Conference Session & Workshop Descriptions
*Content subject to change
Friday November 4, 2022
*The times listed are in Central Daylight Time
Friday Morning Keynote 10:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Comfortable in the Uncomfortable: Bridging the Gaps in the Adoption Community by Doing the Work... Together, Melissa Guida-Richards, Keynote Speaker
CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
In this keynote, Melissa shares her personal experience with adoption and the transformative power of adoption education and how it brought her family and community closer together. She shares the importance of discussing the nuances of adoption, importance of honest adoption language, and how detrimental toxic positivity can be. Drawing from extensive research, 1:1 work with foster/adoptive parents and adoption professionals, she shares the power of sharing our stories and encourages everyone to get Comfortable in the Uncomfortable.
Afternoon Keynote Presentation 1:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Striving for Ethical Adoption Practice: Are We There, Yet?
Patricia Martinez Dorner, MA, LPC, Keynote Speaker
Ethics CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
The 1970’s and 1980’s were revolutionary as voices from the adoption journey united to challenge current practice considered “ethical”. The power of these voices brought new practices embodying a greater focus on the complexities of adoption and on those living it. Have we come far enough? What must we clamor for today? We will review the changes that happened and the essential work still to be done.
Session 2 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
A. Adoption, Narcissism, and the Counseling Room, Katy Perkins LCSW-S and Melanie (JaeHee) Chung-Sherman, LCSW-S, PLLC
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Though much research about narcissistic personality disorder exists, there has been minimal conversation (and little-to-no academic literature) about how it manifests in adoptive family systems. How do narcissism and narcissistic behaviors affect adoptive family dynamics, especially adopted children and adults? This training is a distilled version of a 6-hour series and will explore the concept of working with narcissistic family systems as a form of advanced adoption competency. Though designed for professionals, all would benefit from this education and are welcome to attend.
B. The Need For Transformation: How Faith Communities Have Hurt Adoptees and Their Families and How The Church Can Change, Sally Ankerfelt & Gayle Swift
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
The adoption community seldom asks the questions: What has been and is the role of The Church in past and current adoption practices? How have and how do adoptees and their families experience faith communities? Using quotations from interviews with adult adoptees, we will examine how the words, actions, and presuppositions of faith communities impact adoptees. This will provide insight into the gap between the intent of faith communities to help adoptees and the reality of how adoptees experience the role of faith communities in their lives. The interviews showed that: adoptees yearn to be treated with dignity and respect and to have their lived experiences witnessed and validated. They do not want to be seen as projects in need of rescue, souls in need of salvation. They do not want to be evidence of their family's commitment to the mandates of their faith.
Participants will identify steps for reconfiguring the faith community's approach to adoption, family preservation, issues of social justice, and racial equity and will be encouraged to implement changes in their own communities. The workshop will utilize an Adoption Attuned perspective. Recognize adoption complexity. Work to eliminate the causes that propel adoption. Understand that adoption is not totally benign. Advocate for the rights of adoptees and first families.
Friday Evening Programming
6:00 PM - Documentary Film, Reckoning w/ the Primal Wound, Rebecca Autumn Sansom
CEUs: 2.0 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Filmmaker and adoptee, Rebecca Autumn Sansom, alongside her biological mother, Jill Hawkins, Ph.D., have produced the first feature-length documentary featuring the author of the landmark book, The Primal Wound, herself. The Primal Wound is in its 15th printing and has been selling briskly around the world since 1993. The film not only deals with relinquishment trauma, but also Verrier’s philosophy that the damage done by the separation of a child and their biological mother culminates in a primal wound that must be acknowledged in order to heal. Sansom says, “The Primal Wound was the first time I heard an alternate narrative about adoption. A narrative that resonated with my feelings of loss and grief, one that was never presented to me until I read Verrier’s eerily insightful words.”
7:45 PM Q&A with Rebecca Autumn Sansom & Jill Hawkins, Ph.D.
A session following the film for a discussion with filmmaker and adoptee, Rebecca Autumn Sansom, alongside her biological mother, Jill Hawkins, Ph.D., This portion is open to all conference attendees.
