Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

Check out www.simonbenn.co.uk for more on my work and to book me as a speaker.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

You can email Jane at [email protected] - please use Simon's Podcast in the subject line

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Grace Retreat Foster Care and Adoption Services is a licensing agency contracted by the State of Arizona. Grace Retreat is committed to support families through the process of becoming licensed and providing a home for children. We believe that by supporting the families, they are able to better support the children in their home. We are able to serve Pima, Cochise, and Pinal counties. 

Find out more at:

https://www.graceretreatfostercare.org/

https://www.instagram.com/graceretreatfostercare

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Check out www.simonbenn.co.uk for more on my work and to book me as a speaker.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Debbie B. Riley, LCMFT is the CEO and co-founder of the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), a nonprofit meeting the mental health needs of adoptive, foster and kinship families. A nationally recognized adoption expert and dynamic public speaker, Ms. Riley is a licensed marriage and family therapist with  40 years of professional experience, including extensive health care management, administrative expertise, designing and developing nationally acclaimed adoption-competent programs, direct delivery of specialized counseling services which affords her the broad knowledge and nationally respected expertise needed to promote mental health training, child advocacy and public policy development.

Ms. Riley created a continuum of innovative, culturally responsive evidenced-informed programs to improve the behavioral outcomes of foster and adopted youth and their families which has become a nationally recognized model. Ms. Riley consults with national child welfare agencies on complex child welfare issues and systems of care enhancement. For over a decade she has built and implemented a framework for training an adoption competent mental health workforce nationally and is the founder of TAC (Training for Adoption Competency) Curriculum currently taught in 16 states within the United States. Through a federal cooperative agreement awarded to C.A.S.E. from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Ms. Riley serves as the PI for the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI). NTI developed, piloted, and evaluated two state of the art web-based adoption competency curriculum to build the capacity of child welfare professionals and mental health practitioners that serve youth moving toward permanency, through adoption or guardianship. She also has been a contributor on two other federally funded curriculum initiatives, The National Training and Development Curriculum (NTDC) and CORETeen.

Ms. Riley received her Bachelor of Science in Family and Community Development and Master of Science in Marital and Family Therapy from the University of Maryland, College Park.  She is co-author of the book, Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens (Riley and Meeks, 2006) and Adoption Specific Therapy, A Guide to Helping Adopted Children and Their Families Thrive (Waterman, Langley, Miranda, and Riley, 2018). She is a contributing author to several book chapter and articles including, The Need for Adoption Competent Mental Health Professionals in Transracial and Intercountry Adoptions, Cultural Guidance for Professionals (Fong and McRoy, 2016); Training for Adoption Competency Curriculum in The Routledge Handbook Of Adoption (Wrober, Helder, and Marr, 2020); Adoption as a Diversity Issue in Professional Preparation: Perceptions of Preservice Education Professionals, Adoptions Quarterly (Taymans, Marotta, Lynch, Riley, Ortiz, Schutt, Mallery, Embich, 2008); Adoption Competent Clinical Practice; Defining Its Meaning and Development, Adoption Quarterly (Atkinson, Freundlich, Gonet, Riley, 2013); and Training for Adoption Competency: Building a Community of Adoption-Competent Clinicians, Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services (Atkinson and Riley, 2017).

Ms. Riley is the recipient of the 2015 HHS Adoption Excellence Award for Individuals and Professionals, the 2005 Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute Angels in Adoption Award, the 2005 HHS Adoption Excellence Award for support for adoptive families, the 2003 Maryland Governor’s Council on Child Abuse and Neglect Award for Outstanding Advocate, and the 2003 Voice for Adoption Award for Outstanding Work in Post-Adoption Services.

Here's a link to her book: Beneath the Mask: Understanding Adopted Teens: Case Studies & Treatment Considerations for Therapists & Parents

Amazon USA

https://www.amazon.com/Beneath-Mask-Understanding-Considerations-Therapists-ebook/dp/B09XTVHWRM/ref=sr_1_2?crid=1CQIO3YDK7UFV&keywords=Beneath+the+MAsk&qid=1652896541&s=digital-text&sprefix=beneath+the+mask%2Cdigital-text%2C52&sr=1-2

Amazon UK

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Beneath-Mask-Understanding-Adopted-Teens/dp/0971173222/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_w=iQzAy&pf_rd_p=4894e669-125c-4a90-a2cc-9002e7df2d59&pf_rd_r=GM7ZVSFP8JR6QTGV4VM7&pd_rd_wg=YYPXO&pd_rd_r=bd20be30-68a9-48d9-bc99-9ba57e1d454f&content-id=amzn1.sym.4894e669-125c-4a90-a2cc-9002e7df2d59&ref_=aufs_ap_sc_dsk

The Center for Adoption Support and Education is a national leader in mental health services for the foster care and adoption community.

