Organizational Training Services

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: General

Participants will gain an in-depth understanding of what children comprehend, think, and feel about adoption as they grow up, from the pre-school years through adolescence. Common questions, fears and concerns related to birth parents, relationships with adoptive and extended family members and relationships with peers are addressed. Special emphasis is on methods for addressing ambiguous loss and grief, self-esteem and self-value and identity through an adoption-competent developmental lens. How children who are not adopted perceive adoption is included, as well as the impact of feedback from peers and adults in the child’s world which impact adoption adjustment.

Objectives:

1. Describe how children’s understanding of adoption evolves across developmental stages, from preschool through adolescence.
2. Identify common emotional responses, questions, and concerns children may have about their birth parents, adoptive families, and peer relationships.
3. Recognize the concept of ambiguous loss in adoption and apply strategies to support children in processing grief and uncertainty.
4. Demonstrate adoption-competent approaches to nurturing self-esteem, self-worth, and identity in adopted children.
5. Recognize how societal messages, peer feedback, and the perspectives of non-adopted children influence an adopted child’s adjustment and self-concept.
6. Discover communication techniques and support tools that are sensitive to developmental stages and promote healthy adoption-related dialogue at home, in schools, and in therapeutic settings.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: General

Foster and adoptive parents need reassuring, practical advice for promoting secure attachment in their children. This workshop helps participants understand how attachment develops and familiarizes them with the different styles of attachment. Participants will also explore the life events and experiences, including neurobiological influences that interrupt the development of secure attachment.  Attachment-focused parenting techniques will be addressed as well as sensory-related activities that help with emotional regulation and promote connection.

Objectives

1. Define the concept of attachment and describe the key components of secure attachment in child development.
2. Identify and differentiate between the four main attachment styles (secure, avoidant, ambivalent, disorganized) and their typical behavioral expressions in children.
3. Explain how traumatic life events and neurobiological factors can disrupt the development of secure attachment in fostered or adopted children.
4. Recognize the signs and symptoms of attachment disruption and trauma-related stress in children.
5. Apply attachment-focused parenting strategies to foster trust, safety, and connection in caregiving relationships.

For Professionals 

Credit Type: Clinical

This workshop addresses the unique losses experienced by children in foster care and adoptive families and will include factors that influence children’s reaction to loss, the four psychological tasks of grief work, and healing therapies for children and teens. The critical aspects of loss in foster care and adoption and how these losses impact children will be explored. Discussion will include how professionals can work with parents to understand how their children are experiencing the ambiguities of foster care and adoption. Effective interventions for opening communication with children and strengthening transitions and attachment to new families will be included.

Objectives

1. Identify the types of losses commonly experienced by children in foster care and adoptive families, including ambiguous, cumulative, and traumatic losses.
2. Recall the factors that influence how children and teens process loss and grief, such as age, developmental stage, trauma history, and attachment disruptions.
3. Describe the four psychological tasks of grief work as they relate to children in foster or adoptive settings.
4. Recognize the signs and symptoms of unresolved grief in children and understand how these may manifest behaviorally and emotionally.
5. Select healing therapies and trauma-informed practices that support children and teens in processing grief and loss.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: General

This workshop addresses the unique losses experienced by children in foster care and adoptive families and will include factors that influence children’s reaction to loss, and strategies for best practice with families. The critical aspects of loss in foster care and adoption and how these losses impact children will be explored. Discussion will include how professionals can work with parents to understand how their children are experiencing the ambiguities of foster care and adoption. Effective strategies for opening communication with children and strengthening sense of belonging for children who have experienced grief, will also be discussed.

Objectives

1. Identify the types of losses commonly experienced by children in foster care and adoptive families, including ambiguous, cumulative, and traumatic losses.
2. Describe common challenges individuals in foster care have experienced
3. Recognize the signs and symptoms of unresolved grief in children and understand how these may manifest behaviorally and emotionally.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: Clinical

Adolescence is a time when adoptees struggle with an extra layer of challenges related to their identity, their future and their past. Participants will explore how the typical developmental tasks of the teen years are intensified by adoption, particularly if teens are being raised by parents of a different race or culture. Participants will gain an understanding of how adoption influences separation from parents, identity formation and decisions related to sexuality.

Based on the book, Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens, by author and C.A.S.E. CEO Debbie Riley, this training highlights “the six spots where teens get stuck” as key vulnerabilities around the adoption experience in adolescence. Mild and potentially serious emotional and behavioral issues at home and school will be addressed. Clinical strategies can be included as part of this program for professionals (recommended as a half or full-day program). The Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens book and the new companion book, Beneath the Mask: For Teen Adoptees can each be purchased separately or together in C.A.S.E.’s online store.

Objectives

1. Demonstrate the unique challenges adolescent adoptees face related to identity, separation, and belonging, especially in transracial or transcultural families.
2. Identify the six key vulnerabilities (“the six spots where teens get stuck”) in the adoption experience during adolescence.
3. Explain how adoption intensifies typical developmental tasks of adolescence, including identity formation and decision-making around sexuality.
4. Recognize mild to serious emotional and behavioral issues related to adoption that may present in home and school settings.
5. Define clinical strategies and practical approaches to support adolescent adoptees’ emotional and behavioral health (for professionals).
6. Show parents and caregivers how to understand the adoption-related experiences and challenges their teens face to foster stronger family connections.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: General

Maintaining connections with birth family is important but complex.  Adoptive parents’ attitudes regarding the importance of their children’s birth families greatly influences children’s self-concept and identity. This workshop helps participants explore the many ways adoptive parents can navigate these relationships from sharing birth family history with their children, including addressing difficult information; honoring birth parents in both open and closed adoptions; as well as how to handle the potential challenges involved in search and reunion, especially in the age of social media.  For families involved in open adoptions, participants learn both the benefits and challenges involved in these unique relationships, as well as how to successfully navigate the common challenges to promote positive relationships.

