Adoption, attachment and the making of therapy pets
August 11, 2008
Imaginif has made a commitment and we have adopted Misty and Bluey, from the Young Animal Protection Society (YAPS), to act as therapy pets and watch dogs at Imaginif (picture below as dogs say goodbye to Jess from YAPS).
It is well recognised that early trauma can affect a child’s ability to securely attach to a care giver and others. What about dogs though? What does trauma do to their attachment? Would it prevent Misty and Bluey from working as therapy dogs for traumatised children?
At Imaginif we retrain parents and foster carers in re intuitive parenting of children with attachment disordered behaviour. We train the carers to guess what the child may need prior to the child having to ask, demand or act out and to continually restate house rules in a calm manner. This is similar to parenting a wee baby unable to verbalise their needs or guess our routine. Would it work with a traumatised dog?
Attachment parenting from birth recognises what a baby may need (by their cry, time of day, environmental responses, etc) and acts to fill the need to keep the baby safe, secure and content. Some carers find the process acceptable for babies but silly for big kids and refuse to engage in re intuitive parenting for 12 year olds (they can just ask if they want something). Without early needs of attachment ever met (even at age 12), those are the children that go on to have broken placement after broken placement. Never allowed to feel secure and cared for, the child does not have an opportunity to work through their trauma and separation issues in a supportive and responsive environment. Therefore, their trauma comes out as bad behaviour rather than words that help heal themselves. Are dogs any different to this process?
We recently fostered two dogs from YAPS. Abandoned and scheduled to be euthanased by the Council, YAPS rescued the dogs from their death sentence and endeavoured to rehouse the dogs together. I wanted to rehome, but could I cope with it. What if the dogs turned vicious because of their trauma of interrupted attachment? What if I took them and it all turned pear shaped? Would I further harm the dogs by rejecting them?
Emotionally wary and concerned of the cost and commitment of caring for two dogs, let alone one, Imaginif fostered for one week while we made a committed and informed decision to adopt. While we were assured that the dogs were of placid nature and got along with little people, my head was swimming with the real behavioural and psychological affects of people abandonment and abuse. Given we are busy at Imaginif, deal daily with traumatised children and adults and live in the city, the last thing we wanted was to further traumatise two emotionally constipated dogs who entered pound land through no fault of their own. On top of that, I did not want a dog to growl, bark, and bite or savage an already traumatised child at Imaginif.
Stop being a therapist, Megan Bayliss! Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and certainly a dog is just a dog! Some dogs may well react because of their abandonment and severed attachment but these dogs obviously had a solid start to life (if only we could manage that for all children) because they appear relatively unaffected by their abandonment. Mind you, they follow me around likes rats and the Pied Piper.
Attachment began on day one of the foster placement. After a little second guessing on both sides, dogs and humans fell into line together. As the major carer, I took immediate control (boss woman) and set the parameters. Used to the process of re intuitive parenting, I intuitively guessed the dog’s needs (pats, pees and positives) without becoming overly soft and babying the dogs. The rules have continually been restated (thanks to spray bottles and squirts of water in the face when dogs bark or jump on furniture – DO NOT parent a child like that though) and praise has been afforded at every opportunity (DO parent a child like that).
While I am not a walker, I am now walking dogs and playing a lot of ball in the back yard (below adoption day party games with boy child)…not dissimilar to the hundreds of games I’ve played with children when all I wanted to do was go back to my computer! We are off to dog counselling (obedience classes) and I am prepared to put the work into behavioural modification (therapy) should issues arise. Why: because I have made an informed and responsible attachment decision to rehome two homeless dogs.
Child and adult clients at Imaginif have welcomed Misty and Bluey with open arms. The dog’s sad stories of being left for dead has positively affected therapeutic conversations around what people need, how to overcome grief issues and what it is like to attach to another person or animal. Without doing more than wag, smile and be hugged, Misty and Bluey are working as therapy dogs and helping to heal children from the abuse that big people have perpetrated against children.
Imaginif has made a firm commitment and we have adopted the beautiful Misty and Bluey from YAPS. The therapy dogs are here to stay. Welcome Misty and Bluey Imaginif…we love you.
Disruptive adoption from the adoptee’s point of view
March 18, 2008
Currently in the United States, adoptions are being promoted as the “cure” for foster care, and a panacea to all permanency issues. And yet, across America, there are a growing number of adoptions that dissolve after finalization.
The highest disruption rate is for children who are adopted as teenagers.
