Training for adoptive parents - what works?

[Devora]

I've had almost no training since adopting 5 years ago - one useless and expensive day course that i paid for myself.

I am feeling really under-resourced. MN is great but as dd grows and her needs and issues change I'm feeling unprepared for the task. I've had an assessment for post-adoption support and the assessor suggested ongoing support, maybe family therapy, but social services translated this into 'needs a reading list'.

dd is getting play therapy at school, funded by PPP.

I've been trawling websites but getting increasingly confused about what's on offer. Most seems to be short courses on particular issues, but I'm not even sure what I need most.

Any advice or recommendations?

Hi Devora, I'm a total novice and not even placed yet but if you look for Inspired Foundations on Twitter and FB she seems to coordinate quite a few training events for adopters.

I think our LA are pretty good in comparison with that - I'm sorry you've not had a good experience. I've been offered quite a lot of different things, but of the ones I've attended, the most helpful were either a) individual support such as counselling or theraplay, or b) workshops attended by a good mix of other adopters so we could all learn from each other. Those were on play techniques, building attachment, and on managing strong feelings. They were generally run by in-house experts (clinical psychologists, family support workers, specialist parent trainers etc). If your LA doesn't do much, do any of the neighbouring LAs/VAs offer anything you could access?

I've found the theraplay sessions very useful - we have them once a month, and a separate reflection session (without LO) where the therapist reviews film footage with me from the play session. The reflective sessions are valuable breathing space to think about what I'm doing, and what reactions it gets. The theraplay games are also things we can then do together again at home on our own. For me, the balance of time to talk and be heard on my own, and work with LO, has been really good.

Family futures does courses I think.

I'd be game to do one - they often reduce the price for self-funding parents

www.familyfutures.co.uk/adoption-training/