pre-adoption education requirements.
How much does international adoption cost?
Are grants available?
What is the Adoption Tax Credit and can it be used for an international adoption?
How long does it take to adopt internationally?
Is it possible for single women, gays, lesbians, or other members of the LGBTQ+ community to adopt internationally?
Importance of post-adoption reporting.
How do internationally adopted children acquire US citizenship?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Is your child more challenging than most? Do typical parenting approaches not work? We talk about how to parent harder-to- parent kids with Dr. Ross Greene, the originator of the Collaborative & Proactive Solutions parenting model, a non-punitive, non-adversarial, trauma-informed model of care. Dr. Greene is a clinical psychologist, former Harvard professor, and the author The Explosive Child and Raising Human Beings.
In this episode, we cover:
Why are some kids “harder to parent”?
How does trauma impact a child’s behavior?
How does innate temperament or genetics impact behavior?
What is the collaborative partnership approach?
3 Steps to the Collaborative & Proactive approach are:
The Empathy step – involves gathering information so as to achieve the clearest understanding of the kid’s concern or perspective about a given unsolved problem.
The Define Adult Concern step involves the adult sharing their perspective.
The Invitation step involves having the adult and kid brainstorm solutions so as to arrive at a plan of action that is both realistic and mutually satisfactory…in other words, a solution that addresses both concerns and that both parties can actually do.
“Kids do well if they can.” Kids are challenging because they’re lacking the skills not to be challenging. If they had the skills, they wouldn’t be challenging. That’s because – and here is perhaps the key theme of the model — Kids do well if they can. And because (here’s another key theme) Doing well is always preferable to not doing well (but only if a kid has the skills to do well in the first place).
How would you apply this approach to work with kids who have experienced trauma?
Is Collaborative partnership permissive parenting?
Practical applications:
A child who struggles with transitions.
A child who won’t accept “no” and tantrums or argues.
A child who doesn’t handle change and can’t be flexible.
Tattling
A teen who disregards curfew or other house rules.
How to deal with aggressive behaviors towards pets, siblings, or parents?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What are the short and long term impacts of an IVF conception? Does IVF affect the health (positively or negatively) of the children conceived. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility education and support nonprofit talks with Dr. Paolo Rinaudo, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at UCSF. He is an MD PhD researching in the area of how IVF affects the children conceived.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Are you thinking about using donor sperm, egg, or embryo or using a surrogate? We talk about the current trends in third party reproduction with Corey Burke, an embryologist and Tissue Bank Director at Cryos International Sperm & Egg Bank.
In this episode, we cover:
What do we mean by third-party reproduction?
What are some of the current trends in sperm donation?
What are some of the current trends in egg donation?
What are some of the current trends in surrogacy?
What are some of the current trends in embryo donation?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
What are the common health issues foster parents and those adopting from foster care should expect? We talk with Christy Street, Program Director of Fostering Health NC, which is a program of North Carolina Pediatric Society.
In this episode, we cover:
Term “health” broadly to encompass physical, emotional, mental, behavioral, developmental, educational, and oral health.
Impact of trauma on kids physical and mental health.
Those areas of the brain most affected by trauma, especially early trauma, are those involved in stress response, emotional regulation, attention, cognition, executive function, and memory.
An issue with foster care parenting is limited access to health care before entering foster care and lack of knowledge about previous health care. How does this impact care and what can foster or adoptive parents do?
The role of transience and uncertainty for kids in foster care provides challenges for foster parents and doctors in providing health care to kids in foster care.
Immunizations
Medicaid Care management
Foster kids often come to us with a bag full of medications that have been prescribed somewhere along the line and a host of diagnoses. What role can foster or soon to be adoptive parents play?
What are psychotropic drugs and why are so many foster children on them?
What can foster parents do if they question the amount or type of medication their foster child is taking or even the underlying diagnosis?
What role does a foster parent have in seeking a change in medication for their foster child?
What doctor do you take your foster child to? Your pediatrician? Their previous doctor, if they had one? The doctor that has prescribed the medication?
Pre-natal exposure to alcohol and drugs: impact, diagnosis.
One of the most confusing aspects of caring for a child in foster care is identifying who has the authority to consent for health care on behalf of the child or adolescent. Varies by state (caseworker can tell you).
Sleep issues with foster children. What causes sleep issues? What can foster parents or parents adopting from foster care do to help children in foster care sleep better?
How common are weight issues in foster children? Why is obesity and being overweight an issue? What can foster parents or parents adopting from foster care do?
Dental care for foster children. How much and how soon?
Coping with feelings of “why bother” when a foster child will return to the same chaotic household they came from.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Are you a transracial adoptive or foster parent? Have you wondered how you can help your child form a healthy racial identity. Does racial identity formation change depending on the race of the child? Today we talk about all this and more with Dr. Gina Miranda Samuels, a professor at the University of Chicago and Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture. She is a transracial adoptee and co-author of the book Multiracial Cultural Attunement.
In this episode, we cover:
How do children in the US come to understand race at different ages and developmental stages?
How early do children develop a racial bias? How early do children associate certain characteristics to race and show a preference towards a person of a certain race?
How does transracial adoption or fostering or kinship care impact a child’s understanding of race?
How does transracial or transcultural adoption or fostering or kinship care impact children?
Racial identity formation: How does being adopted transracially impact the adoptee’s racial identity formation?
Coping with racism
In your research and in your experience, do you see a difference in the experience of race is perceived by both transracial adoptees or adoptive or foster parents depending on the race of the child? Asian, Latinx, Black, Bi-racial?
Why is taking the colorblind approach to parenting not helpful?
“It’s About More Than Hair”
Transracial parenting requires the family to be fluent in “race talk” – socialization is not a conversation, it is a daily, incremental, and developmental family process.
As our kids age, what is it like for our tweens, teens, and young adults to have parents of a different race?
How does transracial adoption or fostering impact siblings in the family who are the same race as the parents?
How does transracial adoption or fostering affect extended family members, such as grandparents and aunts and uncles?
Practical tips for parents raising a child of a different race or ethnicity.
EmbraceRace was founded to create the community and gather the resources they needed (need!) to meet the challenges faced by those raising children in a world where race matters.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Do you wonder if your child was prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs? There may be nothing in the files, but something feels not right? We talk about diagnosing and treating these kids with Dr. Larry Burd, a professor of pediatrics at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and the Director of the North Dakota Fetal Alcohol Syndrome Center.
In this episode, we cover:
Most of our audience is foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and professionals. Often they don’t know for sure if a child has been exposed. The US government estimates that about 10% of all children in the US have been prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs. Do you have a feel for the percentage of children in foster care or who have been involved with the child welfare system? International adoption? Domestic infant adoption?
Does prenatal exposure increase the likelihood of a disruption to a foster or adoptive placement?
How is prenatal exposure to alcohol detected or diagnosed?
What type of training do pediatricians receive during their education or residency on prenatal exposure and on how to diagnose?
Can you tell at birth or in infancy if a baby has been exposed to alcohol in utero?
How is prenatal exposure to drugs detected or diagnosed?
How does birth order change the likelihood that a child who is at risk has been exposed during pregnancy?
What are the long-term impacts of alcohol exposure? What are the symptoms that are most noticeable to parents, teachers, and other professionals working with these children?
Alcohol exposure affects multiple systems in the body.
Does it matter what type of alcohol was consumed?
Who can diagnose a child with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder?
What are the long-term impacts of the following drugs?
Opioids
Heroin and Fentanyl
Depressants (benzodiazepines, such as Valium, Xanax)-Prescribed and unprescribed
Stimulants-Prescribed and unprescribed
Methamphetamines
Marijuana
Tobacco/Nicotine
Do pediatricians have a body of resources to offer parents regarding raising a child with prenatal exposure?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you a foster or adoptive parent whose child is taking mood altering medications or medications to help them sleep? You will learn a lot about these medications and what you can do to make them as effective as possible. We talk with Dr. Adam Langenfeld, a Developmental Pediatrician at Children's Minnesota hospital. He also has a Ph.D. in chemistry.
In this episode, we cover:
What are psychotropic medications?
What are the classes of psychotropic medications?
What are some commonly prescribed medications in each class?
What mental health issues are these medications addressing?
Symptoms of anxiety and depression in children.
Situational anxiety or depression.
SCARED checklist anxiety
Childhood Depression Inventory
How do psychotropic medications work? A basic overview of Psych Pharmacology.
Simulation of a brain synapsis
How are medications in each of these classes administered?
