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How to Help Families Formed by Adoption
Families formed by adoption often have extra levels of stress as children reach the teenage and young adult years. Extra layers of complexity occur when families have additional burdens, for example, a transracially adopted child or child with special needs; parental factors, such as divorce; mental health issues with any member of the adoption constellation. Special attention will be paid to assessing suicide risk for teens and young adults who have been adopted, along with how to manage and help prevent suicidal depression. This presentation will look at research regarding the process of helping an adopted person face early and late adolescence, young adulthood and full adult development. The presentation will discuss how adoption is a life-long process and how mental health providers can help adoptees manage the choice regarding search and reunion with the birth family. At times, adopted persons may choose to limit or stop contact with their adopted parents, and the issue of how to manage limited or restricted contact will be addressed from each family member's perspective. The presentation will also discuss international adoption and difficulties regarding stigma, along with what restrictions there may be with various countries of origin on the search and reunion process. Case examples of adopted persons who have chosen to search with various results will be discussed. The issue of how to manage multiple families after reunion will also be addressed.
This program qualifies for 3.0 continuing education credits.
Participants will be able to:
1. List methods of supporting adopted teenagers in creating a secure identity.
2. Describe typical issues that young adults who have been adopted may display in their process of launching into adulthood.
3. Recognize potential warning signs of depression and suicide risk in teens and young adults with a history of adoption.
Sharon Stein McNamara, Ed.D., LP graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in 1991. She has been licensed as a psychologist in Massachusetts and Minnesota. Her degree is in Human Development and Psychology. Dr. Stein McNamara has completed extensive training as a dialectical behavior therapist for children, adolescents and adults and holds a certificate in Permanency and Adoption Competency to work with adopted persons and their families. She herself is an adopted person who has re-united with birth family and who has experience with search and reunion for adult adopted persons. She also has trained to do family-law related forensic work with parents, children and families. Dr. Stein McNamara has worked as an Adjunct Professor at Argosy University in the Minnesota School of Professional Psychology, teaching developmental psychology and group therapy. Her specialty areas are helping children and families cope with divorce, family planning, adoption and helping all ages work with trauma-related issues and personality disorders. Dr. Stein McNamara has been interviewed for Adoptees-On, an Internationally recognized Podcast and has an online seminar through Minnesota Psychological Association called Clinical Issues in Adoption Across the Lifespan.
