This workshop explores the profound impact of trauma on both foster children and caregivers. It provides a compassionate and insightful examination of the unique challenges faced by these groups, emphasizing the importance of a collaborative and empathetic approach to healing. Attendees will gain valuable strategies and practical tools for creating the conditions for resilience and…

Its often difficult to see the full picture in adoption. Adoptees and adoptive parents have individual and unique perspectives and struggles that don't get seen side by side. Inside Transracial Adoption is a window into the journey of an adoptive family with all the highs and lows. Adoptive mother Julie Etter, son Isaac Etter, and…

In this lecture for parents and professionals,  science journalist and author Donna Jackson Nakazawa will explore the causes of the mental health epidemic facing girls today and revelatory new strategies to help girls thrive. Donna will deftly braid together the latest findings from the annals of neuroscience to show why so many girls today are…

This workshop will introduce tools that support families to have important conversations with their children and young people. Richard will introduce approaches for understanding and communicating attachment schemas. He will present six tools that will help us see through the wall of challenges in caring for complex children and young people so that we can…

“My parents didn’t die, but it felt like that.” When children and teens are separated from their families, they search for belonging while navigating the new contexts and people surrounding them. In this dynamic session, Dr. Monique B. Mitchell reveals the questions children have as they cope with ambiguity and loss in foster care: Why?…

Discover how cutting-edge neurobiology redefines the trauma response—not as a sign of weakness or disorder, but as the body’s natural, functional response to threat. In this transformative training, you’ll learn how to reframe trauma from an empowered, strengths-based perspective, and learn how to harness inherent resilience. This training provides practical tools you can immediately integrate…

For some adoptees, breaking the seal of a dominant adoption narrative is a survival issue. They may function in silence, afraid of being perceived as ungrateful. Cam will demonstrate skills from Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare to explore how silence has often separated adoptees from their own lived experiences. As a Permanency and…