Does timing of the day matter?
How effective is melatonin?
Does proximity to meals matter when administering these medications?
What are some of the side effects of the most commonly used psychotropic medications?
Psychedelics?
Supplements (such as CBD)?
Why are children in foster care more likely to be on psychotropic medications?
Does use of psychotropic medications in childhood increase the likelihood of substance abuse in adolescence or adulthood?
What can parents do to help these medications be as effective as possible?
How to know when a child should taper down or get off of psychotropic medications?
If parents believe that the child is on too many psychotropic medications, what should they do?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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How much do you really know about your fertility, menstrual cycles, and conception? Join us to learn more with Dr. Joyce Harper, a Professor of Reproductive Science at the Institute for Women’s Health, University College London, and the head of the Reproductive Science and Society Group. She is the author of Your Fertile Years.
In this episode, we cover:
Understanding the menstrual cycle
Understanding the basic of conception
Predicting ovulation
Basics of Infertility
What percentage of infertility is caused by the female partner, the male partner, or both?
What causes a woman to not ovulate?
Initial workup for women who meet the definition of infertility
Workup for Recurrent Pregnancy Loss
Treatment Options for Infertility
How does the infertility workup differ for the LGBTQ+ community (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Non-binary, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, and Gender Nonconforming Individuals)?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How do some kids survive a life of poverty, homelessness, abuse, and foster and eventually thrive? We talk with David Ambroz is a national poverty and child welfare expert and advocate and the author of the memoir, A Place Called Home. He was recognized by President Obama as an American Champion of Change. Currently serving as the Head of Community Engagement (West) for Amazon, Ambroz previously led Corporate Social Responsibility for Walt Disney Television, and has served as president of the Los Angeles City Planning Commission as well as a California Child Welfare Council member. After growing up homeless and then in foster care, he graduated from Vassar College and later earned his J.D. from UCLA School of Law. He is a foster dad and lives in Los Angeles, CA.
In this episode, we cover:
Poverty and Homelessness:
His story.
School
What made a difference?
What should adults who encounter or work with homeless children/youth know?
Foster Care:
His story.
Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ are overrepresented in foster care (Human Rights Campaign, 2015). While approximately 5 percent of the general population is estimated to be LGBTQ+, studies estimate that about 30 percent of youth in foster care identify as LGBTQ+. Why are these young people over represented in child welfare? LGBTQ+ youth are 1.5 -2 times more likely to have a foster placement failure.
What would you want foster parents to know?
What made the difference in your eventually succeeding? (Going to Vassar and UCLA Law School.)
The lack of available treatments for mental illness.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
The human body is full of organisms that exist alongside and inside of us, including our reproductive tracts. How do these bacteria, viruses, and fungi affect conception and pregnancy? How does infertility treatment alter or mimic what exists in nature? Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility education and support nonprofit interviews Dr. Jason Franasiak, a board certified Obstetrician Gynecologist, board certified Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility specialist, board certified High Complexity Laboratory Director in Embryology and Andrology, and physician with RMA New Jersey.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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We talk with Isaac and Julie Etter, a mom and son, about what they have learned about transracial adoption and what they wish they had known at the beginning. Isaac is the founder of Identity, a startup focused on using technology to help adoptive and foster families thrive. Julie Etter is a mom of five and a humanities teacher.
In this episode, we cover:
Isaac, tell us your adoption story from your perspective. Why were you placed for adoption? What were the first two years of your life like? Where you were raised?
Julie, what was your motivation for adopting? Were there other children in the family?
What was the racial demographics of your community?
Julie, what were you taught about transracial adoption before you adopted?
Isaac, how did you identify racially as a young child? When did you start identifying as black?
Did you experience racism growing up?
Julie, did you see racism directed towards Isaac as a child?
Did you tell your parents?
Julie, what do you wish you had known before you adopted a Black child? Would you have done anything differently?
Isaac, what do you want transracial adopted parents to know?
Julie, what advice would you give other parents who have or are considering adopting tranracially?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are adoptive parents eligible for parental leave? What about foster parents or kinship parents? We talk with Dr. Amy Beacom and Sue Campbell, with the Center for Parental Leave Leadership and co-authors of TheParental Leave Playbook.
In this episode, we cover:
What are the laws and rules surrounding parental leave in the US?
Who is eligible for parental leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)?
Parental leave on the company level
How does parental leave differ from maternity leave paternity leave?
Policies that require employees to pay back their parental leave if they do not stay employed with the company/organization for a certain period of time.
How does this differ from other countries?
Are the laws/rules different for mothers and fathers? Are they gender neutral?
Do you receive your salary when you are on parental leave?
Does parental leave differ for someone adopting a child?
Are adoptive families are protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)?
Are birth mothers eligible for parental leave?
Does their have to be a legal relationship between the parent and the child? Does parental leave differ for someone fostering a child? Are you eligible for parental leave with every new foster placement?
Can kinship caregivers receive parental leave?
The Parental Leave Playbooklays out a process for approaching parental leave in three phases: preparing for your leave, during leave, and returning from leave.
What steps should you take to be successful in each phase?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How do you know when enough is enough? What do you do when infertility treatment and adoption don't end up with you having a child. Join us to talk with Rebecca and Sallyann Majoya, co-authors of the memoir Uncertain Fruit, and Carole LieberWilkins, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist providing individual and couples counseling, as well as psychoeducational consultations, for those moving into alternative paths to parenthood and living child-free.
In this episode, we cover:
Deciding to live child-free is becoming increasingly common in the US. Research has found that 30 percent of women of childbearing age identifying wanting to live child-free. However, that is not reflective of the people we are speaking to who have likely tried infertility treatment or adoption and it hasn’t worked for them.
What is the right name: childfree or childless? Are you childfree by choice or childfree not by choice?
Age is less of a biological cut off point than in the past and that complicates the decision of whether to stop trying to have a child.
How do people know when it is time to stop trying? What are the signs that it is time to stop. How do you know when enough is enough?
Is making the decision to live childfree ‘giving up’?
Are there predictable steps for reaching the decision of when it is time to stop fertility treatment or adoption?
Determining when you should stop.
How to decide to stop?
‘Trying on’ the future
Seeking new goal/vision
Therapy
How can “giving up the dream” of children impact a couple’s relationship?
How to handle when both partners are not on the same page.
Once you’ve made the decision, should you take steps to not get pregnant? The “not-try-but-not-prevent” approach.
For many, the decision to live child free not by choice causes grief, but this loss is invisible. It’s hard for others to see or understand, so we mourn without the support of our community.
What can people do to help themselves resolve the grief of not having kids?
Writing a letter to the child you will never know.
Giving this dream child a “funeral.” Doing something with the letter that is akin to a funeral. Concrete reminders that the person is gone.
Create a ritual to say goodbye.
Writing a memoir.
Create a new life goal. A new vision for your future.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you thinking about adopting this year? You don't want to miss this discussion of how to adopt and current trends in private infant adoption, foster care adoption, and international adoption. Our guests are Chris Peszka, MSW, Regional and District Supervisor at Adoptions From The Heart Adoption Agency, and Robin Sizemore, Executive Director of Hopscotch Adoptions.
In this episode, we cover:
Domestic infant private adoption in the US
What is the process?
What are the reasons that pregnant moms are placing their child?
Open adoption
Expectant parent choice
Special needs of children available
How long does it take? What factors influence this time?
How much does it cost? What factors influence this cost?
Adoption agency and adoption attorney
What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting a baby?
Adoptions from foster care in the US
What is the process?
Adopting your foster child
Adopting a waiting child
What are the reasons that children are available for adoption from foster care in the US?
What age and race of child is available for adoption from foster care?
Special needs?
How long does it take?
How much does it cost?
What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting from foster care?
International adoptions to the US
What is the process?
What type of children are available for adoption from abroad?
How long does it take? What factors influence this time?
How much does it cost? What factors influence this cost?
What is the first step prospective adoptive parents should take if they are interested in adopting internationally?
What are some of the shifts in adoption in the last 5 or so years?
What are some of the changes anticipated for 2023 and beyond?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you planning on claiming the Adoption Tax Credit when you file your taxes this year? If so, this is the podcast for you! We talk with two of the top experts in the US on the Adoption Tax Credit: Becky Wilmoth, an Enrolled Agent and Adoption Tax Credit Specialist with Bill’s Tax Service, and Josh Kroll, the Adoption Subsidy Resource Center coordinator at the North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC).
