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| Dr. Jaiya John & Stephen Terrell | ||||||||
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| AGENDA | |
| FRIDAY | |
| 8:00-9:00 a.m. | Registration |
| 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. |
Keynote Address: "The Oppositional Child: Healing the Trauma" Dr. Stephen Terrell. The keynote will contain a description of trauma and how trauma rests in the nervous system. Interventions and Agreement Approach will be discussed and participants will gain skills in meeting opposition. |
| 12:00-1:00 p.m. | Lunch (on your own) |
| 1:00-2:30 p.m. |
Ethics: "Ethics on Openness in Foster Adoptive Situations" Dr. Rowena Fong (1.5 ethics). This workshop will cover how foster care parents, adoptive parents, and social workers can address family history of drug abuse and violence with respectful yet safe openness. Ethical dilemmas will be discussed and options on how to deal with them will be offered. Knowledge and skills in culturally competent practices in transracial adoptions will also be presented. |
| 2:30-3:00 p.m. | Break & Book Browsing |
| 3:00-4:30 p.m. | Panel Discussion: "Panel: Ethics on Openness in Foster Adoptionss" Stephanie Holmes (1.5 ethics). A panel of adoption professionals and triad members will address openness from their positions within foster adoptions. The panel will address the delicate balance between what a child has the right to know, what knowledge is age-appropriate, what the legal obligation is for all stakeholders, and what is ethical in regards to children and healthy adjustment. |
| SATURDAY | |
| 8:00-9:15 a.m. | Registration |
| 9:15 a.m.-12:00 p.m. |
Keynote Address: "The Vast Power of Identity In the Blossoming of Uprooted Children" Dr. Jaiya John. Jaiya John's message is a compassionate, poetic honoring of the nature of children in the context of adoption. Certain souls dare to step into a space with young people and dance with their sensitivities and wounds, hopes, and passions. This dance invites the tendency for us to pour our own beauty and struggles into those young lives. Ultimately, our adult human unfolding becomes a template and source for their young unfolding. The way we see ourselves feeds the way they learn to see themselves. Whole children are a function of whole identities. Both blossom from the irrigating flow of relationship. A child's decision to trust-self and the world-is often a response to our decision to trust that child's inherent beauty, gifts, and purpose. Through our own wholeness we can help turn a child's impulse to shrink from the world into an instinct to blossom. |
| 12:00-1:00 p.m. | Lunch (provided) & Book Browsing & Book Signing |
| 1:00-2:15 p.m. | Session I Breakout Sessions: |
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| 2:15-2:30 p.m. | Break & Book Browsing |
| 2:30-4:00 p.m. | Session II Breakout Sessions: |
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| 4:00-4:30 p.m. | Closing Session: "Adoption: Opposition to Connection to Inspiration" Patricia Axsom O’Brien. Patricia Axsom O’Brien will lead a panel of conference speakers discussing the common themes and lessons learned from the presentations. |
PRESENTERS
Patricia Axsom O’Brien, LMSW-ACP, M.Div., maintains a private practice in Austin,
specializing in pre and post adoption counseling for all members of the triad, their partners and their
families. Patricia was the Clinical Supervisor for The Center For Family Connections (1996 to 1998),
working with Joyce Maguire Pavao on challenging adoption situations with all types of clients, and
applying her special knowledge of Family Systems to those touched by adoption.
Jeffrey J. Barnett is licensed to practice in all Texas state courts, as well as the U.S. District
Court for the Western District of Texas. He currently is a member of the State Bar of Texas and the Austin Bar
Association. Mr. Barnett is also a qualified mediator in the State of Texas. He mediates family and business
civil law. It was his work on the CPS docket that inspired Mr. Barnett and his family to adopt a nine-year-old
who was in foster care and who had been removed from her parents due to abuse and neglect. There are new
challenges at every turn, but the experience has been a tremendous blessing to his entire family. It is because
of his experience that he feels a compelling need to help others through this process so they can
experience the same blessing and help other children find loving stable forever families.
Dr. Rowena Fong Ed.D., MSW, is the Ruby Lee Piester Centennial Professor in Services to Children
and Families at The University of Texas at Austin. She has done training and consultation to staff and
foster-adopt parents at the Beijing Child Welfare Institute in the People's Republic of China. Coauthor
of five books and numerous book chapters and journal articles, Dr.Fong is currently a Co-Investigator on
a Health and Human Services Commission funded Health Marriage Initiative grant on support networks for
adoptive parents. Her scholarly publications and research focus on international adoptions, culturally
competent practice, child welfare, and immigrant and refugee children and families.
Stephanie Holmes, LMSW currently works with Children's Protective Services as a Foster Care and
Adoption Development Specialist. She is on AKA's board of directors serving as the Educational Chairman,
and she has been involved with the organization since 2006. Stephanie began her adoption work in 2003
and has experience in both the private and public sectors.
Janet Mulcahy, BSW, is a birth mother and a long time friend of AKA. She has worked with Juvenile
delinquents and counseled Alcoholics & Drug Addicts at Inpatient Treatment Centers. Since 1997, she has
been employed by the State of Texas with Social Security Disability where she acts as a policy expert
while training professionals to properly adjudicate disability claims within the guidelines of the law.
Katy Perkins, LMSW, is the Primary Prevention Specialist at the Parkland Hospital Victim
Intervention Program/Rape Crisis Center in Dallas, Texas, where she coordinates the Parkland Safe
Families Task Force. She is also President of Kingsman Consulting LLC, providing nonprofit consulting
and adoption home studies. Ms. Perkins has been an advocacy volunteer and public speaker for American
Adoption Congress and the Texas Coalition for Adoption Resources and Education (TXCARE) for nearly ten
years, and participated in legislative advocacy initiatives with TXCARE for 3 legislative sessions. She
has been a member of the TXCARE Board of Directors for five years, and is now currently a member of the
AAC Board of Directors.
Joellen Peters, Ph.D. is a licensed clinical psychologist who works with adults, children, families,
and couples who are struggling in their lives and relationships. She provides psychotherapy, as well as
academic and psychological assessment. Her theoretical framework guides her to help clients develop a
stronger, more cohesive sense of self as they find fulfillment and meaning in their lives. Dr. Peters is
an adopted person and has an extensive background working with all members of the adoption triad.
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CHILDCARE
Childcare is available on Saturday. November 14th from 9am to 4:30pm
for $25 per child.
Please provide your child's lunch. We will provide snacks. You MUST have a reservation by
November 1, 2009 to use the child care services.
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Conference Site
Location: Westover Hills Church
8322 Mesa at Steck (across from Anderson High School)
Austin, TX 78759 Hotel: Holiday Inn Austin NW
8901 Business Park Dr., Austin, Texas 78759. Call 877-719-8291 or 512-343-0888 ask for the
"Adoption Knowledge" rate of $99 per night if reserved by October 30, 2009.
www.hotelaustin.com.
Conference Sponsors
AKA would like to thank the following:
Adoption Advocates
Adoption Priorities, Inc. Alternatives In Motion Austin Council On Adoptable Children Methodist Mission Home The University of Texas at Austin School of Social Work WANT TO MEET JAIYA JOHN? SEARCHING FOR THE LATEST IN ADOPTION BOOKS? |
Adoption Knowledge Affiliates, Inc., (AKA) is a 501 (c)(3) educational organization whose purposes are to
foster understanding of adoption issues and to serve as a resource to people whose lives are touched by
adoption, the professionals who work with them, and the general public. AKA is supported by membership
dues and contributions.