Family & Relationships : Adoption

Adoptive, foster and stepmothers, like biological mothers, find their lives completely changed by motherhood although they are not always granted the rights and privileges accorded to those who give birth. Barbara Waterman explores the common experiences that are shared by all those who enter the motherhood portal. She highlights the importance of wider family and professional support for non-biological parents and primary care-givers of both genders, and their children. A stepmother herself and a practicing psychologist, Waterman's writing is illustrated throughout with vignettes of children and parents from a range of backgrounds. She shows the important ways in which a non-biological attachment is both more similar to and more different from biological attachment than is currently understood. In doing this, Waterman broadens the notion of the 'traditional' family, and offers a positive alternative to the myth of the perfect mother. All kinds of step-, adoptive and foster families and those coming into contact with them will find this thoroughly researched and personal book an indispensable guide. more...

Price: $25.95

Helping traumatized children develop a narrative about their life and the lives of people closest to them, is key to their understanding and acceptance of who they are and their past experiences. The Child's Own Story is an introduction to life story work and how this effective tool can be used to help children and young people recover from abuse and make sense of a disrupted upbringing in multiple homes or families. Explaining the concepts of attachment, separation, loss and identity, the authors use these as a context to describe how to use techniques such as family trees, wallpaper work, eco- and geno-scaling. They offer guidance on interviewing relatives and carers, and how to gain access to key documentation, including social workers' case files, legal papers, and health, registrar and police records. This sensitive, practice-focused guide to life story work is an invaluable resource for social workers, child psychotherapists, residential care staff, long-term foster carers and other professionals working with traumatized children. more...

Price: $27.95

''...written simply and coherently. ...provides an excellent guide for showing parents how to create stories that enable the child to discover new meanings: those associated with success, not failure, hope, not hopelessness.''. - Daniel A. Hughes, Clinical Psychologist, So. China, ME. ''...offers parents a supportive tool for entering their child's life in a subtle though direct manner. Parents should find that this book is one answer to their on-going question of 'What can we do?'''. - Gregory C. Keck, Founder and Director of the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio, Cleveland, OH. Children whose early development has been damaged by abuse or neglect are notoriously difficult to reach. Through many years' therapeutic work with adopted children and their families, the Family Attachment Center of Minnesota has developed an exciting and innovative technique which uses stories as the main mode for helping parents to communicate and connect with their troubled children. Connecting with Kids through Stories is an accessible guide to Family Attachment Narrative Therapy for the parents of adopted or fostered children, and for the professionals who work with them. Providing a thorough theoretical grounding, and detailed information on therapeutic techniques and how to assess progress, the book shows parents how to create their own therapeutic stories to promote increased attachment and improved behavior in their child. The authors describe how different kinds of narratives can help with specific difficulties and illustrate their techniques with the story of a fictional family who develop their own narratives to help their adopted child heal. more...

Price: $19.95

'A well-argued, substantial, intelligent text, which will take thoughtful readers on in their appreciation of the complexity of adoption support. It deserves to be widely read.'. - John Simmonds, BAAF. 'A welcome breath of fresh air and common sense to the often complex issues surrounding the permanent placement of children in substitute families.'. - Caroline Archer, Family Futures. Adoption is currently taking centre stage in family policy in the UK and USA, with new legislation that places emphasis on providing and maintaining permanent family homes for children separated from their families of origin. This book explores the challenges of adoption and how best to support families coping with these demands. Angie Hart and Barry Luckock draw together adoptive parents' experiences, professional practice and empirical research to provide an integrative account of adoption support services. Using three fictional families, they illustrate issues such as the adoption of older children, single, lesbian and gay adoptive parenting and the importance of openness in adoptive relationships. The authors bring sociological and anthropological perspectives to bear on current developmental psychology models of trauma and attachment and examine the effectiveness of various therapeutic interventions. Developing Adoption Support and Therapy will make current research and legislation on adoption support accessible to therapists, parents, social work practitioners and managers alike. more...

Price: $32.95

This book demonstrates how psychoanalytic understanding and treatment can contribute to thinking about and working with adopted children and their families. It illustrates how psychoanalytic psychotherapy can help both as a treatment and as a distinctive source of understanding for children who are either in the process of being adopted or already adopted. more...

Price: $49.95