In this episode, we cover:
What is the Adoption Tax Credit for adoption being claimed on 2022 federal taxes?
How to advocate for refundability?
What is a “credit” and how does it differ from a deduction or some other form of tax savings?
If you get a tax refund every year, how would you use the Adoption Tax Credit?
If you don’t have any federal tax liability, should you still apply the credit to your federal income taxes?
What types of adoptions are included or excluded? Stepparent adoption? Embryo adoption? Same-sex partner second-parent adoption? Unmarried heterosexual second-parent adoption? Surrogacy?
Can you get credit for each adoption you complete even if completed in the same year? What about adopting siblings at the same time?
What is a Qualified Adoption Expense for purposes of the Adoption Tax Credit 2022?
When can you claim the Adoption Tax Credit?
Domestic private adoption
International Adoption
Re-adoption in the US for international adoption
Foster Care Adoption
How does the Adoption Tax Credit work with kinship adoptions? What if the child never was involved with foster care?
Special Needs Adoption: How does the Adoption Tax Credit differ for adoptions from foster care? What does the IRS accept as proof of “special needs”?
$0 subsidy agreement
Special needs child for international adoption
Can you reclaim your expenses for an attempted adoption that did not result in a placement? How?
What income level (Modified Adjusted Gross Income) is excluded from claiming the Adoption Tax Credit in 2022?
How long can the credit be carried over?
Are you able to amend the previous year's tax return to claim the adoption tax credit? Is the adoption tax credit something you can amend, and if so, how do you amend and how many years back?
Will the Adoption Tax Credit offset self-employment tax?
How does the Secure Act impact claiming the Adoption Tax Credit for 2022 taxes?
What should you do if the child’s Social Security Number is not available when you file?
Should you use an Adoption Taxpayer Identification Number (ATIN #) if you don’t have the child’s social security number?
How does the Adoption Tax Credit work in conjunction with employee adoption benefits? For special needs adoption?
Qualified Birth or Adoption Distribution from Qualified Retirement Plan without penalty. U
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have mealtimes become a battleground in your house, is your child a picky eater, or do you have a child who eats too much? We provide lots of tips in our conversations with 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. In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the typical food issues for adopted or foster kids, especially those who have experienced trauma?
How does trauma impact feeding?
Responsive eating leaves space to recognize what the body needs.
What do you mean by felt safety and focusing on connection?
What is a responsive and flexible framework for feeding kids with brain-based differences?
How to best deal with kids who are significantly underweight.
How to best handle extreme pickiness.
How to handle children who are eating too much, emotional eaters, or who are overweight.
Why do kids from foster care or institutional settings often become larger than optimal for their health?
Practical tips for establishing healthy eating patterns in adopted or foster kids
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
The similarities of the twins in your story and in twin studies.
The differences between the twins in your story and in twin studies.
Reuniting
How did the twins' reunion affect them, their family in Vietnam, and their adopted family in the US?
Complications that the disparate degrees of wealth caused.
Adoptive parents’ role in reunion.
Twin studies referenced:
Polderman, T., Benyamin, B., de Leeuw, C. et al. Meta-analysis of the heritability of human traits based on fifty years of twin studies. Nat Genet 47, 702–709 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3285
Website based on the research cited above: MaTCH. This website provides a resource for the heritability of all human traits that have been investigated with the classical twin design. The traits have been classified into 28 broad trait domains, as well as according to the standard classification schemes of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) or the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD-10). Currently, the database includes information from 2748 papers, published between 1958 and 2012, reporting on 17804 traits on a total of 14,558,903 twin pairs. https://match.ctglab.nl/#/home
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Do you worry that your decision to foster or adopt will hurt the kids you are already raising? Check out this podcast with Dr. Jana Hunsley, an Assistant Professor of Instruction at the University of Texas at Dallas, trauma therapist, TBRI® Practitioner, and founder of Project 1025.
In this episode, we cover: Fostering
What are some of the common impacts of fostering on children already in the family? Both potentially negative and positive.
What does your research show on how significant and how often children already in the home are negatively impacted by fostering?
Should you Include kids in the decision to foster? If so, how does that look at different ages?
For children already in the home, is there a better age to start fostering because of their ability to understand what the family is doing?
Is it harder to introduce a foster child when there is only one existing child in the home. Do only children have a harder time adjusting?
How much information about the new child should you share with the other kids in the home?
Adoption
How do the impacts of adopting differ from the impacts of fostering?
With adoption you usually have more time.
The child may already be living with you.
Adoption is for forever, while fostering is usually temporary.
You may care more about creating a lasting sibling relationship between the children.
How much of a say should you give kids already in the family over whether you adopt?
Common Worries
The new child may have developed behaviors that helped them survive in their prior home or are the physical symptoms of the trauma they experienced, such as tantrums, stealing, cursing, etc. Parents worry that these behaviors will rub off on their child.
How to handle possible behaviors that could be harmful to kids already in the family. For example, acting out sexually with the other kids.
New foster kids and some kids being placed for adoption have often had a diet higher in processed foods. How to handle this difference if you don’t want the kids in the family to eat too much processed foods.
The lack of time and attention will hurt kids already in the family.
Tips for Parents
How can parents lessen the impact and increase the benefits of fostering or adopting for kids already in the family.
Prepare children in the family in advance. What do children in the home need to be prepared for? (Differs significantly depending on the age of all the children involved)
How to handle rule differences and behavioral expectations.
How to handle the differing privileges and expectations that may have been assigned to kids by age in the past but age may not be the best measure or gauge now. For example, staying at home alone while dad runs to the store. Or bedtimes. Or visits alone to grandparents.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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A panel of birth mothers talking about adoption from their perspective and answering questions from adoptive parents. What is it like to place a child for adoption? What influenced their decision to choose one couple over another? What can adoptive parents do to make the hospital time post birth a little easier? What type of recognition on Mother’s Day feels best? And much more. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national foster care & adoption education and support nonprofit talks with a panel of four birth mothers about adoption.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you have a child that is more—louder, more energetic, more argumentative, more everything? Intense children can be harder to raise, but their intensity is a gift as well as a parenting challenge. We talk with Howard Glasser, creator of the Nurtured Heart Approach to parenting. He is the author of Transforming the Difficult Child and Transforming the Intense ChildWorkbook.
In this episode, we cover:
What do you consider to be an intense child? My child was “more”—more loud, more energy—their reaction to most things was simply more. They go from 5 mph to 60mph in about a second. How to raise the intense child.
What are the labels and diagnoses that intense children often accumulate? ADHD, ODD (Oppositional Defiance Disorder), conduct disorder, PTSD, anxiety disorder, depression.
What makes some kids more “intense” than others?
What do you mean by energy-challenged kids? Unable to handle or effectively control their physical, cognitive or emotional energy. They have a disorder of self-control. They have more energy than they have self-control.
Energy is a gift as well as a challenge.
You mention in Transforming the Difficult Child that many intense or difficult kids love video games—more so than the average child. Why?
Structure-while I think all children need structure, the high-intensity child really needs structure. Positive forms of structure vs. negative forms of structure
Traditional parenting techniques did not work well for my intense little wonder. Your approach to raising an intense child is based on your Nurturing Heart Approach as outlined in your book, Transforming the Difficult Child and Transforming the Intense Child Workbook. What are the basic principles of this approach to parenting? The 3 strands.
Strand 1: Refuse to energize the negative. What are some of the challenges parents face when applying this? What are some common ways we might accidentally energize the negative?
Strand 2: Energize the positive. active recognition, experiential recognition, proactive recognition, creative recognition.
Is there a problem with too much praise?
Strand 3: Absolute clarity on limits and consequences. How to set limits?
Intensity is not something that a person outgrows.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Kari Dady joins us to talk about applying the guiding principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention® to typical parenting situations. Kari Dady is a Regional Training & Consultation Specialist with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development. She is also an adoptive mom who uses the TBRI® approach daily in her family.
In this episode, we cover:
What is parental attachment style, and how does it influence how we parent?
How does trauma affect the developing child?
What are some of the different types of trauma that impact a child?
What are the core principles of Trust-Based Relational Intervention®(TBRI®)?
TBRI® talks about parents needing to make a mindset shift when looking at challenging behavior. What is this mindset shift?
How can parents apply Trust-Based Relational Intervention®(TBRI®) to the following common behaviors:
Inability to accept rules, restrictions, or the word “no”
Tantrums,
Whining
Sleep issues
Lying
Stealing
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
When should your child get a smartphone? What can you do if your child spends too much time playing video games? How can we protect our kids from the downsides of social media? Join us to talk about parenting and technology with Krista Boan, co-founder of the nonprofit Screen Sanity.
