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 parenting programme for adoptive parents. It is designed for all adopters, but particularly those who find themselves getting limited rewards from family life, feeling frequent stress or wanting to think about the parenting of their child. 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 suitable for those who are trying to improve their family life or just prevent things from getting any worse. It will also be of particular benefit to those who are contemplating, or are about to engage in, therapeutic intervention, providing a good grounding from which to start therapy.  Adopters will need to have had a child placed for 6 months or more.

If you parent as a couple, we strongly advise that both parents attend.  To facilitate this, we hold the same session twice in a week so that each parent can attend, 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.

Location: On this occasion, the course will take place virtually via Zoom for its duration. The programme will run twice a week to ensure it is easily accessible for all parents.

Monday morning: 10-12.30: 18^th, 25^th Jan, 1^st, 8^th Feb – Half-Term – 22^nd Feb, 1^st, 8^th, 15^th March

or

Tuesday evening: 6.30-9: 19^th, 26^th Jan, 2^nd, 9^th Feb – Half-Term – 23^rd Feb, 2^nd, 9^th, 16^th March

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 £750           /             Single adopter & key adult: £1400  /              Couple £1400

To book:

• Please return the reservation form 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 Lisa Tayler, Therapeutic Services Co-ordinator on 0117 955 8826 or email therapeuticservices@adoptionsupportcentre.org