Saturday November 5, 2022
*All times listed are in Central Time zone
Saturday Morning Keynote 9:45 AM - 11:30 AM
Adoption: Is the Loss Ever Healed? Lorraine Dusky, Keynote Speaker
CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Adoption is a new beginning for the adoptive parents, but for the natural mother and child, adoption is an ongoing life situation that is the papering over of a wound that never completely goes away. How can we help both natural mothers and adoptees deal with this ever-present reality?
Saturday Afternoon Sessions
Session 1 12:45 PM -2:15 PM
A. Adoption Annulment and Rehoming, Karlos Dillard
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
We all know about adoption, and most think it is a good thing. But what about the adoptions that fail or the adoptees who are abandoned by their adoptive parents? Unlike marriage there is no legal way to annul an adoption or divorce your adoptive parents reverting your birth certificate back to its original form; your only option is to be re-homed like a pet and get adopted again. Adoption Annulment needs to be an option for adoptees. As an abandoned adoptee who was made homeless as a teenager, I have a perspective that most are overlooking and it is affecting MANY adoptees.
B. Decoding your DNA, Traci Onders & Amanda Reno
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
DNA and genealogy are powerful tools to help you fill in the missing pieces in your family tree. Tests such as Ancestry DNA and 23 and me, as well as others, are being used to help solve for unknown parentage and find birth or biological family for individuals who are adopted, donor conceived, or have misattributed parentage. Join us for a review of the basics including how to formulate a testing plan, important terminology to understand, relationship possibilities based on amount of shared DNA, how to make the most of your test results and the powerful tools available at the testing companies, and successfully communicating with DNA matches.
Session 2 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
A. Rewriting the Truth: Making Room for Adoptee Narratives, Liz DeBetta
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Poetry and expressive writing has the ability to heal and transform by allowing the writer to emotionally express pain and trauma in a way that not only releases accumulated stress, but also creates a connection to others. In this workshop adoptees will learn the theory behind creative expression and the healing of trauma and put it into practice by generating their own poetry and prose to express grief, loss, and emotional pain. Learning the benefits of using writing as a tool to manage emotions and process them is beneficial for adoptees, adoptive parents, therapists, and first families. Join me to explore the therapeutic links between expressive writing and healing of trauma and learn how to build a narrative through poetry that helps integrate the loss of the original family and self to create knowledge and understanding that facilitates psychological growth and can help organize the emotional effects of the primal wound. This is an introductory workshop for all members of the constellation geared toward introducing them to the benefits of expressive writing as a way of acknowledging and processing complex feelings. The workshop will culminate in sharing stories to be positively witnessed (if participants choose), which creates an opportunity to grieve in a healthy community.
B. The Need for Nourishment: Adopted People and Disordered Eating, Katy Perkins, LCSW-S
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Eating disorders (ED) are lethal and rarely discussed in the adoption community. ED thrives on secrecy, shame, fear, trauma, and internalized oppression – all common to the adoption experience. The desire to fit in and/or fade away is interconnected with food, nourishment, and well-being of self. By acknowledging the experience of family separation as traumatic, we open the door to evaluating the relationship with food as an expression of trauma, identity, and human development. This workshop will explore the connection between nourishment, adoption, and disordered eating.
Session 3 4:15 PM - 5:45 PM
A. Connect, Express, Breathe, Sara Easterly, Shae Lee, & Anna Grundström
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Group gatherings—especially when adoptees get together—can be exhilarating, normalizing, validating, uplifting, totally fun, and more. Emotions can fly high… and, yet, sometimes these spaces can surprise us by activating old wounds of loneliness, abandonment, and exclusion. Am I good enough? Nobody likes me. If I don’t fit in among adoptees, will I ever fit in? Adoptees Sara Easterly, Shae Lee, and Anna Grundström have gone down the metaphorical dark alleys where self-attacking thoughts like these can lead us and have found that expressing our hearts and moving our bodies can offer a way back to the light. Join us for writing prompts, sharing, and somatic work designed to release stuck emotions and remind you that you’re not alone.
B. Adoption Coercion Today, Renee Gelin
In this session you'll learn about the family preservation work that SOS does and also experience coercion that Mothers have experienced across the country in recent years.