In this episode, we cover:
Digital Health:
Screen Sanity’s 5 Rules of Thumb.
Ride, practice, drive” approach for device and app introduction.
How to handle a foster, adoptive, or kinship placement of a child that has already gone down that slippery slope of too much screen time and tech. How do you establish reasonable boundaries?
Is it still recommended that parents establish a "no expectation of privacy" policy for online activity? At what age/stage should that start to change?
How to handle when your family has vastly different rules from your child’s friend’s families when you don’t want your child to feel left out?
Screentime:
What is a reasonable rule of thumb for how much screen time a child should be allowed by age?
What is considered screen time?
School work?
Facetime with family or friends?
Drawing or coding games?
Social media?
How do we handle cell phones and tablets when we see more negative behavior from any usage?
Smartphones:
At what age should a child be given a smartphone? What questions should you ask before you give a child a smartphone?
What are the alternatives to a smartphone? What are good starter phones?
Video Games:
How to manage the addictive nature of video games?
How to strike the balance between limiting the time of video games when this is where many kids socialize.
What are the pitfalls, and how can we protect our kids?
When should kids be allowed to be on social media?
How can parents keep up with what their kids are doing on social media?
The Social Media Playbook is a parent-child workbook for starting powerful conversations about social media. Families are prompted to dig deeper into the purpose of social media in their lives and question the false standards it places on its users.
Pornography:
How do we protect our kids and youth from pornography?
Good Pictures, Bad Pictures book
Screen Sanity has parent guides, training, webinars, and study groups.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Fa
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How do you handle a birth parent showing up to a meeting with the child stoned or drunk? What do you do when a birth parent often breaks promises to the child? Join us to talk about nine sticky situations that adoptive parents often find themselves in. Our guest is Lori Holden, the author of The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole.
In this episode, we cover:
What do we mean by openness and why is openness or some form of a relationship considered best for adopted kids?
Difficult/Sticky Situation #1: Birth Parent Addiction to drugs or alcohol.
How to handle things when a birth parent shows up for a meeting with a child high or stoned.
How to set healthy boundaries with birth parents who are addicted? How to set these boundaries when you have an open adoption with a birth parent dealing with addiction?
Explaining drug addiction of birth parents to children.
Difficult/Sticky Situation #2: Failing to show up for meetings/visits or showing up late?
Determining the cause.
How do you protect your child from disappointment?
How to handle it if the parents are struggling with substance abuse disorder.
Difficult/Sticky Situation #3: Making promises they can’t or won’t keep.
Difficult/Sticky Situation #4: Should you maintain any type of relationship with a birth parent who abused or neglected the child?
Difficult/Sticky Situation #5: How should parents deal with the obvious difference between openness in multiple adoptions within the same family?
Difficult/Sticky Situation #6: DNA testing. If the birth parents have not told others about the child, what obligation do you have to their desires regarding DNA testing on the child? What if there are medical reasons for doing the testing?
Difficult/Sticky Situation # 7: When the adoptive parent is the problem. Over-reacting, assuming the worst intentions, etc.
Difficult/Sticky Situation #8: Birth family doesn’t want contact.
Difficult/Sticky Situation #9: Birth siblings being parented by the birth parents.
Why should parents try to maintain relationships with the birth family in difficult situations?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you wondered if you could be the right place for an LGBTQ+ youth or child to land? Join us to talk about how to be an affirming and supportive home for LGBTQ+ youth. Or guest will be Angela Weeks, the Director of the National SOGIE Center at the Institute for Innovation and Implementation. Under the Center, she directs the Center of Excellence for LGBTQ+ Behavioral Health Equity and the National Quality Improvement Center on Tailored Services, Placement Stability, and Permanency for LGBTQ2S Children and Youth in Foster Care.
In this episode, we cover:
Why are these young people over represented in child welfare?
LGBTQ+ youth are 1.5 -2 times more likely to have a foster placement failure. Why?
What does the research indicate about how sexual orientation and gender identity are formed?
Are LGBTQ+ youth more likely to have a mental health diagnosis or behavioral issues.
Are LGBTQ+ youth more likely than heterosexual or cisgender young people to sexually abuse or otherwise pose a threat to others, including children?
How to help youth evaluate the safety of their communities, schools, social networks, and homes to decide whether to disclose their LGBTQ+ identity, when to do so, and to whom.
Parents often think, especially with younger kids, that this is just a phase. And kids are coming out (acknowledging their sexual orientation/gender identity to themselves and others) at younger and younger ages. And there is some fluidity. So how’s a parent to know how to handle?
Studies by the Family Acceptance Project have found that most people report being attracted to another person around age 10 and identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual by age 13 (on average). Most children have a stable sense of their gender identity by age 4
Sexual orientation vs sexual behavior.
How can parents create a welcoming and affirming home?
The National SOGIE Center. The National Center for Youth with Diverse Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, & Expression provides a centralized site for accessing resources on providing culturally responsive care to children, youth, and young adults with diverse sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression (SOGIE) and their families across systems, including child welfare, juvenile justice, mental health (including school mental health), substance use systems, and housing and homelessness. https://www.sogiecenter.org/
Family Acceptance Project® LGBTQ Youth & Family Resources To Decrease Mental Health Risks & Promote Well-Being https://lgbtqfamilyaccepta
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
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Did your child experience trauma or loss before they came to you? Do you want to help them heal? Join our conversation with 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.
In this episode, we cover:
What is trauma?
What types of events/things create trauma?
Why are trauma, abuse, and neglect so harmful to children?
Is neglect a form of trauma?
How trauma impacts children, and what factors influence how much the trauma impacts the child later in life?
How to tell the difference between typical developmental behavior and behavior that is the result of trauma or loss?
What is triangulation?
How to break the triangle?
Helping our kids integrate their birth, adoptive or foster, and self-identities. Many children who do not live with their birth families struggle to incorporate parts of their birth families, foster or adoptive families, and who they innately are into a whole that is their identity. How can parents help their children form a healthy, complete identity?
Practical tips for helping children heal. Often, we do not know exactly what trauma our children have experienced. Either they don’t remember, or it happened before they were verbal, or they cannot or have not told us. How can we help them if we do not know what happened to them?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
So often we think infertility only affects the woman, but the men are affected as well. We simply don’t focus on how they are affected. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national infertility education and support nonprofit interviews Michael Barr, author of Swimming In Circles: A Baby Chase Odyssey, blogger, sports columnist, and dad to talk about infertility, male infertility, and how the wife’s infertility affects the husband. Who in a couple is typically the one who pushes a medical assessment or treatment for fertility issues?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How does parenting an adopted teen differ from parenting teens that come to us through birth? What are some of the unique challenges adopted teens or young adults face? Check out our interview with Katie Naftzger, an LCSW, Korean adoptee, and the author of “Parenting in the Eye of the Storm: The Adoptive Parent’s Guide to Navigating the Teen Years.”
In this episode, we cover:
Why is parenting an “adopted” teen any different from parenting a child who comes to you by birth?
What issues related to adoption come to the front during the teen years?
What issues that relate to early neglect or abuse, or loss come to the fore in adolescence?
In your book, “Parenting in the Eye of the Storm: The Adoptive Parent’s Guide to Navigating the Teen Years,” you talk about adoptive or foster parents taking a learning stance when working with teens. What is a learning stance?
Many of our kids have experienced early life adversity and carry the scars of this early trauma. Parents often naturally feel bad for their teens because of this. How can these feelings of pity interfere with the healthy parenting of teens? When to step in and help and when to let our teens figure out how to handle things on their own?
Some adoptive parents adopt out of a feeling of needing to save the child. How does the savior narrative impact parenting teens?
Birth family issues:
Birth parents search
Handling hard birth parent situations
Identity formation-nature vs. nurture
Navigating an open adoption with teens
Identity formation as a transracial adoptee.
Transitioning into adulthood.
We hear that adopted teens are more likely to have mental health issues and more likely to commit suicide. How do adoptive parents support their adopted teens?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk about raising your grandkids with Christine Adamec, coauthor with Dr. Andrew Adesman, of The Grandfamily Guidebook. She and her husband have been raising their teenage grandson since his infancy.
In this episode, we cover:
Why are grandparent led families increasing?