Also at higher risk are:
- Children who are separated from their siblings.
- Children who have been sexually abused
- Children who have been adopted before and that adoption failed
The term ‘disrupted adoption’ sounds like it was coined in order to minimize the emotional impact. It brings to mind phrases like: “The television program was disrupted by a commercial break,” or a teacher saying to her class, “Be quiet. I will tolerate no more disruptions!”
Perhaps it’s a subtle way to assign blame to the child. Could it be a lingering accusation of insubordination? Does it imply that the child is an intruder, disrupting the customary order of their adoptive parents’ household?
A friend of mine who was adopted from foster care was recently reading a blog entry from an adoptive parent whose complaint was: “I guess we just thought that we would love him sooner. He is obviously crazy about us, but I just find myself coming home from a long day at work, and wishing he would calm down.”
My friend looked up from the article and commented, “It sounds like they were looking for a puppy.”
Prelude to a Loss
A series of stages have been identified by the University of South Maine that often lead to adoption disruption. First, the adoptive parents become frustrated with the child’s behavior and begin questioning their choice to adopt. They start complaining about the child to other people.
Hopefully the adoptive parents have surrounded themselves with a support group to both comfort and challenge them regarding their parenting skills. It is normal to feel overwhelmed after an adoption, just as many parents go through an adjustment after their child’s birth.
When I became a stepmother, I remember that the transition to ‘instant parent’ wasn’t easy. It took time to define the roles in our relationship, to build trust and to set limits. I knew that it wouldn’t always be easy, and it wasn’t. But I also knew that when I chose to marry my husband, I was making a lifelong commitment to his daughters as well.
Adoption needs to be perceived as a serious commitment. A child is not a defective product. A child cannot be taken out on a trial run. You can’t have buyers’ remorse, and then take that child back for a refund.
And yet, prior to adoption disruption, adoptive parents allow themselves to fantasize about what it would be like if this child were no longer a part of their family. Finally, they issue an ultimatum to the child.
The Aftermath
Most articles about disrupted adoption focus primarily on the emotions of the adoptive parent. But what does it feel like to be the child, undergoing that level of rejection?
For children and teenagers who have experienced disrupted adoptions, this experience impacts both their personal identity and long-term survival.
They often wind up in limbo:
1.) Their birth certificate has been permanently changed. It is now inaccurate, because it lists as parents. They aren’t allowed to have a copy of their original birth certificate without approval from both parents. In fact, they aren’t allowed to have personal documents, such as their (doctored) birth certificate, until they are 21 years old.
2.) Not only can they not rely on their former adoptive families, they are no longer legally related to their siblings. An adoptee explained it to me like this: “We are brother and sister, but on paper, it looks like we aren’t even related. I can’t even be his next of kin.”
3.) As they transition to adulthood, they are often unsure of how to fill out their taxes or the federal student aid application for school. They are asked to “prove” that their adoption was legally disrupted. If their adoptive parents have simply abandoned them, as happens all too often with teenagers, they can’t.
Transitioning young adults are unable to receive benefits such as ETV funds, because they were adopted and the assumption is that their adoptive parents – who have been receiving adoption subsidies for their care – will financially provide for them.
Recommended Policy Changes
Adoption agencies should be held to the standard of full disclosure. Research has demonstrated that parents who understand beforehand about a child’s previous physical or sexual abuse are less likely to disrupt the adoption. Sometimes, such as in the case of international adoption, there might not be a lot of information available. However, inasmuch as it is possible for an agency to fully inform adoptive parents about a child’s background, they should do so.
Screen adoptive parents’ motivations and expectations. Is the adoption based primarily on the needs of the child or the adoptive parent? Many people adopt due to their inability to conceive. Sometimes disruptions occur because parents feel entitled to some wonder-child that they’ve been imagining and the child doesn’t meet those expectations.
Training for adoptive parents should include the “what if” scenarios. What if you adopt a child, and discover that child has been sexually abused? Adoptive parents should be prepared in advance, and encouraged to create a financial and emotion safety net in the event that a child might need residential care.
Facilitate an atmosphere of trust, by allowing the child contact with loved ones. An adoptee shared with me her experiences on the day of her “Goodbye Visits” prior to her adoption. During the course of one day, she had to say goodbye to her birth family, the foster family with whom she had been staying for years and her brother. That day was the most horrific day of her life.
Three months later, her new adoptive parents were upset that she didn’t want to call them “Mom” and “Dad.”
