A Specialist Therapeutic Programme for Adoptive Families

Created by Andrew Lister (Consultant Clinical Psychologist) and Dr Jude Courtney (Clinical Psychologist)

An 8 week specialist therapeutic programme for adoptive parents,  designed for adopters who find themselves unable to experience family life in the way that they had hoped. You may be finding limited rewards, frequent stress and feelings of being lost with the child you are living with. The programme will focus on the 8 habits of the thriving adoptive family and provide strategies on how to embed these into your daily family life. The programme will enhance your family’s existing knowledge and enable reflection on the emotional journey that adoption brings.

Suitable For:
This programme will be of particular benefit to those who are contemplating, or are about to engage in, therapeutic intervention. Adopters will need to have had a child placed for 6 months or more.

If you parent as a couple, both adults need to attend.  To facilitate this we will hold both a morning session and an evening session , so both can attend one or the other of the times, either separately or together. We would expect that people commit to attending all of the eight sessions.  There will be a maximum of 12 attendees at each session.

Session Dates, Timings and Location:   13th, 20th May, – break for half term – 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th June, 1st, 8th July

Morning session: 9.30am -12pm or evening session: 6.30-9pm

@ The Centre, 162 Pennywell Road, Easton, Bristol BS5 0TX

Objectives of the programme:

• To give parents a thorough understanding of the theory which lies behind therapeutic parenting
• To understand the neurological changes that parenting brings to both adults and children
• To help parents become more confident in therapeutic parenting strategies and learn how to make these become habits of daily life
• To give parents a sense of hope that they are connecting to their complex child and can bring about more open, emotional engagement with them
• To help parents to reflect upon the emotional issues for them that have arisen from adopting a child who has experienced early trauma and might have developed blocked trust
• To help parents find strategies that protect them from moving into blocked care

 Fee:  Single Adopter £600/Single adopter & key adult: £1100/Couple £1100

 To book:

• Please return the reservation form linked to here to the email address below. An acknowledgment email will be sent to you once this form has been received and you will be placed on our reservation list.
• If you have marked on the reservation form that you wish to fund your place via the Adoption Support Fund (ASF), we will take receipt of this form as your agreement for us to contact your Local Authority (LA) in order to request that they apply for funding from the ASF.
• Once notification of ASF funding is received from the LA, and confirmed to The Centre, your place(s) on the course will be confirmed via email.

For further information, please contact Jess Bain, Assistant Psychologist on 0117 955 8826 or e-mail therapeuticservices@adoptionsupportcentre.org