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So Many Parents - Managing Relationships Between First/Birth and Adoptive Parents
So Many Parents
Managing Relationships Between First/Birth and Adoptive Parents
Every adopted person has at least two sets of parents (birth/first and adoptive) and maybe several others. How do they make sense of themselves in the context of what is known and what is not? Join a panel of first/birth parents, moderated by Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander (herself an adoptee and a first/birth parent) to discuss how to support your child in relationship with or to their first parent. We will explore open adoptions where contact is ongoing as well as adoptions where contact is challenged and adoption search and reunion. How do or should parents and children relate to adults who have harmed them or are not making healthy choices? Speakers will offer practical guidance as well as research-based insight into how adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents manage their complex feelings about one another with particular emphasis on avoiding interactions that place children in the middle or feeling as if they must choose who to be loyal to.
Featured Speaker: Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander
Susan Dusza Guerra Leksander, LMFT, is a licensed psychotherapist who works with first/birthparents, former foster/adopted youth and adult adoptees in agency and private practice settings. Susan placed her daughter for adoption in 2001 in an “open” adoption, which was subsequently closed by the adoptive parents. She is also a transracial adult adoptee who, with the support of her adoptive parents, reunited with her first/birth families as a teenager. Susan is the author of the “Ask a First (Birth) Mother” column published in Pact’s quarterly newsletter and an On Your Feet Foundation Board Member, where she serves as Chair of the Public Education Committee and co-facilitator for their first/birthmother retreat.
Cost For Non-Members: $42
Pact Members receive a 15% discount on workshops at checkout.