Thursday, November 8, 2012

Helping Your Decision to Adopt - Upcoming Webinars


Gladney Center's Taiwan Adoption Program is pleased to host a 2 part webinar with guest speakers Dr. A. Jordan Wright and Dr. Courtney Rennicke on Friday, November 16th beginning at 12:00pm EST.

In international adoption, varying amounts of background and evaluation information are available with respect to any specific child. Where information is available, the information is viewed by prospective adoptive parents as a way to begin understanding a child’s level of emotional and cognitive functioning. In the United States we have seen that psychological testing and therapy can be highly beneficial when working hand in hand, but we have also seen how misdiagnosing or inaccurate descriptions of behaviors and symptoms can lead to incorrect conclusions about a child.
Many adoptive parents considering the adoption of a toddler or older child have questions as they consider the adoption of a specific child:
  • What are his/her strengths and weaknesses?
  • What might be some considerations for educational planning?
  • What would be fair to expect at this point in time?
  • What might his/her needs be in the future?
  • Who can I work with to improve my interactions with him/her?
This two-part webinar series is intended to encourage parents in their adoption decisions by demystifying the role of pre-adoption psychological evaluations and post-adoption family therapy.

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Presenters:

A. Jordan Wright, Ph.D., ABAP specializes in psychological testing and assessment and is the author of Conducting Psychological Assessment: A Guide for Practitioners (Wiley, 2011). A diplomate in assessment psychology from the American Board of Assessment Psychology (ABAP) and a Fellow of the American Academy of Assessment Psychology, he has provided assessment services for many years, including psychodiagnostic, cognitive (especially learning disorders and ADHD), emotional, and personality assessment. He has also been on faculty and taught/supervised psychological testing and assessment at Columbia University and is the Director of Training at the New York Milton H. Erickson Society for Psychotherapy and Hypnosis (NYSEPH).

Dr. Courtney Rennicke is a Columbia University trained clinical psychologist that specializes in treating adopted and foster care children and their families. Dr. Rennicke has been trained extensively in Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, Dan Hughes, Ph.D. model of attachment-focused family psychotherapy. She is the President and Co-founder of the Adoption Foster Care Therapist Network and Director of Rennicke & Associates, a private psychotherapy group practice in New York City.

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Note that each webinar must be registered for separately.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER - Part 1: Understanding Psychological Assessments

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER – Part 2: Understanding the Role of Family Therapy in Supporting Healthy Attachment

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

National Adoption Awareness Month Calendar

Free Handout: 2012 National Adoption Month Calendar: 30 Ways to Celebrate Adoption
 
Adoptive Families Magazine has published a November 2012 Calendar with 30 Ways to Celebrate National Adoption Awareness Month. Click here to access this printable calendar.


Wednesday, October 31, 2012

China Heritage Tours

White Swan Hotel Courtyard
 
For Taiwan adoptive families who may also have children adopted from China, are you unable to participate in the China Winter Tour, but still dream of going back to China? Through Gladney China Heritage Tours you can create a customized tour for your family! We will work with you to create a preliminary itinerary, based on when you want to travel and your specific ideas about what you would like to see and do. Then, Gongzhan and his experienced team in China will handle all the travel details.
 
If you are interested in planning a trip for your family, please visit and explore our Gladney Asia website (www.gladneyasia.org) or contact us at chinaheritagetours@gladney.org.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Our Featured Photo

 
This month our featured newsletter header photo was taken at a market place in Seoul, South Korea by Karen Kwan. Karen interned at Gladney's New York office last year and keeps in touch with us all. After receiving her masters degree in social work from Columbia University this past May, Karen moved back to Hong Kong. She is happy to be close to her family and is enjoying traveling.
 
Each month we enjoy selecting photos taken in Asia for our newsletter. Please email Lydia at ljjmacci@aol.com if you have a photo you would like to have featured.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Fu-O-Lantern Pumpkin Carving Pattern

Fu is the character meaning Good Fortune.
It is that time of year again. Time to buy those pumpkins and carve lucky Chinese characters on them! Here is the link to the Fu-O-Lantern carving page. The pattern and pictures of a pumpkin carved with it are there. http://www.bartlett-sloan.net/fulantern.html

Reposted from Families From Children from China, New York, Kirby Bartlett-Sloan, wukong@bellsouth.net

Friday, October 19, 2012

Michelle's Essay

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Michelle Y., 12, was adopted from Changzhou City
Children's Welfare Institute in 2001

In the Gladney Moments section of our newsletter, we enjoy featuring articles from and about our families. More and more families are sharing special pieces their children have written or projects they are involved in that relate to China or adoption. One such piece is an essay written by Michelle last year in sixth grade. The assignment was to write an essay about "What would you most like to improve about yourself?"

The paragraph below is an excerpt from Michelle's entire essay which can be found here.

"If I could speak Chinese fluently, I would take a trip to China. I want to see the orphanage where I grew up and talk to the people that work there. I want to know what the situation was like when I was there and find out if they knew my birthparents. This would help me understand what it was like when I was a baby in China. I have photos of the person who took care of me in the orphanage. She was a girl who grew up in the orphanage and was never adopted because of her skin condition (albinism). I think it would be nice and thoughtful if I traveled back to China and thanked my caretaker in Chinese."

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter

Did you know that Gladney's Asia programs have Facebook pages and a Twitter account? Facebook and Twitter are a great way to quickly and easily get the latest information about what's going on in our Asia programs. You can also share your exciting adoption news on our Facebook pages or send us a tweet!
 
Be sure to "Like" our Facebook pages and to follow us on Twitter today! On Facebook, we can be found by searching Gladney Center - Taiwan Adoption Program and Gladney Center - China Adoption Program. Our Twitter name is GladneyAsia.