All of these workshops will be available for continuing education credits. Workshop dates will be announced and these workshops are also available for presentation at your agency, clinic or organization.
Consultation and supervision on infertility and adoption topics; client-staff relationships or your specific psychotherapy cases are available.
To arrange for professional workshops, consultations or supervision, contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
Ages and Stages in Adoption: Implications for Parenting
This workshop is designed for professionals seeking to learn more about the adoptive parents’ journey, and how that affects their dealing with both the adoption process and adoptive parenthood. Beginning with when parents first consider adoption, moving on to their experience of the adoption process, and finally exploring and identifying the simultaneous issues that parents and children experience in relation to the ages and stages of children’s understanding of adoption issues will be discussed.
It is critical for a professional working with adoptive families to understand the parents’ journey. How the parents experience their own adoption issues has major impact on how they are able to help their children to deal with their adoption issues. We will discuss the psychotherapeutic models that can help adoptive families develop attachments and elicit strengths in the children and other family members.
You will learn:
How to understand the psychological issues of adoptive parents who begin parenthood in the context of complex loss and emotion
How to help adoptive parents to understand the ages and stages children go through
How to understand adoption in a way that is mindful of the psychological issues and needs of these parents
How to address specific issues for parents who have adopted domestically
How to address specific issues for parents who have adopted internationally
If you are interested in this program or for more information, contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
The Challenges of the Agency-Client Relationship in Adoption: Managing Expectations and Realities
This workshop is for adoption agency staff and adoption professionals who would like to have a better understanding of the mindset of prospective adoptive parents. We will examine how this mindset often interferes with forming optimal relationships with the adoption agencies, dealing with the adoption process and focusing on and learning about the adoptive parenting they are about to embark on.
You will learn:
How to understand the mindset of prospective adoptive parents who are becoming parents in the context of complex loss and emotions
How to improve the client-agency relationship to increase the clients’ trust in and communication with the agency
How to manage the psychological issues that make it difficult for clients to take in pre-adoption education while in the process of adopting
HOW and WHEN agencies can give clients information that they will best absorb
WHO can provide adoption education that clients can really take in
The kinds of supports that help adoptive parents during and after the adoption process
While everyone agrees on the content that prospective adoptive parents need to learn, there has been inconsistent success with managing their expectations and their understanding of the realities of the adoption process and adoptive parenting. The goals of this workshop are designed to help you to improve your strategy in preparing clients to become successful adoptive parents, and to minimize the risk of adoption disruptions.
If you are interested in this program or for more information, contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
How to Add an Emotional Layer to Your Adoption Program – Workshop or Consultation
This can be a workshop or a consultation service for administrators and professionals working at adoption agencies. Incorporating an understanding of mindset of pre-adoptive parents can help you to:
Plan and improve aspects of your program
Manage client’s needs during the wait
Optimize the incorporation of pre-adoption education
Optimize the awareness of post-adoption services
Improve client and staff communication
The relationship between pre-adoptive parents and their adoption agency is complicated due to some natural differences in priorities. Clients’ are usually reluctant to share their grief about the losses that brought them to adoption and their anxiety about the adoption process and adoptive parenting. And these are precisely the emotional underpinnings that impact the way they handle every aspect of the adoption process, including the client-agency relationship and their expectations and the realities in adoption. This workshop or consultation offers your agency a way to address these elephants in the room and to develop immediately usable communication strategies, programs and systemic adjustments. In effect, You will be able to create minor changes that will decrease the stress in the adoption experience for both the clients and the agency staff.
Some agencies prefer this workshop as a private consultation so that their particular needs can be addressed. In fact we have found that a consultation process works best when set up in phases including: assessment, dialogue, goal setting, implementation and follow up.
If you are interested in this program or for more information, contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
How to Add an Emotional Layer to Your Infertility Program – Workshop or Consultation
This workshop or consultation service is for administrators and professionals working in private practices or infertility programs. A more clear understanding of the infertility patient’s psychology will help you plan and improve every step of your program in relation to client service and to decrease staff stress at the same time.
This workshop could also be called: Addressing the elephants in the room. It is not uncommon for infertility patients to feel emotional, and to be unclear or unable to control how they communicate with their doctor or nurses. This can cause additional stress for the patients as well as the professionals, and is not the most productive way of serving these patients.
You will learn:
The psychosocial aspects of infertility
The six phases infertility patients typically go through
How to identify the phase a particular patient is in for the purpose of improved communication
Specific communication skills with infertility patients
How to implement IAC Center’s checkpoint system for infertility programs (This system should decrease stress for both patients and professionals)
We have found that this workshop is most effective as a consultation process set up in phases including: assessment, dialogue, goal setting, implementation and follow up.
If you are interested in this program or formore information, contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
Helping Professional Stress Disorder
Learn skills and systems to deal with the emotional challenges of working with infertility and/or adoption clients, so that you can experience greater personal work satisfaction and productivity.
In this workshop you will learn about:
Symptoms and Risks of “Compassion Fatigue”
How to recognize this in yourself and others
Information about prevention, resilience and treatment
Specific strategies on awareness, lifestyle balance and connecting with others
This workshop will be scheduled soon. If you have an immediate interest, or for more information contact Joni Mantell, IAC Center Director at JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com
Other IAC Center Workshops of interest to professionals
These workshops are also offered for continuing education credit and will be of interest to professionals.
Crossing the Bridge from Infertility to Adoption – NASW CE credits for 5 hours will be available upon request.
Family Stories: Creating and Parenting Children through Adoption and Donor Origins – NASW CE credits for 6 hours will be available upon request.
Understanding Open Adoption Today – NASW CE credits for 5 hours will be available upon request.
Transracial Adoptive Family Issues – NASW CE credits for 3 hours will be available upon request.
Parenting the Older Adopted Child – NASW CE credits for 5 hours will be available upon request.
See Workshops for other topics of interest to you and to your clients. Some workshops may work to fulfill Home Study Requirements for your clients. IAC Center will issue Certificates of Attendance with your approval. Contact JMantellMSW@iaccenter.com if you would like more information about this option.
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