What are some common emotions that grandparents and other kin experience when they realize that they need to step in and raise their grandchildren or other kin?
What type of decisions should you make about legal custody or permanency? How to protect your grandchild? How to enroll them in school? How to be able to get medical and mental health care for them? How to prevent the child’s parents from removing the child from your home? Becoming a foster parent? A will?
What are some of the strains that grandparents can experience with their children (the parents of their grandchildren)?
How to navigate the relationship with your adult child?
Explaining the situation to the child? (“Why am I living with you and not my parents?”)
Raising kids that likely experience trauma, including prenatal exposure.
Adjusting to parenting in this new time.
Some of the joys of raising your grandchild.
Resources:
AARP has a Benefits QuickLINK tool to find out if you or your grandchild may qualify for 15 public benefits — 10 for adults and families and five for children.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you wonder how to talk to your child about adoption? What if they don't seem interested? How do you talk about some of the hard stuff? This episode explores talking with children about adoption at different ages with Mari Itzkowitz, with the Center for Adoption Support and Education (CASE). She is an adoption-competent therapist and leader of the CASE Training Team, providing training and education to professionals and parents.
In this episode, we cover:
How does an adoptee’s understanding of adoption differ by age?
Infants
Toddlers & Preschoolers
School Age
Tweens
Teens
Young Adults
Older Adults
How to talk about adoption at different ages?
Should you wait for the child to ask questions before you tell them about their adoption story?
What if your child or youth shows little or no interest in their adoption story?
How does openness or lack of openness impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
Should adoptive parents bring up the idea of searching for birth family?
How does transracial adoption impact a child’s understanding of adoption?
Our focus is often on birth mothers. How can you talk about adoption and the role of the birth father with young children who do not understand the concept of sex?
What to say when you know very little about the birth parents? How to handle hard birth parent stories? Should you tell a child that they were conceived by rape or that their birth mother is in jail or birth father suffers from addiction? At what age should you share this information?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Does your child struggle with controlling their big emotions? Do they seem angry or frustrated most of the time? We've got some answers! Join us to listen to this interview with Dr. Stuart Shanker, a Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus of Philosophy and Psychology at York University and author of several books, including Self-Reg: How to Help Your Child (and You) Break the Stress Cycle and Reframed: Self-Reg for a Just Society. He is also an adoptive dad.
In this episode, we cover:
3 basic principles of self-regulation:
There is no such thing as a bad or lazy kid.
No matter how difficult, out of control, distracted, or exhausted a child might seem, there’s a way forward: self-regulation.
All people can learn to self-regulate in ways that promote rather than constrict growth.
There is no such thing as a "fixed outcome": trajectories can always be changed, at any point in the lifespan, if only we have the right knowledge and tools.
How can parents help their children become calmer when we live in a stressful, frantic, and over-stimulating world?
How can parents calm themselves down in the hectic world?
Five-step method for managing stress
1. Reframe behavior by learning the difference between misbehavior and stress behavior and the signs of each. (Why and why now?)
2. Recognize stressors.
Some typical stressors broken out by age.
Some “hidden stressors” that their children are struggling with - physiological as well as social and emotional.
4. Reflect on what it feels like to be calm and what it feels like to be overstressed.
5. Restoration- energy, balance, and relationship.
These steps are not a program for managing a child’s behavior. Rather, these are five steps to promote understanding a child’s behavior.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Have you thought about adopting a child of a different race or ethnicity? Are you up for the job? How can you be the best family for this child? Join us when we talk with Meggin Nam Holtz, a Licensed Master Social Worker, and a Korean adoptee. She has a private counseling practice specializing in adoption. She created an award-winning documentary film, Found in Korea, about birth search, country of origin travel, identity, and adoption.
In this episode, we cover:
If you are a White parent, are there different issues you need to consider depending on the race of the child you adopt?
Some families prefer to adopt a bi-racial child rather than a child who is all Black or all Latinx. What are the issues to consider?
Is there a difference between transracial and transcultural adoption?
What does it take to raise a child to have a healthy self and racial identity. How do they differ?
What are some of the issues parents should think about to determine if they are a family that should adopt across racial or ethnic lines?
What should parents be prepared to do in order to help their children develop a healthy sense of self?
Adoption is a family affair, so how should prospective adoptive parents prepare their extended family members for the adoption of a child of a different race or culture?
How to find role models that racially mirror your child?
Research on how transracially adopted children are doing.
What to do if you have someone in your family that you fear will not be accepting or will not treat your child fairly?
What are some issues that may come up with open adoption when adopting across racial lines?
Preparation for transracial adoption goes beyond hair care; hair and skin care are important. What should parents know?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you parenting a child on the autism spectrum. This interview will give you insight and hope. We talk with Dr. Lynn Koegel, a clinical professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, and author of Hidden Brilliance: Unlocking the Intelligence of Autism. She is the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.
In this episode, we cover:
What are some of the variations in the way autism presents in humans?
What are some of the symptoms or signs of autism at different ages?
We so often focus on the weaknesses of children with autism and overlook their strengths. Why is this a problem for children on the autism spectrum?
How is autism diagnosed, and what are the limits to this testing?
What can parents do to make sure that the testing more clearly reflects their child’s strengths as well as weaknesses?
The absence of speaking starting at around age one and struggles with communicating are common with people with autism. What can parents do to help improve spoken language?
How to teach social connectedness?
The inability to express their needs verbally can lead to behavioral issues such as screaming, aggression, and tantrums. What works to help the child and improve these behaviors?
The first question is what the behavior is trying to communicate.
Teach replacement behaviors. How do you find and teach this?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Is your child more intense and more challenging than other kids? Do you worry about the future for this child and your ability to help them learn to behave? You will love this interview with Tina Feigal, M.S., Ed., the Director of Family Engagement at Anu Family Services and founder of the Center for the Challenging Child, where she works with families throughout the US. She is the author of the book Present Moment Parenting: The Guide to a Peaceful Life with Your Intense Child.
In this episode, we cover:
What makes some kids more challenging?
What is the impact of trauma on children’s behavior?
We often parent the way we were parented. How can we overcome this?
What do we mean by “attachment,” and why is it important for children and parents?
“Parent the child in front of you in the present moment"- not the one that did ____ yesterday or the one that you fear will do or be ____ in the future.”
Ten Tenets of Parenting
How can parents work with children to improve these behaviors with different aged children while maintaining attachment?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you thinking about adopting from foster care or adopting a child you are already fostering? Are you wondering how to help the child transition to adoption? Our guests are Hope Middlebrook, a foster parent recruiter for Arrow Child and Family Services, and Jennifer O’Brien, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Regional Director for Arrow’s Foster Care Programs.
In this episode, we cover:
Two different scenarios:
You are the foster parents of the child you are going to adopt.
You are adopting a child who is living with another foster family.
At what age do kids understand the concept of adoption and what it means in their life?
If you are adopting a child you are fostering.
How is adoption different from fostering?
What are some typical emotions (positive and negative) a child might feel? Grief is to be expected.
How far in advance should the child be informed?
What are some typical behaviors you might see?
What are some typical emotions and behaviors you might see from other children already living in your home?
If you are adopting a child living with another resource family or group home.
What are some typical emotions (positive and negative) a child might feel? Grief is to be expected.
How far in advance should the child be informed?
How long should the process take?
What can the adults do to make the process less stressful for the child?
What are some typical behaviors you might see from a child that is moving to yet another home and another parent?
What are some typical emotions and behaviors you might see from other children already living in your home?
What are the pros and cons of changing the child’s name? First name? Last name?
What are some tips for parents to help their child transition from foster child to adopted child? Some of these will apply to a child you are fostering and some to a child whom you are not fostering.
Get all the information on the child available from his file, caseworker, and previous foster parents.
Decide what type of relationship you can have with your child’s birth family. Come up with ways to help your child maintain safe connections to their biological roots.
Work with the former foster family and the child or youth to determine what type of relationship can continue with the foster family after the child moves to your home.
Go slow. Ideally, visit the child first in their foster home, then take the child out for the day, then have the child spend the night with the adoptive family, then the weekend before they finally move in.
Give the child/youth as much voice in the process as possible.
Anticipate problems and come up in advance with ways to work through them and outside resources to use.
