From the category archives:

Abandonment

Triggers: Death

May 21, 2011

Adoption has typically been perceived as a one-time event, but we have come to realize that the opposite is true: adoption is life-long. Adoption often impacts life experiences. One of those experiences is death—of pets, of people.
In death we do a number of things. We look back, revisiting memories we had with that person or [...]

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Your Adolescent’s Job

March 10, 2011

The “job” of an adolescent is two-fold: discovering who they are while establishing their identity. It sounds easy, doesn’t it? But this job is complex, involving identification of their gender and what that encompasses, as well as defining and understanding their beliefs, values and expectations of themselves. This all-important task requires years of time, independence [...]

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How to Help Your Child Process the Past

October 21, 2010

Adoptive parents are very good about painting the rosy picture—how they came to be families, how they love their children. Parents do this to claim their children. The also do this because as an adoptive family they are in the position of having to validate their family to extended family, friends and strangers. But often, [...]

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Identity Formation

May 18, 2010

Forming an identity is not as simple as it seems. Think back to when you were forming yours. Most likely there were a lot of starts and stops. You probably “tried on” a few personas, to see how they “fit.” You were seeking and defining your values, beliefs, and expectations of yourself and others.
In normal [...]

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