Preparing Your Child for a New Foster or Adoptive Sibling
Event Date: 01/18/2024
Event Time: 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM
Event Type: Live Virtual
Total CE Credits: 1.5
Clinical Hours: 1.5
General Admission: $0 CE Cost: $15
This webinar has already ended.
Description
Foster and adoptive parents are often excited about the placement of a new child, but many are not given the tools needed to prepare the children already in the home. When waiting children are not prepared for the challenges that can occur when bringing in a new sibling they can be left feeling confused, fearful, and angry, causing the placement to be at risk. The newly placed child, too can find themselves experiencing similar emotions as they try to fit into a previous family structure.
In this webinar, parents and professionals will explore how to help parents prepare to wait for newly placed children to take on their new family journey. We will focus on topics that include, the impact of a child's trauma on the entire family, how to help children understand terms like visitation, reunification and permanency, developing open communication, and safety planning. In addition, we will discuss the specific needs of both waiting children and newly placed children and how they are the same and also very different.
Speaker & Bio
Edythe (Edye) Swidler
Edye Swidler, LMFT has 30 years of experience providing family-based mental health services. She has worked as a clinical director and supervisor, training director, and clinician in numerous community-based mental health and adoption/foster care agencies. Presently Edye is the owner of American River Family Counseling, where she specializes in working with both traditional and non-traditional families using an attachment-focused approach. She is an advanced Nurtured Heart Approach trainer and adoption-competent specialist, who has developed and facilitated numerous workshops and training curriculums for parents, therapists, social workers, and other community professionals. In addition, she has worked as a Trainer and consultant for TAC (Training for Adoption Competency), a training curriculum created to prepare mental health professionals to work with all members of the adoption kinship network. Edye's personal experience in adoption has provided insight into the various trainings that she offers to both parents and professionals.
Itinerary
In this webinar, parents and professionals will explore how to help parents prepare to wait for newly placed children to take on their new family journey. Participants will explore;
1) How to help children understand the strengths and the challenges of bringing home a sibling with special developmental, behavioral, and mental health needs.
2) How to help children talk about their new sibling relationships to others,
3) Learn how to talk honestly and openly about some of the challenges that may occur with the addition of a new sibling;
4) What it means for a child(ren) to live with a sibling with special emotional, behavioral, or physical needs;
5) Discuss the concept of fairness with children, when household rules or routines are changed or accommodations must be made for the new sibling;
6) Create safety plans to ensure that all children feel emotionally and physically safe.
- 10/08/2024 | Adolescent and Childhood Grief Part 2: The Role of Caregivers & Supportive Aid
- 11/19/2024 | Putting the Pieces Together (Virtual)
- 11/19/2024 | Putting the Pieces Together (Montgomery)
- 11/21/2024 | Putting the Pieces Together (Birmingham)
- 12/12/2024 | Tackling Technology