Create a Lifebook for your child and use this book to help explain some of the differences between foster care and adoption. Get pic
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Join us as Dr. Bruce Perry answers your questions about how trauma impacts adoptive, foster, and kinship kids and families. Dr. Bruce Perry, is a child psychiatrist and neuroscientist, the principal of the Neurosequential Network, Senior Fellow of The ChildTrauma Academy, and adjunct Professor at Northwestern University School of Medicine in Chicago. He is the author the numerous books including co-author along with Oprah Winfrey of What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing, and co-author of The Boy Who Was Raised As A Dog.
In this episode, we cover:
The shift in perspective from what’s wrong with you to what happened to you--the ability to understand seemingly senseless behavior by looking at what’s behind it.
What do you include as “trauma”? How severe does it have to be to impact us later in life?
We hear foster, adoptive, and kinship parents say, “she was only neglected.” Is neglect less harmful than abuse?
When siblings are separated in foster care and parents are taken completely away from seeing the children for a year at a time does this lack of contact count as trauma and how does this type of no-touch abuse effect the child's brain?
How common is trauma? ACE study.
Does trauma at a young age have longer lasting impacts?
We have a child who is chronologically 3yrs, who had a non-accidental TBI at 3 months of age. He is a sweet boy but prone to rages and is very loud. Could this be from the trauma or is it his age and frustration?
How can parents help their child manage trauma if they don’t know what the trauma was?
The times of healing are often very short but very powerful. And that the more times our kids experience healing, even in short bursts, the more their brain "re-develops" in healthier ways.
Is there is an association between trauma and sensory processing and if so, do we know why?
How do you become “unstuck” on being a victim? My daughter is 18 and is struggling to become an adult, but constantly feels and acts as though she is still a victim from her past.
Can you discuss how trauma is related to the sabotage of relationships, family events, life events, and opportunities?
Prenatal trauma—
in utero exposure to alcohol or drugs
maternal stress
Can generational trauma be passed down genetically through the various forms of DNA?
Resilience and Healing: My question is coming from the perspective as an adoptive and foster mom of some kids who have some pretty big behaviors. Can we really grow these kids and help them live happy, well-adjusted lives? Not problem free, but a life where after many years of love, they will come to find peace within themselves?
I have two children who are currently in foster care because their father was abusive and I stayed with him and allowed my children to witness the abuse. Is there any way to reverse the trauma?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you raising an internationally adopted child or a child of another race? Join our fascinating discussion with Dr. Hollee McGinnis, an Assistant Professor in the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work. She focuses on mental health and identity for internationally adopted people. She is also an intercountry adoptee from South Korea.
In this episode, we cover:
How are racial, ethnic, and cultural identities different for international adoptees?
Why is racial, ethnic, or cultural identification important for the emotional development of a child adopted internationally?
At what age does cultural and racial identity develop?
For children adopted internationally, what are some of the acculturation and assimilation issues that these children face? Including those issues arising from factors such as race, ethnicity, religion, and culture.
Does this differ by race?
Does international adoption itself potentially create acculturation or assimilation issues?
How can parents walk the balance between wanting the child to fully assimilate and acculturate to their new life while also identifying with their culture of birth?
Does this change depend on the age of the child at adoption?
What is the experience like for a child whose name doesn't fit their ethnicity? Do you recommend that parents think about this when naming their child?
How to handle if a child is born into a family of one religion but adopted by a family of a different religion?
What are the long-term implications for a family that has become multi-cultural through international adoption? How does this impact each family member: adopted person, siblings, parent, or grandparents?
What does a healthy cultural identity for an internationally adopted child look like?
What does a healthy racial identity for an internationally adopted child look like?
Tips for how adoptive parents can help their children develop a healthy cultural and racial identity?
Read books about the history of your child’s culture and country, starting at a young age.
Read books to provide the language and tools to help your child deal with racism. Again, start young.
Talk about racism with your child. See resources below.
Create connections for your child to people who look like them, as well as other adoptees.
Incorporate people of your child’s race or culture into your friend group.
Consider a homeland tour.
Resources:
Also Known As The mission of Also-Known-As is to build a community that empowers the voices of adult international adoptees, while providing resources and space to acknowledge the loss of birth country, culture, language, and biological family.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you thinking about adopting internationally? Don't miss this interview covering the common health, developmental, and emotional issues found in kids adopted internationally. Our guests are 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. We will also talk with 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.
In this episode, we cover: The best place to get information on the country-specific laws and the adoption process is your agency and the US State Department website on intercountry adoption, in the country information section.
Each year the US State Department prepares an Annual Report on Intercountry Adoption that includes the length of time and cost for adoptions from specific countries. The country-specific pages at the US State Department website also has some of this information.
What are some of the general characteristics and needs of kids waiting for adoption abroad?
Generally, what factors across the world lead children to be in state care and to need adoptive families?
What are the most frequent medical or psychological problems you see in children adopted internationally?
What are some common environmental toxins currently seen in the primary placing countries to the US and how might they impact children?
For the main placing countries to the US how common is:
Prenatal substance abuse
Malnutrition
Emotional issues
Genetic abnormalities
Developmental Delay
Other known health risk factors
What is the impact on a child of leaving familiar ties and surroundings?
What is the experience of most children leaving their family of origin?
How does institutional care impact children?
How does institutionalization affect child development?
What children are at the greatest risk for attachment disorders?
What are the psychological issues children who have experienced abuse, neglect, or trauma may face?
What are some of the acculturation and assimilation issues children may face post international adoption?
How does adoption itself impact children, adolescents, and adults? Resources for parents and professionals:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you sometimes feel like screaming because you can't keep up with all that you think is expected of being a mom? If so, you're in good company. Join us to listen to our interview with Jessica Grose about her book Screaming on the Inside: The Unsustainability of American Motherhood. Grose is an opinion writer at the New York Times. She writes a popular newsletter on parenting and was named by Glamour Magazine as a Game Changer in 2020 for her coverage of parenting during the pandemic.
In this episode, we cover:
What brought you to write this book?
The pressure to feel a certain way and do everything right feels inherent in modern motherhood, but is it new? Have things changed?
In what areas are moms in America struggling? Expense
Work and Role of Fathers:
Our society’s views of working motherhood from the 1990’s to now.
“There is the expectation for working women to want to become moms. Then when we do become parents, we are expected to be our best at work and attend to our children. I was the first call from the schools instead of my stay-at-home husband. There was a reason we had him stay-at-home. Schools still called "mom" first.”
“That’s happened to us now that we are both working from home. The other day, they needed to reach us. Three messages for me & no one called Dad. It wasn’t an emergency, but still.”
What is “radical flexibility,” and how common is it in the US.
Are women who were raised by working moms opting for a different path?
Role of social media:
“It's frustrating because so often you never see them having to deal with their kids, while trying to meal prep, help with homework, break up a sibling squabble, all the while trying to get out of the house for an appointment. I guess that doesn't make compelling viewing.”
“So! Many! Opinions! And so much facade. It’s challenging to navigate unless you are seriously self-confident or have already experienced a few ups & downs that give you perspective.
The curated reels can give such a false viewpoint and it’s easy to assume that’s their real life. But real life is not nearly as compelling as the perfectly crafted short clips.”
Is this a uniquely US issue?
Do moms in other countries feel the same pressures to be perfect and do it all?
Unique struggles of foster, adoptive, and kinship parents:
I was told recently that my feelings about how hard it was to mom my last three (adopted as a sibling set from foster care) were just a part of my “mindset”. Because all the moms she knew had the same struggles. So foster and adoptive moms also have unbelievably unrealistic expectations upon them. We aren’t allowed to struggle differently. Then another person told me that “I signed up for this.” So, the underlying meaning is when you adopt kids from hard places, you aren’t allowed to struggle.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Join us to talk with Angela Tucker about her new book You Should Be Grateful: Stories of Race Identity, and Transracial Adoption. Angela is a black woman adopted from foster care to white parents. She was the subject of Closure, a documentary that chronicles her search for her biological parents. Angela has consulted with NBC’s "This Is Us", supported the lead actor of Broadway musical "Jagged Little Pill", has over 15 years of experience working within adoption and foster care agencies, and has mentored over 200 adoptees, leading her to found the Adoptee Mentoring Society.
In this episode, we cover:
The Adoptee Manifesto
What adoptee centrism. What do you mean by that?
The complexities of loving your adoptive parents and wishing you weren’t adopted.
Why is the spoken or unspoken “you should be grateful” so hard on adopted people?
How to share the hard parts of our child’s story?
What is the Ghost Kingdom that adoptees create about their birth family?
The adoptee as the Plan B child because their parents didn’t get their Plan A child.
Colin Kaepernick: “Since the day I was born, I've never been anyone’s first choice.”
