For Foster and Adoptive Parents

Because foster children (and often, by extension, adopted children) have typically been through some type of childhood trauma, it’s important for foster and adoptive parents to be trauma-informed. The following resources offer insight into loving and parenting trauma-affected children:

• Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma (book by Deborah D. Gray)

• The Whole-Brain Child: 12 Revolutionary Strategies to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind (book by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson)

• The Connected Child: Bring Hope and Healing to Your Adoptive Family (book by Karyn B. Purvis, David R. Cross, and Wendy Lyons Sunshine)

• Articles and videos about the Trauma-Based Relational Intervention (TRBI) model developed by the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development

• One Big Happy Home (blog by Ryan and Kayla North)

• Empowered Parent (podcast by One Big Happy Home)

• Empowered to Connect (training for foster and adoptive parents; local ETC training is available through Kathleen and Jerry Guire)

• How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across the Lifetime” (TED Talk by Nadine Burke Harris)

• “Complex Trauma: Understanding and Treatment” (lecture by Dr. Diane Langberg)

• “Child Advocacy Studies: Incorporating ACE Into Undergraduate and Graduate Programs” (presentation by Victor Veith)

• “Like a Footprint in Wet Cement: Understanding Adverse Childhood Experience Research” (webinar by Victor Veith)