Objectives:

1. Explain the importance of maintaining connections between adoptive children and their birth families and how these connections impact children’s self-concept and identity.
2. Identify adoptive parents’ attitudes that support healthy relationships with birth families and their influence on children’s emotional well-being.
3. Define effective strategies for sharing birth family history with children, including how to approach and communicate difficult or sensitive information.
4. Recognize the unique dynamics and challenges of open versus closed adoptions, including ways to honor birth parents in both scenarios.
5. Illustrate potential challenges in search and reunion processes, particularly considering the role of social media, and propose strategies to manage these challenges thoughtfully.

For Parents

Credit Type: General

This interactive workshop will explore best practices in creating community support systems for adoptive families of all types through social media, local and national communities, and more. It will also explore the importance of connecting to other adoptive families, how to handle your child’s hesitancy in forming connections with other adoptees, and how to help adoptees from specific cultural, racial, and economic backgrounds feel more connected to their social worlds. A focus on action steps your family can take in finding the best in person and online support groups, along with how to maintain your family’s connections to them, will be discussed.

Objectives

1. Identify at least three types of community support systems—both online and in-person—that can benefit adoptive families across diverse backgrounds.
2. Explain the emotional and developmental importance of social connections for adoptees, particularly with peers who share similar experiences.
3. Define strategies for supporting children who are hesitant to connect with other adoptees, including trauma-informed and culturally sensitive approaches.
4. Illustrate techniques for fostering and maintaining long-term relationships with support groups and other adoptive families.
5. Recognize how cultural, racial, and economic factors influence an adoptee’s sense of belonging, and apply inclusive practices that support identity development and connection.

For Parents

Credit Type: General

Holidays can be time of both joy and sadness for adopted children and teens, exacerbating feelings of loss and difference. In this workshop, participants will learn how to prepare family/children for large family gatherings and explore challenges of navigating holidays for adoptees. Strategies for responding to relatives/friends who say problematic things about adoption and related subjects will be included.

Objectives:

1. Recognize the emotional complexities the holiday season can present for adopted children and teens, including feelings of loss, difference, and disconnection.
2. Identify common challenges that adopted children and their families may face during large family gatherings and seasonal traditions.
3. Illustrate age-appropriate strategies to prepare their children for holiday events in ways that promote emotional safety and belonging.
4. Explain communication techniques to respond calmly and confidently to insensitive or uninformed comments about adoption from relatives or friends.
5. Define a family-centered holiday plan that respects the needs and emotions of adopted children, while setting healthy boundaries with extended family when necessary.
6. Demonstrate open, supportive dialogue within the immediate family to help adopted children express their feelings and feel validated during the holiday season.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: Cultural Competence

Well-intentioned transracially adoptive parents often deny or minimize the significance of race, mistakenly equating “being color-blind” with love. Often parents recognize the importance of helping their child develop a positive racial identity and connection with their racial heritage but are uncertain how to achieve this goal.  Participants in this workshop will learn how to parent a child of a different race to promote healthy racial socialization and identity development and a positive sense of well-being. We also address what parents must do to equip their children to cope with racial discrimination.

Objectives:

1. Describe strategies for development of healthy racial identity.
2. Explain how to approach conversations about race/racism in home and community environment.
3. Demonstrate ways to affirm and integrate a child’s racial and cultural heritage in daily family life.
4. Define personal beliefs, biases, and parenting practices that may hinder a child’s racial identity formation.
5. Identify resources, networks, and professionals that can provide ongoing support in interracial adoptive parenting.
6. Evaluate the importance of diverse community involvement in raising a child of a different race.

For Professionals & Parents

Credit Type: General

The media often presents the dramatic and heartwarming aspects of search and reunion, but for those involved, the reality is much more complex. This training explores the common questions and concerns of all adoption constellation members involved in search and reunion. Participants will learn how to prepare for this unique and important experience as well as how to manage the potential relationship challenges that can present after reunion over time. Special considerations for opening closed adoptions with minors may be included. The impact of technology and social media as well as DNA testing on search and reunion will also be discussed.

Objectives:

1. Identify the emotional, psychological, and logistical complexities commonly experienced by all members of the adoption constellation during search and reunion processes.
2. Define at least three common motivations and concerns of adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families involved in a reunion.
3. Describe strategies for preparing emotionally and practically for a search and reunion, including how to set realistic expectations.
4. Recognize post-reunion relationship dynamics and develop approaches to managing evolving boundaries and communication over time.
5. Spot the unique considerations and ethical concerns related to opening closed adoptions.

For Adult Adoptees, Parents & Professionals

Credit Type: General

This session is designed for adult adoptees, their parents, and professionals who support, work with, or advocate for adoptees. Adult adoptees navigate a wide range of experiences throughout their lives that shape their sense of identity, belonging, and connection—to peers, family, and their broader communities.

In this session, participants will explore key ethical considerations in supporting adult adoptees and learn strategies to foster a stronger sense of belonging. Together, we will examine the lifelong journey of adoption and the shared ethical responsibility of supporting adoptees as they navigate identity formation, attachment, and complex family dynamics in adulthood.

Objectives

1. Identify key life experiences that shape adult adoptees’ sense of identity, belonging, and connection.
2. Recognize the ethical responsibilities involved in supporting adult adoptees.
3. Describe the lifelong impact of adoption on identity, attachment, and family dynamics.
4. Illustrate practical strategies to support adult adoptees in fostering belonging within their families and communities.