What happens when adoptees can’t talk about their feelings of loss and their feelings of longing for their birth families?
Race:
Feeling like a racial fraud.
Comfort in white spaces.
Color-evasiveness vs. color blindness.
Susan Harris O’Connor, a biracial person adopted by white parents says that transracial adoptees have 5 dimensions to their racial identity: genetic, imposed, cognitive, visual, and feeling.
White privilege by osmosis.
Have you received flack for marrying a white man? And is this common for transracial adoptees?
Search:
The fear of searching or even talking about birth family because adoptees don’t want to hurt their adoptive parents. And conversely, the fear of some adoptive parents that they will be replaced once their child finds their first parents.
Focus on birth mothers over birth fathers.
Things adoptive parents should know about the search.
Red Table Talk –Facebook Watch show with Jada Pinkett Smith, her mother, and her daughter. What were your feelings then and how do you feel about that appearance now.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Food issues are very common with adopted and foster children and are one of the most frequent concerns adoptive and foster parents have. We will address common food issues and provide practical suggestions for parents to implement to help their child. Host Dawn Davenport, Executive Director of Creating a Family, the national adoption & foster care education and support nonprofit, interviews Dr. Katja Rowell, The Feeding Doctor, and author of Helping Your Child with Extreme Picky Eating and Love Me, Feed Me as well as Kate Miller, Feeding and Disability Specialist at SPOON, an NGO focused on eradicating malnutrition for children who are isolated from their communities due to a disability and those living in orphanages and foster care.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Everyone connected to adoption needs to listen to this show. We talk about a new research report on how birth parents experience adoption. The results will surprise you! Our guest are the two main authors: Ryan Hanlon is the Executive Director of The National Council for Adoption, the national adoption organization providing resources and education for all people and organizations in the adoption world and advocating for sound adoption policies; and Laura Bruder is the Executive Director of Brave Love, an organization dedicated to changing the perception of adoption by acknowledging birth moms for their brave decision.
In this episode, we cover: The Birth Parent Experiences report is based on the responses of 1,160 birth mothers and 239 birth fathers.
Were these all domestic infant adoption rather than adoptions from foster care?
Birth mothers who placed their child for adoption in 2010 or later were much more likely to report satisfaction with their decision than birth mothers who placed their child before or during the 1970s. Birth mothers’ levels of satisfaction with their adoption decision increased each decade since the 1970s.
The vast majority of birth mothers report experiencing stigma associated with their status as a birth parent. In fact, the percentage of birth mothers who experience some level of stigma about their decision to place their child for adoption has risen 20% since 1970.
What is the demographic of the birth moms and dads who completed the survey? (age, race, education, number of adoption placements
How has birth parent involvement in the adoption process changed?
What factors were important to expectant moms and dads when choosing adoptive parents?
What were the main concerns that birth moms had after placement?
Looking back, do birth parents believe they made the right decision?
What type of services and support do birth parents want and need post-placement?
78% of birth moms have contact with their child, and about 74% of birth fathers do. We don’t know if these are open adoptions or if the “child” is now an adult. Are they satisfied with this contact?
Are they satisfied with their decision to place a child for adoption? What factors influenced their level of satisfaction?
The research found that birth parents’ receipt of accurate information was significantly associated with adoption satisfaction for both birth mothers and birth fathers. What do you mean by accurate information?
What percentage of birth parents reported that they were actively involved in choosing the adoptive parents, and did that influence their overall satisfaction with their decision?
Three variables (receipt of accurate information, non-coerced decision-making, current contact with the child) were found to be the most strongly associated with levels of adoption satisfaction.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
How can parents help their transracial adoptees transition to college, and why can this transition be hard for both teens and parents? We talk with Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor in the Counselor Education Program at Montclair State University. She is an active researcher and currently leads their Adoption Research Team. She is also a transracial adoptee and a member of the Creating a Family board.
In this episode, we cover:
Acknowledge that this will likely be a strange year for preparing anyone to go to college.
What are the major developmental milestones for all adolescents that happen during the 15-20 age frame?
What are some of the additional developmental milestones for adolescent adoptees?
What are the additional developmental milestones for transracial adoptees during the late teen years?
Why is the transition to college sometimes a difficult one for transracial adoptees?
What do you mean by “honorary whiteness”?
Is the experience of transitioning to college different depending on the race of adoptees?
Some adoptees feel like the bridge between the race/culture of their adoptive family and the race/culture of their birth. What are the issues with being the bridge?
Are there specific things parents and transracially adopted teens should look for when choosing a college?
The complexities of using the “transracial adoption story” as part of the college essay.
How can the feeling of rejection that some adoptees feel be exacerbated in the college application process?
How does the college experience impact adoptee identity development?
Can the transition to college be especially difficult for parents of transracial adoptees?
Parents are concerned about whether their child will leave and emotionally not return.
Birth parent search is usually open to adolescents at age 18, which is right during this time of transition.
How can parents help their transracial adoptees make a successful transition to college?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you have a child receiving special education services or one that you think may need these services? In this podcast, we talk about navigating this process. Our guests will be Lisa Eisenberg and Gaile Osborne. Lisa Eisenberg is a social worker, education advocate, and consultant. She is a member of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, an organization whose goal is to secure high-quality educational services for all and to promote excellence in advocacy. Gaile Osborne is the Executive Director of Foster Family Alliance, the foster, kinship, and adoptive parent association in North Carolina. She has her masters in special education with certifications in five areas, including emotional disabilities. Gaile and her husband are parents of children adopted from foster care and have fostered over 28 children. Foster Family Alliance provides educational advocacy support for NC foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
In this episode, we cover:
What language is preferred: special education, exceptional children education, or something else?
What laws govern special education?
What are the most common acronyms that parents will see, and what do they mean?
IEPs
504s
LRE
SDI
OHI
How does trauma impact a child’s ability to learn?
How can you tell the difference between the impact of trauma from a learning disability or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)?
What are the signs that a child needs to have an educational assessment?
What is involved with an educational assessment?
What are the first steps that a parent or caregiver should take to get an educational assessment?
What is the difference between an IEP and a 504 plan? Which one provides the most protection and accommodations for the child?
What accommodations should parents and caregivers be aware of that they can ask to be included in either the IEP or 504 plan?
What can foster/kin parents do if they believe the child in their care needs to be assessed? What are their legal rights?
Are they allowed to be in the IEP or 504 meeting?
Can they directly influence the IEP or 504?
How can foster or kinship parent be of the most help when working with a child with learning disabilities or other disabilities?
Tips for Parents and Caregivers when a child is struggling academically in school.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you suspect your child has ADHD? Don't miss today's show with Dr. Tamara Rosier. She is the author of “Your Brain’s Not Broken: Strategies for Navigating Your Emotions and Life with ADHD.” She runs the ADHD Center of West Michigan and is president of the ADHD Coaches Organization.
In this episode, we cover: Understanding ADHD
What is ADHD?
What are the symptoms?
Are foster, adoptive, and kinship kids more prone to ADHD?
How to tell if our child’s behavior is ADHD or caused by the trauma they’ve experienced?
Treating ADHD
Importance of early diagnosing and intervention.
To medicate or not?
Should you take a medication break/holiday?
Parenting Challenges with Raising a Child with ADHD:
Managing expectations.
Emotional management is key.
Stop comparing your child and yourself to other parents and their “perfect” kids.
Self-control/Impulsiveness.
Sticking to an activity - the challenge of finding the balance between encouraging a child to persist and letting go.
Why can my child focus on a video game but take 3 hours to finish a 30-minute homework assignment? And what can I do about it?
What to let go and what to not. Don’t sweat the small stuff.
Looking for the Positives of ADHD
ADHD is not a disorder but rather a trait or neurological difference.
Strength of divergent thinking.
Tips for parents raising a child with ADHD.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you expecting the placement of a newborn? Don't miss our conversation about the latest information on baby care with Kristen O’Dell, a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner with almost two decades of working with over 10,000 newborns and their families in her hospital practice of Neonatology and Newborn Medicine.
In this episode, we cover:
Feeding
The vast majority of adoptive parents will bottle-feed their baby. How to choose a formula.
Is liquid or dry formula better for the baby?
How to sterilize the dry formula?
Do you need to sterilize bottles?
What type of bottle is best?
Does the bottle type differ if the baby is born premature or has Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome?
Does the temperature of the formula matter?
Can you make the bottles up once a day, or do you have to make it fresh for each feeding?
