143. Ann Beckley-Forest: Working with Adoption & Attachment Trauma/Wounding

Apr 18, 2023

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Lisa Dion's next guest has made quite the name for herself in the world of EMDR Therapy (although this is not a conversation about EMDR Therapy, if you work with the population that we're talking about today, you might want to consider some EMDR training 😉). Join Ann Beckley-Forest and Lisa in an inspiring conversation … one that is also quite near and dear to Ann's heart … that will help you conceptualize how to work with children and families when adoption, foster care, or some kind of placement experience is part of the child's life story.

Ann is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Registered Play Therapist-Supervisor (RPT-S), Certified in EMDR Therapy and an approved provider for EMDRIA, faculty member of the Child Trauma Institute, and co-founder of Playful EMDR LLC Training and Consulting. Ann, with Annie Monaco, also wrote a fabulous book called "EMDR with Children in the Play Therapy Room: An Integrated Approach" - it's truly a foundational book if you use EMDR Therapy and work with children.

Here's what you'll learn:

What attachment trauma or attachment wounding is (... as Shirley Jean Schmidt says, the idea of "the important good things that didn't happen");
How a movement powered by adoptees has helped us take a look at language, stance and attitudes around adoption, as well as how to honor all the parts of the "adoption triad";
The impact to the collective adoptive family nervous system and how adoptive/foster parents inherently vicariously acquire the child's trauma history;
One of the major reasons for unprocessed trauma in childhood and how we can address it in sessions; and
Different reparative treatment approaches when working with children with attachment trauma or attachment wounding (hint: it's not about cognitive processes, but ultimately attuned experiences).

We hope that you'll find a lot of value in this conversation and that you'll continue to learn and study about this topic … because the odds of you, as a play therapist, having a child walk through your door that has an adoption or foster care or some kind of placement experience in their history is, well, let's just say, quite high. You're invited to start/continue your learning journey on this topic with Ann and Lisa today!

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