The term Reactive Attachment Disorder makes me nervous because I believe it is a diagnosis that is given too quickly. This label makes it easier to underestimate the resilience of an adoptee and to magnify their problems. It makes it easier to blame the adoptee when things go wrong.
Imagine if someone came to you and said, “You are going to enter the witness protection program. You need to go and say goodbye to all the people that you have ever loved. You can no longer have any contact with them. It is for their safety.”
In a witness protection scenario, national security might be at stake. But whose needs are being met when an adopted child isn’t allowed contact with any loved ones?
When I asked my friend why her adoption meant that she was denied contact with every person that she had ever loved, her explanation was, “Adoptive parents are insecure, especially with older kids. That’s why the government allows them to cut all ties.”
I believe that if her former foster family was safe enough to place her with during the interim, she should have been allowed to maintain contact with them. If she was allowed sibling visits prior to the adoption, they should have been continued afterwards as well.
I would like to invite readers to weigh in on this issue…
Defining ‘permanency;’ should social workers do it, or should the youth themselves?
February 13, 2008
A recent round table of experts, convened by Casey Family Services and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, defined permanency as:
“Having an enduring family relationship that:
- is safe and meant to last a lifetime
- offers the legal rights and social status of full family membership
- provides for all levels of a young person’s development
- assures lifelong connections to extended family, siblings, other significant adults, family history and traditions, race and ethnicity, culture, religion and language.”
These are lofty goals. It’s almost as if a group of people who emerged from a “normal” family looked at everything that they personally had, and said, “Yes, we want foster care youth to have that.” So, they set that as the standard, after taking upon themselves the responsibility to define what that standard is…
Is it realistic? Is it attainable? I don’t know. As a former foster care youth, I found my first “family” in my peers while living in a college dorm. But I did not have the legal rights of full family membership until I was married in 2001.
It is important to note that the child welfare system and youth define permanency differently.
When Urban Instititute and California Youth Connection facilitated focus groups of foster youth to ask them about this issue, some youth referred to permanency as a physical or concrete entity. They said things like: “Staying in one place” and “Not having to move” and “A place to stay until you age out.”
Other young people said, “No, it’s more than a place to live. It’s a feeling of connection.” They defined permanency as an emotional commitment from other people.
One young man described the concept of permanency as being like a permanent marker; he said, “If you draw on the paper, that mark ain’t going nowhere. The paper may go somewhere or it could be picked up, but the mark ain’t going nowhere.”
That is a great image. Think about the people who have made an indelible mark upon your life. Not all of them were connected to you by blood, birth or legal contract.
Now, I am going to suggest something radical here… I believe that the “experts” and the “professionals” should allow the input of foster care youth and alumni to influence how they measure success in the area of permanency.
What do youth say about adoption, guardianship, reunification with their biological family, independent living programs and aging out of foster care?
There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to foster care. The experiences of foster care youth differ according to the situation. Some have found happiness through reuniting with their biological families. Others report being taken advantage of by ‘predatory parents.’
These are the legitimate fears that young people in foster care express:
- “Do you just want to close my case, or am I really safe now?” Many young people fear becoming a ‘closed case.’ The rate of re-entry into the foster care system after an initial attempt at reunification is high.
- “Aren’t I too old for adoption?” Teenagers in United States foster care report that they have learned from past experience that most foster parents are not eager to take teenagers into their homes. They also report their fears that, by being adopted, they might lose access to independent living classes, college tuition assistance and medical insurance.
- “Why should I take that risk (of adoption by a stranger)?” One of the horrors of foster care is its unpredictability. Teenagers who have grown up in the system often know what to expect from independent living programs. They anticipate having some power and control over their personal living situation.
Young people interviewed by the Urban Institute said that when they were placed in a group home or foster home, they had opportunities to leave if they did not like it – but “once you are adopted, you are stuck.”
So, who defines permanency? We live in a pluralistic society, where ‘family’ can be defined in many ways. Perhaps the definition of permanency from the Casey Roundtable was more than just lofty… maybe it was limiting, too.
Foster care alumni often report finding their first experience of “permanency” through friendships and mentoring relationships. A FosterClub intern from Michigan reported finding permanency through her involvement with the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative, which she described as being an ‘emotional parent’ in her life.
The way I see it, the choice is simple: We can keep defining what permanency should look like for a young person and forcing it upon them. Or we can listen to the young people themselves.
Because for a researcher, this is an outcome. For a staff person, this might be a job performance issue. But for a young person in foster care, this is their life.
