Moving Children Between Families. Grief and Loss: ATFT Module #7
Presented by
Deborah D. Gray, LICSWThis video provides move schedules for infants, children, and teens. It will go over ways to prepare children for moves. We will discuss grief and ambiguous loss in children and teens. Michael and Kristin Berry join for a discussion on self-compassion and their own experiences with ambiguous grief.
Overview
ATFT Module #7 2 CES
These workshops were recorded as part of the ATFT Certificate program, but therapists will find them very useful as stand alone learning sessions.
Children do not have the emotional energy to complete the grieving process without the support of a known and emotionally available adult. When children are moved from first parents and between foster homes, grieving is stymied by the lack of a regulating adult who can provide comfort. Their unresolved grief intrudes on the enjoyment of daily life and interferes with the development of new attachments. Even after first placements, children often face ongoing losses that are part of adoption or foster care experiences.
This video provides move schedules for infants, children, and teens. It will go over ways to prepare children for moves. We will discuss grief and ambiguous loss in children and teens. Michael and Kristin Berry join for a discussion on self-compassion and their own experiences with ambiguous grief.
Refection Questions and Application of Learning:
Please create a timeline for one of your cases or choose one from the cases at the end of this Notebook. On this timeline, which begins with the child’s conception, please mark in the important events and the feelings from these events. Write about how your treatment plan would address losses. Include who will provide emotional resources to support children or teens as they mourn their losses.
About the Presenter
Deborah D. Gray, LICSW has the honor of helping families to develop close, satisfying relationships after children’s earlier losses, traumas, and/or prenatal exposure to drugs and alcohol. In addition to her therapy practice, Deborah is an author and trainer. She developed and taught the post-graduate certificate program, Attachment/Trauma Focused Therapy (ATFT), which is now available remotely and in modules through Cascadia Training. Deborah has been awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from ATTACh (International Association for Training on Attachment and Trauma in Children). She was a Henry Meier Practitioner in Residence at the U of WA School of Social Work. She was core faculty for the Adoption and Foster Care Therapy Post-Graduate Certificate Program at Portland State University for 19 years, teaching on the topics of trauma, grief, attachment, and child welfare. Deborah served as the attachment consultant for the 5-year Quality Improvement Project for Children’s Administration. She has keynoted numerous State and Non-profit child welfare conference addresses, including the Joint Council of International Children’s Service Conference in Washington DC. She received her MSW from Syracuse University and MPA in Public Administration (Health Care) from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. Deborah is the author of: *Promoting Healthy Attachments; Attaching through Love, Hugs, and Play; Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma; and Attaching in Adoption. She co-authored Games and Activities for Attaching with Your Child.