A book of 16 interventions designed to teach new and imaginative ways for working with traumatized children in foster care and adoption and their families. Groundbreaking Interventions provides a wide variety of play-based methodologies that have been successful in working with children over the age of five in foster careRead More →
Meet Charlie, an adoptee who opens his heart and shares what’s on his mind through various phases as he grows up in his adoptive home. As the narrator of Adoption Is a Lifelong Journey, Charlie invites readers to see the adoption journey from the perspective of a child adoptee. ThisRead More →
Why do so many African Americans have such a special attachment to whupping children? Studies show that nearly 80 percent of black parents see spanking, popping, pinching, and beating as reasonable, effective ways to teach respect and to protect black children from the streets, incarceration, encounters with racism, or worse.Read More →
The title of this book can be both inflammatory and comforting; different people need to read it different ways. The reality is that the desire for information has nothing to do with parenting or personality, but an innate desire. It’s Not About You is an adoptee-focused anthology project intended toRead More →
Describing the essential skills you need to help your adopted teen to confidently face the challenges of growing up, adult adoptee and family therapist Katie Naftzger shares her personal and professional wisdom. She outlines four key goals for adoptive parents: · To move from rescuing to responding · To setRead More →
The book describes the experiences that people have had when tracing their birth parents, as well as offering practical advice on how to go about searching and what to expect emotionally. Each section has an advice box which summarizes key points, notes issues to pay particular attention to, or offersRead More →
What happens when an adoptee decides to locate a birthparent or a birthparent wants to find a child given up long ago? How does one search for people whose names one does not know? And what happens during a reunion? In 1983, Jean A. S. Strauss was faced with theseRead More →
This book consists of five autobiographical narratives by Susan Harris O’Connor, a social worker and transracial adoptee. These monologues were developed and performed around the United States in academic, clinical and child welfare settings to wide acclaim over the last sixteen years. They will be of immediate interest to scholarsRead More →
This book is written by two adoption specialists, one of whom is a reunited birthmother, and draws on the real-life experiences of others to help readers prepare for the emotional turbulence of the reunion experience, examine their fantasies and emotions about it, and find a personal support system to helpRead More →
What can we learn about the experience of adoption from those who have taken that journey? How can those touched by adoption navigate successfully through the issues of search, reunion, and aftermath? Will those answers have a positive impact on adoption today? Drawing upon the experiences of dozens of triadRead More →
Have your hopes been dashed into pieces when you tried to make a relationship work and the other person didn’t respond as you wished? Have you asked someone to forgive you, but he or she didn’t respond as you desired? Have you prayed for healing in a relationship, but yourRead More →
People who have been adopted grow up with many similar questions, thoughts, challenges, and choices, such as, “Does my birth mother ever think about me?” and “What is my real worth? Was I a mistake?” More than 70 adoptees discuss these and other adoption issues and try to arrive atRead More →
As an adoptee, do you have mixed feelings about your adoption? If you do, you are not alone – adoptees often experience complex feelings of grief, anger, and questions about their identity. Sherrie Eldridge is an adoptee and adoption expert, and in this book she draws on her personal experiencesRead More →
Most adoptive parents don’t know that their child has a different “heart language” than theirs. They need a translator, which Sherrie Eldridge becomes in her new book. Read real-life accounts from 100 adoptive parents who “get it” Learn how to speak your child’s “heart language” fluently (different than yours) SoakRead More →
The voices of adopted children are poignant, questioning. And they tell a familiar story of loss, fear, and hope. This extraordinary book, written by a woman who was adopted herself, gives voice to children’s unspoken concerns, and shows adoptive parents how to free their kids from feelings of fear, abandonment,Read More →
Written by an adoptive mother and an adoptee daughter, Before You Were Mine offers a unique Christian perspective on creating a Lifebook that commemorates your child’s birth story. Complete with worksheets and advice from adoptive families, you’ll find that remembering and celebrating your child’s history can be fun, rewarding, andRead More →
Were you adopted? Did you have a similar experience? Do you face issues with identity? Ms. Burns learned of her own adoption when she was a teenager growing up in the Middle East, and it came as a shock. Rather than a prescribed formula for happiness and success, Ms. Burns’sRead More →
If we really want to change the world, let’s raise a generation “built for peace”… from the very beginning. Parenting for Peace is a user-friendly scientific roadmap for how to do exactly that… while bringing more joy into family life! Parenting for Peace details a unique seven-step, seven-principle matrix for hardwiringRead More →
This addition to the Adoption Healing series is a compilation of all the articles that I have been asked to write in the last year, plus more than a half dozen chapters with totally new material. The articles address specific issues faced by adoptees and mothers of adoption loss andRead More →
The reader is provided with a description of the immaculate deception imposed on pregnant women and the ensuing tragedy of the loss of their babies to adoption and the profound effects on their lives. This is followed by different methods of healing the mother’s wounds, including inner child work, visualizations,Read More →
Adoption Healing… a path to recovery–Supplement, a unique book, contains updated information not included in the originals. The reader is provided with a description of the aftermath of the separation of mother and child and the profound effects on both of their lives. This is followed by additional methods ofRead More →
Every year, hundreds of adoptive families embark on homeland trips to China and other countries. Homeland trips offer great opportunities for helping adopted children develop a coherent narrative that makes sense of their complicated beginnings. Although the trip can be a joyful experience, it can also raise many challenges. TheRead More →
Full of wonderful stories that give insight into a wide variety of adoption issues, now revised in light of recent developments, The Family of Adoption is a powerful argument for the right kind of openness in adoption. Joyce Maguire Pavao uses her thirty years of experience as a family andRead More →
As adoptees read about Moses from the Bible, defensive hearts melt and adoptees realize they are just like the guy who was just like them but went on to be one of the world’s greatest leaders. This gives them hope and helps them to realize that there is a wayRead More →
Toxic Mom Toolkit takes on super toxic mothers with humor, kindness, and practical tools to help readers build a peaceful and happy life. The book includes Wolfe’s memoir of growing up brave and scrappy in 1950s San Francisco, the daughter of three mothers: an absent birth mother, an abusive adoptedRead More →
With writing by adoptees, adoptive parents, and clinicians, Adoption Therapy is a first-of-its-kind and wholly unique reference book, providing insight, advice, and personal stories which highlight the specific nature of the adoptee experience. Editor: Laura Dennis Adoptee Authors: Marcy Axness, Ph.D.; Karen Belanger; Karen Caffrey, LPC, JD; Lisa Floyd; Rebecca Hawkes; Jodi Haywood;Read More →
Although written with adult adoptees in mind, Coming Home to Self is a book that can help anyone who has had early childhood trauma or who feels as if he or she is living an unauthentic life. From understanding basic trauma and the neurological consequences of trauma to step by stepRead More →
The Primal Wound is a book which is revolutionizing the way we think about adoption. In its application of information about pre- and perinatal psychology, attachment, bonding, and loss, it clarifies the effects of separation from the birth mother on adopted children. In addition, it gives those children, whose painRead More →
The voices of adoptees trace how adoption is experienced over a lifetime in this look at adoption that uses the Erik Erikson seven-stage life-cycle as its model and offers astute analysis of the adoption experience. Author: David M. Brodzinsky, Marshall D. Schechter, Robin Marantz Henig Publication Year: 1992 Recommendation: Susan Branco Alvarado,Read More →
The first edition of Betty Jean Lifton’s Lost and Found advanced the adoption rights movement in this country in 1979, challenging many states’ policies of maintaining closed birth records. For nearly three decades the book has topped recommended reading lists for those who seek to understand the effects of adoption—includingRead More →