Free Workshop for Professionals Description

Beneath the Mask: An Exploration of Adoption and Adolescence
Workshop Description
Adolescence is a time when adoptees struggle with an extra layer of challenges related to their identity, their future and their past, especially in transracial adoption. Participants will explore how adoption impacts the “normal” or typical developmental tasks of the teen years including identity formation, separation from parents, and decisions around sexuality.  Ms. Riley will provide an in-depth look into “the six spots where teens get stuck” as highlighted in her book, Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens. These stuck spots describe the key vulnerabilities around the adoption experience in adolescence.

Participants will also have the unique opportunity to hear from a panel of young adult adoptees. These young people contributed their powerful, heartfelt stories of their challenges with these “stuck spots” in C.A.S.E.’s new companion workbook to Beneath the Mask, entitled, Beneath the Mask: For Teen Adoptees.  This workbook helps teens know they are not alone, and contains activities and exercises to enable teen adoptees to reflect upon and cope with intense feelings.

Ms. Riley will discuss effective treatment strategies for addressing both mild and serious emotional and behavioral issues at home and at school.

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