Category: Training for Adoption Competency
In this essential series for therapists and adoption professionals, adopted people, birthmothers, researchers and adoptive families share how to change the adoption narrative to put adopted people and birthparents first. Available as single titles to rent for $15 each or rent the series (9 videos) for $60. The series covers:
- Birthmothers and adult adopted people explain the impact of adoption in their lives,
- Birthparents and adoptive parents share how they manage successful open adoption relationships,
- An adoptive mother uses examples from her own journey in adoption to show how both prospective adoptive parents and adoptive parents can take clear action toward empowering birthparents and adopted people,
- Sociologist Gretchen Sisson, PhD, discusses her research, and
- Social worker Marcella Maslow, LMSW, explains why adoption-competent care leads to better mental, emotional and physical health outcomes for adopted people and their families.
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Hope Helder & Nam Holtz, LMSW
Hope O. Helder, birthmother and author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Finding Hope: A Birthmother's Journey into the Light and Nam Holtz, LMSW, a therapist, transracially adopted person born in Korea, and award-winning documentary filmmaker of Found in Korea, discuss how we can improve outco...
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Candace Cahill
Adoption is widely assumed in our culture to be a win for everyone involved. However, there is a growing community of adult adopted people, first parents, and adoptive families speaking up about the trauma of relinquishment and the associated lifelong mental health issues. In this session, Candac...
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Dr. Gretchen Sisson
Sociologist Gretchen Sisson discusses her new book Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood, and her ten years of research on adoption in the United States. How do relinquishing mothers feel about the support and counseling they received (or didn't) during t...
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Isaac Etter
Transracially adopted person Isaac Etter is an activist, racial bias consultant, and social entrepreneur, and the founder of Identity, where the focus is on re-imaging post-placement support for adoptive and foster families. He is also the founder of the podcast Inside Transracial Adoption, which...
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Katy Finn
While reflecting on her theater piece, Placing Home, which centers birthmother stories, adoptive mother Katy Finn unpacks the powerful role adoptive mothers can play in shifting the pervasive adoption narrative. Katy’s talk centers around three questions: What role does the adoptive mother play i...
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Marcia Lane-McGee, Sarah Schmidth, Muthoni Gaciku Kittredge
Marcia Lane-McGee, author and co-host of the podcast Plaid Skirts and Basic Black, Sarah Schmidth, adoption education advocate, and Muthoni Gaciku Kittredge, co-host of the podcast Birth Mothers Amplified join us for a discussion on birthparent experiences with relinquishment, navigating adoption...
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Maryellen Kandu & Pauline Pearce
Creating a healthy open adoption relationships is something that birthparents and adoptive parents need to do together to create more positive adoption outcomes, not just for their children but also for themselves. But nobody talks about how to do it. Until now. Join Maryellen Kandu (birthmother)...
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Shanyce Henley & Ron Lundeen
In the adoption community, the phrase 'adoptive parents' is often code for 'adoptive moms,' and it's rare to hear from fathers at all, either birthfathers or adoptive dads, but a healthy open adoption requires the work to create and maintain it be done by both adoptive parents. Communication and ...
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Marcella Moslow LCSW, RPT
Marcella Moslow, LCSW, RPT, is a trauma therapist and a transracially adopted person born in Columbia. Adoptee activism doesn’t always have to be through large scale practices or platforms, it can take the form of becoming educated and advocating for adoptees who face disparities when it comes t...
