Adoption has changed dramatically in less than a decade. With higher and higher percentages of children joining their families not as newborns, but from domestic or international foster care or from orphanages abroad, both parents and the professionals with whom they consult need new skills.
From the author of Attaching in Adoption (already a must-have book for both adoptive parents and placement professionals) comes this new tool designed to help placement professionals and therapists whose practices are not focused specifically on adoption and attachment understand how new research on the impact of neglect, abuse, early trauma, and institutionalization on the developing brains of children can guide their practices in new directions. Nurturing Adoption s goal is to help professionals to assist parents in healing their children s and guiding them into strong and healthy relationships and productive adulthood.
The hardcover was a 2008 silver medalist in the Benjamin Franklin Awards!
Deborah Gray is the founder of Nurturing Attachments. She is a
clinical social worker specializing in the areas of attachment, grief, and
trauma. She has spent over 15,000 hours in the last 15 years counseling
children who were adopted. Her private practice philosophy is one of
empowering parents with information and techniques so that their skills and
styles are used in meeting the needs of their children. Her passion is to
help children and their families to develop close, satisfying
relationships.
Deborah is a popular presenter due to her practical approaches of
promoting attachment, shaping behavior, and working through trauma. She
teaches in the Cascadia Resources/Northwest Adoption Resource and Portland
State Post-Graduate Programs in Adoption Counseling and the University of
Washington's Post-Graduate Trauma Certificate program.
In her personal life, Deborah Gray feels linked to adoption through the
family in which she grew up. She has also been a therapeutic foster parent.
She received her graduate degrees from Syracuse University in 1981. She is
a licensed social worker in the State of Washington.
Deborah Gray is the author of numerous articles and the book
Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today's Parents,
published by Perspectives Press, Inc. in 2002.