*The times listed above are in Central Daylight Time
*The times listed are in Central Daylight Time
Friday Morning Keynote 10:00 AM - 11:45 AM
Comfortable in the Uncomfortable: Bridging the Gaps in the Adoption Community by Doing the Work... Together, Melissa Guida-Richards, Keynote Speaker
CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
In this keynote, Melissa shares her personal experience with adoption and the transformative power of adoption education and how it brought her family and community closer together. She shares the importance of discussing the nuances of adoption, importance of honest adoption language, and how detrimental toxic positivity can be. Drawing from extensive research, 1:1 work with foster/adoptive parents and adoption professionals, she shares the power of sharing our stories and encourages everyone to get Comfortable in the Uncomfortable.
Afternoon Keynote Presentation 1:00 PM - 2:45 PM
Striving for Ethical Adoption Practice: Are We There, Yet?
Patricia Martinez Dorner, MA, LPC, Keynote Speaker
Ethics CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
The 1970’s and 1980’s were revolutionary as voices from the adoption journey united to challenge current practice considered “ethical”. The power of these voices brought new practices embodying a greater focus on the complexities of adoption and on those living it. Have we come far enough? What must we clamor for today? We will review the changes that happened and the essential work still to be done.
Session 2 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM
A. Adoption, Narcissism, and the Counseling Room, Katy Perkins LCSW-S and Melanie (JaeHee) Chung-Sherman, LCSW-S, PLLC
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Though much research about narcissistic personality disorder exists, there has been minimal conversation (and little-to-no academic literature) about how it manifests in adoptive family systems. How do narcissism and narcissistic behaviors affect adoptive family dynamics, especially adopted children and adults? This training is a distilled version of a 6-hour series and will explore the concept of working with narcissistic family systems as a form of advanced adoption competency. Though designed for professionals, all would benefit from this education and are welcome to attend.
B. The Need For Transformation: How Faith Communities Have Hurt Adoptees and Their Families and How The Church Can Change, Sally Ankerfelt & Gayle Swift
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
The adoption community seldom asks the questions: What has been and is the role of The Church in past and current adoption practices? How have and how do adoptees and their families experience faith communities? Using quotations from interviews with adult adoptees, we will examine how the words, actions, and presuppositions of faith communities impact adoptees. This will provide insight into the gap between the intent of faith communities to help adoptees and the reality of how adoptees experience the role of faith communities in their lives. The interviews showed that: adoptees yearn to be treated with dignity and respect and to have their lived experiences witnessed and validated. They do not want to be seen as projects in need of rescue, souls in need of salvation. They do not want to be evidence of their family's commitment to the mandates of their faith.
Participants will identify steps for reconfiguring the faith community's approach to adoption, family preservation, issues of social justice, and racial equity and will be encouraged to implement changes in their own communities. The workshop will utilize an Adoption Attuned perspective. Recognize adoption complexity. Work to eliminate the causes that propel adoption. Understand that adoption is not totally benign. Advocate for the rights of adoptees and first families.
Friday Evening Programming
6:00 PM - Documentary Film, Reckoning w/ the Primal Wound, Rebecca Autumn Sansom
CEUs: 2.0 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Filmmaker and adoptee, Rebecca Autumn Sansom, alongside her biological mother, Jill Hawkins, Ph.D., have produced the first feature-length documentary featuring the author of the landmark book, The Primal Wound, herself. The Primal Wound is in its 15th printing and has been selling briskly around the world since 1993. The film not only deals with relinquishment trauma, but also Verrier’s philosophy that the damage done by the separation of a child and their biological mother culminates in a primal wound that must be acknowledged in order to heal. Sansom says, “The Primal Wound was the first time I heard an alternate narrative about adoption. A narrative that resonated with my feelings of loss and grief, one that was never presented to me until I read Verrier’s eerily insightful words.”
7:45 PM Q&A with Rebecca Autumn Sansom & Jill Hawkins, Ph.D.
A session following the film for a discussion with filmmaker and adoptee, Rebecca Autumn Sansom, alongside her biological mother, Jill Hawkins, Ph.D., This portion is open to all conference attendees.