Find out more at:

https://adoptionsupport.org/

https://twitter.com/CASEadopt

https://www.facebook.com/caseadopt/

https://www.instagram.com/caseadopt/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/center-for-adoption-support-and-education/

https://www.youtube.com/c/CenterforAdoptionSupportEducation

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and host of its daily radio broadcast, heard by more than 6 million listeners a week on nearly 2,000 radio stations across the U.S. The show has been honored as Program of the Year by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). In March 2022, he celebrated his 33rd anniversary with the ministry.

Daly’s personal journey from orphan to head of an international Christian organization dedicated to helping families thrive is a powerful story. Abandoned by his alcoholic father at age 5, he lost his mother to cancer four years later – a wound deepened when his grieving stepfather emptied the family home and left Daly, the youngest of five children, and his siblings to fend for themselves after their mother’s funeral.

Several tough years followed, including time in foster care, before Daly became a Christian in high school and found meaning, purpose and a sense of belonging. 

“I am living proof,” he wrote in his 2007 autobiography, “Finding Home,” “that no matter how torn up the road has already been, or how pothole-infested it may look ahead, nothing – nothing – is impossible for God.”

Daly was named president of Focus on the Family in 2005. Under his leadership, the organization has taken on a major role nationally in encouraging and helping facilitate foster-care adoptions, earning recognition from the White House and Congress for its efforts. The ministry also has reinvigorated its traditional focus on helping couples build strong marriages and raise healthy, resilient kids.

Daly started his career at Focus in 1989 as an assistant to the president, fostering relationships with the ministry’s supporters. He was appointed international field director for Asia, Africa and Australia in 1992, and in 1997 was promoted to vice president of the International Division. In 2004, Daly was appointed chief operating officer, the role he held until he was handpicked by Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson to be the group’s president. 

Daly graduated from California State University, San Bernardino, in 1984 with a B.S. in Business Administration. During his senior year, he attended Waseda University in Tokyo, and after graduating worked for a Fortune 500 company. In 1997, he completed his MBA in International Business at Regis University in Denver. In 2009, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Colorado Christian University in Denver.

Daly has received the 2008 World Children’s Center Humanitarian Award, the 2009 Children’s Hunger Fund Children’s Champion Award, and the 2010 HomeWord Family Ministry Award. He has appeared on such television programs as “Fox & Friends,” “America Live with Megyn Kelly,” “ABC World News Tonight” and PBS’ “Religion & Ethics”; and been featured in Time, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today and Newsweek, which named him one of the Top 10 next-generation evangelical leaders of influence. He was also the subject of a July 2011 cover story in Christianity Today.

Daly is an author whose latest book, “When Parenting Isn’t Perfect,” encourages parents to realize that they, like their children, aren’t perfect and don’t need to be – they’re called to do their best in Christ, knowing that God works through all the messy family situations that are a normal part of this life. Other books Daly has written include “ReFOCUS: Living a Life That Reflects God’s Heart” which explores how to engage the culture for Christ in a compassionate and winsome way and “Marriage Done Right: One Man, One Woman,” in which Daly examines God’s purposes for marriage, including the unique benefits that a mom and a dad bring to the partnership of raising children.

Daly has been married to his wife, Jean, since 1986. They have two sons and reside in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Focus on the Family is a global Christian ministry dedicated to helping families thrive. We provide help and resources for couples to build healthy marriages that reflect God’s design, and for parents to raise their children according to morals and values grounded in biblical principles.

We’re here to come alongside families with relevance and grace at each stage of their journey. We support families as they seek to teach their children about God and His beautiful design for the family, protect themselves from the harmful influences of culture and equip themselves to make a greater difference in the lives of those around them.

No matter who you are, what you’re going through or what challenges your family may be facing, we’re here to help. With practical resources – like our 1-800 Family Help line, counseling and websites – we’re committed to providing trustworthy, biblical guidance and support.

https://www.facebook.com/focusonthefamily

https://twitter.com/FocusFamily

https://www.instagram.com/focusonthefamily/

https://www.youtube.com/user/FocusOnTheFamilyUSA

https://www.focusonthefamily.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Laurie is Executive Director of Heart Gallery NYC.

Heart Gallery NYC , a non profit organization founded in 2006, utilizes photography to raise awareness of, and recruit permanent, loving adoptive families for children in foster care in New York City. In collaboration with the NYC Administration for Children’s Services and the foster provider agencies, Heart Gallery NYC collaborates with notable photographers, who donate their talents to create beautiful portraits of children in need of adoptive families. The Heart Gallery NYC online gallery features these compelling images of the youth, along with their personal narratives, to recruit prospective parents, and advocate for the children's need for loving, "forever families".

www.heartgallerynyc.org

https://www.facebook.com/heartgallerynyc

https://www.instagram.com/heart_gallery_nyc/

Heart Gallery New York
A New York State Office of Children and Family Services Collaboration
www.heartgallerynewyork.org

Through the Eyes of the Homeless
A NYC Department of Homeless Services Collaboration
www.eyesofthehomelessnyc.org

National Heart Gallery Exhibit, Project Director
A Casey Family Programs Collaboration
www.nationalheartgalleryexhibit.org

