With the current COVID-19 pandemic, we’re hearing from many families who are either experiencing additional challenges related to limited access to therapy and social isolation, or are struggling to find support for existing challenges when so many services are unavailable.
Most of us recognize that our children benefit from routine, and that they absorb the stress that we are experiencing as parents, so it’s not surprising that families are needing additional support right now. One of the great things about our HCAF community is that there are so many parents who can identify with what your family is working on. Many times there are people who can direct you to resources that worked for them.
Here are a couple questions that have come our way recently. Please use the comments to share your experiences, and any resources that you’ve found to be helpful. (Note: This is not a replacement of professional advice from a trained therapist.)
HCAF has always been a wonderful community of adoptive families who are there for each other. The supportive nature of our camp and organization are here for you now and always. We have to stick together – it’s what we do!
Question #1
“I am writing to you as a parent of an adopted 14 year old boy who I suspect is struggling with RAD. We’ve been coming to camp for years. Lately his behaviors are escalating and we are at our wits end and not sure what to do. I have been looking at residential boarding programs but there are so many, they are extremely expensive and it is hard to know which programs are effective.
Would you know of any programs that support kids with RAD, or other parents that have experienced the same thing? It is so hard to get a diagnosis, and to get a counselor (we have had several and failed) who can be effective.”
Question #2
“We would love to hear from other families who have experience with wilderness programs, and whether they found them to be effective. We have tried conventional therapy with our teen since she was young. I’ve heard of other families who have enrolled their adopted children in wilderness programs, but I have questions about whether it could possibly re-traumatize someone and make things worse. I’m hoping to help my teen acknowledge their struggles, get to the root of the problem, and build healthy coping skills.”
Khesed Wellness is offering affordable video & phone therapy during the COVID-19 social distancing in Colorado: http://www.khesedwellness.com
Faith Holloway
5280 Counseling
720-773-1548
Offers virtual therapy
Does anyone have a therapy contact in the San Francisco Bay Area? The shelter-in-place in California is bringing up a lot of issues for my son (13 years old) and we could use some help with someone who is knowledgeable about adoption issues that come on with puberty.
Therapists have moved their practices online. Reach out to a local therapist to get support. That might also be the best place to resource residential treatment centers and wilderness camps. Especially during this stressful time, or maybe more than ever during this time, a Facebook group called Parenting with Connection offers a wealth of connected parenting support and parents who are in the trenches now or have been in past.
Know you are not alone.
Our family has benefited from play therapy through Play Therapy Connection, although currently we are only able to have video talk sessions for our son. I know other HC families have traveled to our south Denver area for intensive sessions.
We are also completing family therapy through Tennyson Center for Children. They offered in-home sessions and one-on-one sessions with our son.
Talk to Gina Heumann, camp family, who has written a book about this and can be a great resource to you. Her son and family dealt with this. Her email is ginaheumann@hotmail.com and she is also on Facebook.
In response to Q#1: There were two people from the “Institute for Attachment” program at the camp parent ed sessions last year. I have no personal experience with them but thought their presentation was relevant and very interesting. We don’t live in CO, but if we did I would consider checking them out.
Our experience with therapists and outpatient programs in our area is the consistent lack of knowledge and experience with “international adoption and how it impacts the adoptee’s attachments”. Cookie-cutter programs and traditional therapies do not seem to make room for the importance of this component in the well-being of our kids. (my opinion only)
The two people who were at camp last year:
1. Roxanne Thompson, Clinical Director (I think she has a long history of working with RAD and came out of retirement to get involved with this clinic)
2. Shelli Myles, Neurotherapist, she did a presentation on neurofeedback and I think she has several internationally adopted kids herself. She was there with another business but does work with this clinic, too)
https://www.instituteforattachment.org