Saturday November 5, 2022
*All times listed are in Central Time zone
Saturday Morning Keynote 9:45 AM - 11:30 AM
Adoption: Is the Loss Ever Healed? Lorraine Dusky, Keynote Speaker
CEUs: 1.75 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Adoption is a new beginning for the adoptive parents, but for the natural mother and child, adoption is an ongoing life situation that is the papering over of a wound that never completely goes away. How can we help both natural mothers and adoptees deal with this ever-present reality?
Saturday Afternoon Sessions
Session 1 12:45 PM -2:15 PM
A. Adoption Annulment and Rehoming, Karlos Dillard
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
We all know about adoption, and most think it is a good thing. But what about the adoptions that fail or the adoptees who are abandoned by their adoptive parents? Unlike marriage there is no legal way to annul an adoption or divorce your adoptive parents reverting your birth certificate back to its original form; your only option is to be re-homed like a pet and get adopted again. Adoption Annulment needs to be an option for adoptees. As an abandoned adoptee who was made homeless as a teenager, I have a perspective that most are overlooking and it is affecting MANY adoptees.
B. Decoding your DNA, Traci Onders & Amanda Reno
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
DNA and genealogy are powerful tools to help you fill in the missing pieces in your family tree. Tests such as Ancestry DNA and 23 and me, as well as others, are being used to help solve for unknown parentage and find birth or biological family for individuals who are adopted, donor conceived, or have misattributed parentage. Join us for a review of the basics including how to formulate a testing plan, important terminology to understand, relationship possibilities based on amount of shared DNA, how to make the most of your test results and the powerful tools available at the testing companies, and successfully communicating with DNA matches.
Session 2 2:30 PM - 4:00 PM
A. Rewriting the Truth: Making Room for Adoptee Narratives, Liz DeBetta
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Poetry and expressive writing has the ability to heal and transform by allowing the writer to emotionally express pain and trauma in a way that not only releases accumulated stress, but also creates a connection to others. In this workshop adoptees will learn the theory behind creative expression and the healing of trauma and put it into practice by generating their own poetry and prose to express grief, loss, and emotional pain. Learning the benefits of using writing as a tool to manage emotions and process them is beneficial for adoptees, adoptive parents, therapists, and first families. Join me to explore the therapeutic links between expressive writing and healing of trauma and learn how to build a narrative through poetry that helps integrate the loss of the original family and self to create knowledge and understanding that facilitates psychological growth and can help organize the emotional effects of the primal wound. This is an introductory workshop for all members of the constellation geared toward introducing them to the benefits of expressive writing as a way of acknowledging and processing complex feelings. The workshop will culminate in sharing stories to be positively witnessed (if participants choose), which creates an opportunity to grieve in a healthy community.
B. The Need for Nourishment: Adopted People and Disordered Eating, Katy Perkins, LCSW-S
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Eating disorders (ED) are lethal and rarely discussed in the adoption community. ED thrives on secrecy, shame, fear, trauma, and internalized oppression – all common to the adoption experience. The desire to fit in and/or fade away is interconnected with food, nourishment, and well-being of self. By acknowledging the experience of family separation as traumatic, we open the door to evaluating the relationship with food as an expression of trauma, identity, and human development. This workshop will explore the connection between nourishment, adoption, and disordered eating.
Session 3 4:15 PM - 5:45 PM
A. Connect, Express, Breathe, Sara Easterly, Shae Lee, & Anna Grundström
CEUs: 1.5 Total for LMSWs, LPCs, LMFTs
Group gatherings—especially when adoptees get together—can be exhilarating, normalizing, validating, uplifting, totally fun, and more. Emotions can fly high… and, yet, sometimes these spaces can surprise us by activating old wounds of loneliness, abandonment, and exclusion. Am I good enough? Nobody likes me. If I don’t fit in among adoptees, will I ever fit in? Adoptees Sara Easterly, Shae Lee, and Anna Grundström have gone down the metaphorical dark alleys where self-attacking thoughts like these can lead us and have found that expressing our hearts and moving our bodies can offer a way back to the light. Join us for writing prompts, sharing, and somatic work designed to release stuck emotions and remind you that you’re not alone.
B. Adoption Coercion Today, Renee Gelin
In this session you'll learn about the family preservation work that SOS does and also experience coercion that Mothers have experienced across the country in recent years.
*The times listed above are in Central Daylight Time