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Too Black to be White, and too White to be Black. Billy Williams was raised in Los Angeles, California in a loving home. His Teamster father and stay-at-home mother did their best to give Billy the charmed life that every child dreams about. Karate classes taught by Chuck Norris, designer clothes, and access to the upper echelon of Black society, Billy seemed to have it all. But, sometimes, what you see, is a cover for more sinister secrets that lay just below the surface. Follow Billy as he explores his childhood, teen years, and his triumphant quest to discover who he is and where he comes from. His journey is filled with lies, secrets, drugs, sex, abandonment, and ultimately, redemption.

https://www.amazon.com/kindle-dbs/entity/author/B09L6R63Q2

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SOLD-Story-Rev-Billy-Williams/dp/B09KNCZNYW

Shelbi is the Founder and CEO of GRAITH Foundation.  With over 20 years as a professional genealogist and family history researcher, she has reunited, researched, and solved over 1500 cases for adult adoptees in search of their birth families and birth families is search of the children they placed.  Shelbi has been called upon to speak and conduct seminars for hundreds of organizations.  For three seasons Shelbi was a researcher for TLC's Long Lost Family, and is currently the co-host for The Triad, a podcast dedicated to providing a forum for all members in the triad of adoption.  Shelbi is the heart and soul of the GRAITH Foundation family.  She attended Fisk University and holds a Bachelor of Arts from SUNY, a Master of Science from California State University, Dominguez Hills, and Juris Doctorate from Trinity Law School.   She is a member of the Links, Incorporated and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated.  She is a child of God and she and her husband Byron are the parents of three beautiful daughters, Kesha, Bethany, and Olivia.

https://www.graithfoundation.org/

https://www.facebook.com/graithfoundation

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFsHOfiQcmSR2Yfvykhy_yg

https://www.instagram.com/graithfoundation/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

As an adoptive mom, Terri knows how fortunate she is to have her daughter, and also how very rare her story is. Not quite ten years into raising her daughter, she did some research and found that less than one percent of girls facing unplanned pregnancy choose adoption for their babies. Digging into the reasons why that is so, Terri conducted several focus groups in her home and discovered that most women facing unplanned pregnancy simply don’t realize that adoption is an option. They believe they must choose between parenting and terminating their pregnancy.

As a seasoned marketing executive, Terri has deep and broad experience in communicating a precise, value-based message to affect change. For over two decades, she has consulted to Silicon Valley companies and led their strategic marketing and communications efforts. (See MarketSavvy Inc.)

She founded Unplanned Good to promote adoption as a viable option for women facing unplanned pregnancy. This is in response to contemporary beliefs in our society that young women have only two choices; abortion or parenting.

All too often, young women face unplanned pregnancies. When they do, they typically see only two choices: to become parents, often in their teens, or to terminate their pregnancies. It’s rare that they consider the alternative path – seeing the pregnancy through to delivery and placing the baby for adoption.

The mission of our organization is to promote adoption as a viable, reasonable option for those dealing with unplanned pregnancies, such that the result is good for all involved.

https://www.unplannedgood.org/

https://twitter.com/Unplanned_Good

https://www.facebook.com/UnplannedGood/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Katie is the founder of OrphanWise, an alumna of Lee University and has a Master’s Degree in Holistic Child Development. She worked as a preschool teacher for six years and served a term as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Habitat for Humanity. She moved to Paraguay in 2015 and spent three years working in a children’s home, where she served as director of the home and house mother. She also taught English in the on-campus middle school and high school. Since becoming a TBRI Practitioner in 2018, Katie has been doing TBRI® Caregiver Training and TBRI® coaching in English and Spanish. She is the oldest of five foster and birth siblings and is a proud aunt to six of her favorite kiddos. Her passion is to see restoration for children, teens, and adults who have experienced trauma.

OrphanWise offers Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) training to those who work with children and teens who have experienced abuse, bereavement, neglect, poverty, or other trauma.  Developed by The Karyn Purvis Institute for Child Development at Texas Christian University, TBRI® teaches caregivers to look beyond the surface and heal the long-term root of children’s behavioral issues.

Since 2019, OrphanWise has provided high-quality TBRI training® and resources to caregivers both in the U.S. and around the world.

Here are the links Katie talked about:

1. Attachment Style in Close Relationships – This short evaluation takes about 5 minutes to complete and gives an overall assessment of one’s attachment style in romantic relationships based on two dimensions: anxiety and avoidance. Access at http://www.web-research-design.net/cgi-bin/crq/crq.pl

2. ECR-Relationship Structures – This assessment takes 5-10 minutes to complete and gives a more comprehensive evaluation of attachment style across multiple relationships- mother figure, father figure, romantic partner, and best friend. Access at http://www.yourpersonality.net/relstructures/

Also wanted to share this wonderful podcast on Attachment produced by the KPICD.

https://child.tcu.edu/tbri-podcast-s01-e02/#sthash.9A9WBZrO.dpbs

https://www.facebook.com/orphanwise/

https://www.instagram.com/orphanwise/?hl=en

https://orphanwise.org/
 

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.