This in-person event will be held at Community Memorial Hospital in the Pine Meeting Room: 512 Skyline Boulevard, Cloquet, Minnesota 55720

If planning to attend the morning session as well, please register for both sessions. Lunch is provided from 12 – 1pm only. 

If capacity limit is reached, please email edu@fosteradoptmn.org to join the waitlist.

This presentation will offer a brief overview of common mental health diagnosis that children in care present with.  The discussion will include symptoms, clinical characteristics and interventions for each diagnosis. The impact on the family and caregivers of hurt children will also be
considered.

Deena McMahon, MSW, LICSW is a family and attachment therapist in private practice. Ms. McMahon is often consulted as an expert witness on contentious child welfare cases. She also serves as consultant to numerous state and county child protection agencies, adoption agencies, and parent support groups. Her clinical focus is on adoption dynamics and the trauma of disrupted attachment.  She does forensic parenting assessments, attachment and sibling assessments, and attachment therapy. Ms. McMahon provides national and regional training and served as a faculty consultant to the Minnesota State Guardian Ad Litem Program for over 12 years. She works with the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota offering consultation and trauma therapy and is often asked to provide short term crisis intervention for families who have experienced traumatic loss and violence. She previously served on the Board of Directors for ATTACH (Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children). She has been working with families and children for over 40 years and has developed expertise in the areas of childhood trauma, childhood sexual abuse, grief and loss, family violence, transracial placements and ICWA cases.

This in-person event will be held at Community Memorial Hospital in the Pine Meeting Room: 512 Skyline Boulevard, Cloquet, Minnesota 55720

If planning to attend the morning session as well, please register for both sessions. Lunch is provided from 12 – 1pm only. 

If capacity limit is reached, please email edu@fosteradoptmn.org to join the waitlist.

This presentation will offer a brief overview of common mental health diagnosis that children in care present with.  The discussion will include symptoms, clinical characteristics and interventions for each diagnosis. The impact on the family and caregivers of hurt children will also be
considered.

Deena McMahon, MSW, LICSW is a family and attachment therapist in private practice. Ms. McMahon is often consulted as an expert witness on contentious child welfare cases. She also serves as consultant to numerous state and county child protection agencies, adoption agencies, and parent support groups. Her clinical focus is on adoption dynamics and the trauma of disrupted attachment.  She does forensic parenting assessments, attachment and sibling assessments, and attachment therapy. Ms. McMahon provides national and regional training and served as a faculty consultant to the Minnesota State Guardian Ad Litem Program for over 12 years. She works with the Prairie Island Indian Community in Minnesota offering consultation and trauma therapy and is often asked to provide short term crisis intervention for families who have experienced traumatic loss and violence. She previously served on the Board of Directors for ATTACH (Association for Training on Trauma and Attachment in Children). She has been working with families and children for over 40 years and has developed expertise in the areas of childhood trauma, childhood sexual abuse, grief and loss, family violence, transracial placements and ICWA cases.