The Parallel Process: Supporting Parents, Children
Registration Closes: 03/12/2026
Event Time: 11:30 AM - 01:00 PM
Total CE Credits: 1.5
Clinical Hours: 1.5
General Admission: $0 CE Cost: $15
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Description
The focus of support work for adoptive and foster families is often on the needs of the youth and the impact of early trauma on their development. However, over time, we often see in parents the same signs of a dysregulated nervous system that their children exhibit impacting their ability to parent. This presents additional challenges for the professionals —therapists, case workers, etc—involved with the family. Pulling from her experience as an adoptive parent and a professional who supports adoptive parents, the presenter will explore the parallel process that occurs between children and parents, and between parents and professionals. Using a neurobiological framework, this session will explore key questions and provide concrete ways for professionals to support both adoptive parents and their children in growth and healing.
Speaker & Bio
Emily Collins
Emily is a licensed clinical social worker with over 20 years of experience working with youth who have histories of childhood maltreatment and/or early attachment disruptions. In 2010, Emily welcomed into her family a 16-year-old boy who had been living in a group home. This experience taught her that, no matter how much intellectual knowledge she had, parenting was an emotional undertaking, and the need for emotional support was paramount. Since 2017, Emily has been providing that support to other families, first as the Director of Post Placement Support and now as Director of Clinical Services, at You Gotta Believe, an agency that trains and supports parents to adopt older youth out of foster care.
Itinerary
Training Objectives:
By the end of this presentation, attendees will be able to:
1. Explain what is happening in a parent’s brain in response to their child’s dysregulated behaviors
2. Demonstrate increased self-awareness of the impact of adoption professionals’ work on their
own nervous systems
3. Use self-awareness to increase their practice of empathy for adoptive parents caring for youth
with chronic dysregulation
4. Determine how to leverage empathy with principles of interpersonal neurobiology to support parents in regulating their own nervous systems, and in turn, regulating the nervous systems of their children
- 02/16/2026 | Supporting Survivors of Traumatic Families
- 03/12/2026 | The Parallel Process: Supporting Parents, Children