When should you consider a specialized formula, and what options do you have?
How often should a baby eat?
Other feeding options: adoptive mother induce lactation to breastfeed; donated breast milk.
How do you know if your baby is getting enough food?
If your baby spits up a lot, when should you worry that they aren’t getting enough food?
When to introduce solid food?
Sleep
What is a typical wake/sleep pattern for a newborn?
When should you expect your baby to sleep for 5-6 hours?
Is the wake/sleep cycle affected by prematurity or Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS)?
At what point can you start trying to get your baby to not wake up many times for a feeding at night?
Will introducing solid food, even if watered down, help your baby sleep through the night?
How can you establish healthy sleeping habits for your baby?
When do most babies start sleeping through the night and what is “sleeping through the night”—how much sleep?
Safe sleep practices: sleeping on the back, no pillows, blankets, bumpers, stuffed animals
Sleep training
Poop
How often should babies poop? What is normal?
What does the typical healthy newborn baby poop look like?
How do you know if there is a problem?
How can you tell if your baby is constipated? And what should you do?
What type of diaper is best?
What type of baby wipes are best?
How to treat diaper rash?
How can you tell if your baby has a yeast diaper rash?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the pro
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
This is a perennial question that is often asked: Help, I have an older child moving in. How do I make them comfortable and make the transition as easy as possible for us all? We offer 3 tips to help you welcome a new young person into your home.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you considering adopting or fostering? Or taking in a relative's child? Do you suspect or know that the birth mom used drugs or alcohol during pregnancy? Join us today to learn how these substances might impact the child and how you parent. Our guest is Dr. Lisa Prock, a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician, Director of the Developmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital, Boston, and Clinical Director of the Translational Neuroscience Center at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital Boston. She is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Harvard Medical School.
In this episode, we cover:
Foster, adoptive, and kinship parents and caregivers often need to consider whether they are the right family to parent a child with prenatal alcohol and drug exposure.
The US government estimates that about 10% of children born in the US have been prenatally exposed to alcohol, drugs, or both. How common is prenatal substance exposure for foster and adoptive children, as well as those kids living with grandparents and other relatives?
Are there signs or symptoms with a child that may have been exposed to alcohol and drugs in utero, absent confirmation from the mother?
What is known about the amount or timing of alcohol or drug use and the impact on the baby or child?
Short-term and long-term impacts of the following substances:
Alcohol-does it matter the type of alcohol?
Methamphetamines
Adderall, Concerta, Ritalin or other ADHD medication
Opiates/opioids-prescription
Opioids-illegal
Heroin
Fentanyl
Methadone, Suboxone, Subutex, Buprenorphine
Marijuana
Ecstasy, inhalants
Tobacco-smoking cigarettes or vaping
How common is dual exposure/polysubstance exposure—alcohol and drugs?
Do children who have been prenatally exposed to alcohol or drugs have a greater risk of abusing drugs in adolescence or adulthood?
How do you get a child diagnosed with prenatal substance exposure?
What should parents consider when trying to decide if they are the right family for a child with prenatal exposure?
Creating a Family’s Prenatal Substance Exposure Trainings for Parents, Daycare/Preschool Teachers, and Afterschool Staff.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
We talk with Kama Einhorn, one of the creators of Karli, the new Sesame Street Muppet who is in foster care, about how they decided on this storyline, how they created the muppet, cast the puppeteer, and what other resources are available on Sesame Street for foster children and foster parents.
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you considering adopting a baby? Join us today to learn more. Our guests will be Karlee Wagner, a Program Supervisor for Infant Adoption and Birth Parent/Pregnancy Services at Children’s Home and LSS in Minnesota (CH/LSS); Erin Quick, the Founder and CEO of PairTree - the organization dedicated to helping families navigate private adoption in the healthiest way possible and mom of two through adoption; and Courtney Lott, the owner and founder of Faithful Adoption Consultants, a consulting service that seeks to walk adoptive families through the adoption process from beginning to end. She is a mom to eight children: six through adoption and two biologically.
In this episode, we cover:
How many domestic private infant adoptions happen in the US each year?
Average cost of adopting a baby in the US.
Average length of time prospective parents wait for an adoption match.
What is the domestic infant adoption process at your agency or organization?
How does the process differ when using an adoption attorney rather than an adoption agency?
How do domestic infant adoptions today differ from how many people think about adoptions?
What type of expectant mom considers adoption for their child?
How many adoptive parent profiles are usually shown to an expectant mom?
What do you see that expectant moms or couples look for when choosing adoptive parents?
Is it harder for single women to be selected by expectant moms or couples?
Is it harder for same-sex couples or singles to be selected by expectant moms or couples?
After an expectant mother or couple chooses an adoptive family, what is the next step?
What type of counseling is available for expectant parents both before and after the adoption is finalized?
What are the ways that different adoption agencies and attorneys handle birth parent expenses?
How early in the pregnancy do adoption agencies and adoption attorneys match expectant moms with adoptive families?
What does open adoption look like?
What percentage of domestic infant adoptions in the US are open?
What are some typical "special needs" that prospective adoptive parents may be faced with in matches? What situations are the hardest for adoptive parents to decide about?
How much information will adoptive parents have in deciding whether they should accept a match?
What factors influence the cost of adoption?
What factors influence how long families wait for an adoption match?
What’s your best advice if someone has applied to adopt an infant and is not getting selected by an expectant mom?
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Q: I’ve applied to adopt a waiting child from foster care. We are open to all races, kids up to age 13, and sibling groups up to 3 kids. We applied and then heard nothing. We also applied through AdoptUSKids and also heard nothing. I know the social workers are busy, but this is getting to be ridiculous. How do I get their attention without making them angry at me?
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Do you worry about what is normal in your child's sexual development? Join us to talk with Roy Van Tassell , a Licensed Professional Counselor in Oklahoma and Director of Trauma and Evidence-based Interventions for Centene Health. He co-chairs the National Child Traumatic Stress Networks’ subcommittee on children with problem sexual behaviors.
Warning: We will be using anatomically correct words and talking about sex, so if this offends you or triggers you, you may want to skip this podcast.
In this episode, we cover:
Typical Sexual Development / Play
What is typical sexual development in children as they age?
What type of sexual play is considered “normal?”
How should parents manage a child’s natural sexual development?
Problematic Sexual Behaviors
What are Problem Sexual Behaviors in Children?
What causes kids and youth to act in socially unacceptable or destructive sexual ways? What factors influence the development of these behaviors?
Child vulnerabilities
Behavior problems
Emotional difficulties
Developmental delays
Low impulse control
Family vulnerabilities
Poor supervision
Single caregiver
Modeling of coercion
Harsh parenting practices
Physical abuse
Domestic violence
Modeling of sexuality
Sexual abuse
Modeling/exposure
Nudity or poor family boundaries
How common are problematic sexual behaviors?
Suggestions for professionals and parents and how to respond to behaviors.
What should parents and caregivers do?
Rules for younger kids
How effective is therapy?
How to find a therapist?
What training have they had in this area?
Child development expertise (including sexual development)
Resources:
Taking Action booklets (two booklets) – for children with problematic sexual behaviors (age 12 and younger) and one for 13+
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professional
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Q: My wife and I plan to adopt a child under the age of 9 from foster care. We have just started taking the classes. My wife has a 9-year-old from a previous relationship, and we want to do everything we can to prepare him in advance for this adoption. Any help is appreciated.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Are you thinking about stopping infertility treatment and trying to adopt or foster? Join us to talk with 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 member of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine Mental Health Professional Group. She is also a mom through adoption and egg donation.
In this episode, we cover:
Adoptive parenting is the same as, and very different from, genetic parenting. Ways in which raising adopted children is different. Ways in which it is the same.
Fostering has some significant differences from genetic parenting, including adopting from foster care.
What are the losses of infertility?
How to know when you are ready to stop fertility treatments and move to adoption or fostering? What are the signs of readiness?
The myth of needing to do everything that you can to become pregnant before moving to adoption or third-party reproduction.
How have the advances in infertility medicine changed the landscape of moving to adoption or fostering?
Accepting Plan B without making the child feel like second best.
How to know when you are ready to foster or adopt from foster care.
How to grieve the loss of the biological child that you never had?
Tips for coping with the losses of infertility.
Coping with the unknowns of adoption or fostering and lack of control.
Adopting while staying in treatment.
Should you go back into infertility treatment after having adopted a child?
How to find a mental health professional that specializes in infertility.
This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.
Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:
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