Scrapathy Life Story Work training
February 1, 2008
What is Life Story Work: Life story work is not merely an elaborate photo album, a record of a life story or a fun thing to do. Life Story work is a three part therapeutic intervention: a process used to assist children in care to integrate past hurts and make sense of why they are in care and who they are. Life Story Work is a tool that therapists and those working closely with kids in out of home care use as a framework of producing best practice outcomes for a subject child.
What is scrapbooking? Scrapbooking is an old hobby that has exploded in popularity over the last five years. The underlying goal is to preserve memories in a unique and creative way. A scrapbooker starts with an archival quality scrapbook and a set of memories that they want to preserve for the future. Those memories can take many different forms - photos, clothing, letters, documents, thoughts. Most scrapbooks take the form of an elaborate and personalised photo album and include memorabilia, embellishments and the artistic personality of album creator.
What is Scrapathy? Scrapathy is the therapeutic marriage of Life Story Work with Scrap book tenets and techniques. Designed to help kids in out of home care creatively integrate their pain and understand who they are, why they are in care and where they are going, it is a hands on practical art therapy course where participants are encouraged to make a scrap book page for themselves and ultimately a scrapbook album of a child or young person’s life story work. Scrapathy works equally as well as a self development or self improvement tool.
Imaginif’s most recent Scrapathy workshop was a private training for a local foster care agency. An amazing work team, they linked the theory behind the therapeutic basis of Life Story Work to child protection practice and produced some amazing Life Story Work beginning pages. These workers will now produce best practice based Life Story Work books for the children on their case loads and train up foster carers to assist in the upkeep of Life Story Work books. Congratulations to them.
Imaginif is holding our next Scrapathy workshop in Cairns (Queensland, Australia) on March 31st, 9 am to 3 pm. Places are limited and pre registration is mandatory. Cost is $150.00 (discount for Imaginif newsletter subscribers) and includes a bag of Life Story Work and scrapbooking tools. For registration details please contact megan at imaginif dot com dot au.
Please note that Scrapathy workshops are only ever held in Cairns, at Imaginif headquarters. While Imaginif travels our other therapeutic trainings, the tools required for the Scrapathy Workshop are all in Imaginif’s training room. As much as we’d like to, there is no way we can take all of the tools on a tour. If you are coming from afar for this training, ask Megan about accommodation options in the area.
Mentoring young people in and from foster care in Australia
January 27, 2008
I have recently had the privilege of getting to know Carissa Neal. In a sense, she and I are sisters, since we both have experienced being in foster care.
Carissa is originally from New South Wales. She comes from a background of abuse and neglect.
When Carissa was nine years old, she ran away from home, taking her little brother with her. She tied her hands to her brother’s with a piece of string, so that she wouldn’t lose him.
Foster care saved her life.
Carissa reports that, “There was love and attention. I went to school. I was cared for, emotionally and physically. Most importantly, I was given a chance to be a normal child.”
One of Carissa’s many strengths is her sunshine personality. Her life motto is: “You can’t change your past, but you can change your future!”
When Carissa aged out of care, she entered an independent living program on the Central Coast. She was unprepared for financial independence. She had never been taught about budgeting, credit reports or setting up payment plans for bills. She didn’t have medical insurance, and wasn’t sure how to handle the expense of visiting a dentist when her wisdom teeth came in…
Fortunately, Carissa is skilled at problem-solving, and willing to consult with other people and listen to their ideas. She was equipped by one of her foster parents to make a list of pro’s and con’s while making big decisions.
The faith Carissa has in herself and her abilities, combined with the emotional investment that other people built into her, has undoubtedly contributed to the success that her life is today.
Memories of the challenges that she faced during her childhood and during her transition to adulthood only serve to fuel Carissa’s passion to reach out to other people. She is recently married, after a three-year engagement, and hopes to become a foster parent someday.
Here are some of the ways that Carissa has contributed to the lives of others:
1. Leading focus groups of young people for Streetwize Communications, a national not-for-profit agency that researches and communicates social issues to young people.
2. Serving as a Young Consultant for CREATE for the past six years and assisting with the training of other Young Consultants.
3. Training foster parents and caseworkers.
4. Giving speeches at forums and dinners about her foster care experience
But that’s not enough for Carissa – she wants more!
Her goal is to start a mentoring group in Australia for young people in and from foster care… Foster care mentoring models have had a positive impact in the United States and the United Kingdom.
If you are willing to support Carissa’s efforts, please email her at: carissa@inspire.org.au
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