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This flexible program is designed with the working professional in mind. Each course can be taken as a stand-alone workshop.
For mental health therapists, a full postgraduate certificate can be earned by completing all workshops, online courses, and case consultation components. Case consultation is a unique skill building opportunity for therapists to integrate learning with the course instructor following the workshop. All courses are offered one time per year. Professionals can enter the program at any time during the year. Mental health therapists completing the full certificate have two years to finish all coursework and certificate requirements.
See the Certificate Info link on the left for complete certificate requirements.
Training formats include face-to-face sessions held at Portland State University’s downtown Portland campus, online Blackboard, and video streaming. See the Technical Requirements page for more information. Instructors are national, regional, and local experts in the field of adoption therapy. See the Faculty page for instructor bios.
2008-09 Workshops, Courses and Case Consultations
| 7.0 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTORS | Francine Florendo, Toni Ferguson |
| DATES | Fri Sep 12 8:30am-5pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $140.00 |
By its very nature, adoption involves a dynamic array of systems, including governmental, institutional, and legal bureaucracies. This session addresses the impact those systems have on adoption. Topics include Child Protective Services (CPS), juvenile court oversight of DHS and families, Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA), sibling policy, permanency planning and the Oregon Safety Model. Learn about the placement stages: selecting families, adoption committees, transitioning children, finalization process, and post adoption services. Explore how DHS, therapists, and families can work together to assist in making placements successful. A dynamic panel shares the real impact of these processes on their families.
| 5.5 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTORS | Jeanne A. Howard, Susan L. Smith |
| DATES | Sat Sep 13 8:30am-3:30pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $115.00 |
This session examines the central elements of adoption preservation and effective response to families in crisis, including de-escalating child behavior problems. Learn about the common dynamics in troubled placements and how to intervene on multiple levels to assist children in developing an integrated, positive sense of self. This training explores the factors that are most likely to cause challenges for children and their families such as the impact of trauma, loss, and identity issues, and how these issues evolve over the course of the child’s development. It addresses interventions that promote family functioning, including using life storybooks in therapy and enhancing attachments in adoptive and permanent foster families.
Bonus! Case Consultation| 1.5 CEU hours | |
| DATES | Sat Sep 13 3:30-5:00pm |
| FEES | $25.00 |
| 10 CEU hours | |
| SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT | Gerald Mallon |
| ONLINE FACILITATOR | Doris Dodson |
| DATES | Oct 1-31, 2008 |
| LOCATION | Distance Education |
| FEES | $140.00 |
This class explores the core clinical issues: attachment and bonding, loss and grief, divided loyalties, identity, issues of control, and entitlement and gratitude. These core clinical issues are considered across the developmental stages. It introduces some therapeutic techniques for working with families and uses case vignettes to illustrate. Participants gain a fuller understanding of the importance of competent practice in working with families affected by adoption.
| 5.5 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTOR | Diane V. Malbin |
| DATES | Fri Nov 14 8:30am-3:30pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $115.00 |
Professionals and parents must first understand the link between brain development and behavior before they can develop skills to support children who have neurological challenges. Recent research confirms that abuse, neglect, and trauma can impact a child’s brain. Likewise, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD) and other alcohol and drug-related neurological disorders can shape a child’s behavior and relationships. This class identifies the common phenomenon of children accumulating numerous DSM diagnoses, such as autism, ADD/ADHD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, and Oppositional Defiant Disorder. It suggests that the greater the number of diagnoses, the greater the likelihood of underlying brain involvement. Explore the importance of identifying FASD to assist families in reframing behaviors and understanding primary and secondary behavioral symptoms. Learn skills for coaching families to develop accommodations for their neurologically impaired child.
Bonus! Case Consultation| 1.5 CEU hours | |
| DATES | Fri Nov 14 3:30-5:00pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $25.00 |
| 5.5 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTOR | David W. Willis, M.D. |
| DATES | Sat Nov 15 8:30am-3:30pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $115.00 |
Exciting new brain research indicates that positive relationships can rewire and repair the damage from trauma, abuse, and alcohol/drug related neurological disorders. Compare normal childhood development and its tasks with development clouded by abuse, neglect, and trauma. Learn about intervention strategies such as affect regulation, Circle of Security, sensory integration, early identification of neurodevelopmental profile risk, parent education on expected behavioral/ developmental patterns, the role of psychopharmacological interventions, and, most importantly, the healing power of relationships. Identify specialized parenting skills to promote positive neurological progress.
Bonus! Case Consultation| 1.5 CEU hours | |
| SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT | Joyce McGuire Pavao |
| ONLINE FACILITATOR | Doris Dodson |
| DATES | Nov 15 3:30-5pm |
| LOCATION | Distance Education |
| FEES | $25.00 |
| 10 CEU hours | |
| SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT | Joyce McGuire Pavao |
| ONLINE FACILITATOR | Doris Dodson |
| DATES | January 1-31, 2009 |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $140.00 |
Attachment issues are endemic to children who have experienced abuse and neglect. This course presents attachment-oriented theory, addresses how to diagnose reactive attachment disorder (RAD), and explores the various interventions mental health professionals can offer to parents to facilitate their child's attachment. This course also describes children’s attachment styles and the experiences that may have colored those styles, including infant and international adoptions. Explore the issues of adult attachment difficulties and how they interface with the child's attachment style. Learn to think more carefully about some of the problems that are often misdiagnosed and therefore mistreated. Explore the concept of “normative crises,” the normal transitions in adopted and foster children’s lives that trigger old loss issues. Psychoeducation can help parents normalize behaviors, reduce symptoms, and promote attachment.
| 5.5 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTOR | Dave Ziegler |
| DATES | Fri Feb 13, 2009 8:30am-3:30pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $115.00 |
Trauma and traumatic stress can directly affect the development of affect regulation and empathy in children. In this class, learn to distinguish between the various trauma and dissociative disorders as listed in the DSM-IV and examine the effects of trauma on children. Understand the hyperarousal continuum and the dissociative continuum. Some of the important elements and goals of trauma treatment include: de-condition harmful emotional responses and work to build a new internal self-view. This class builds on the previous Impact of Abuse class by continuing to explore the brain and trauma, including the hopeful new work in neuroplasticity. It includes extensive coverage of treatment approaches and coaching strategies for work with parents.
Bonus! Case Consultation| 1.5 CEU hours | |
| DATES | Fri Feb 13, 2009 3:30-5pm |
| FEES | $25.00 |
| 5.5 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTOR | Dave Ziegler |
| DATES | Sat Feb 14, 2009 8:30am-3:30pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland campus |
| FEES | $115.00 |
The Oregon Department of Human Services reports that many children who are adopted or in foster care have been sexually abused. This training explores the impact of sexual abuse on children throughout their development. The aftermath of sexual abuse affects the child but also has a significant impact on the adoptive or foster family. This training introduces research-based practices and interventions to assist families in facilitating positive sexual development following the aftermath of sexual abuse, including interventions for trauma-related behaviors, promoting positive sexual identification, and coaching parents to promote healthy relationships to increase well being and minimize problem behaviors. Consideration is given to selecting and preparing families for parenting children recovering from sexual abuse and creating safety plans.
Bonus! Case Consultation| 1.5 CEU hours | |
| DATES | Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:30-5pm |
| FEES | $25.00 |
| 10 CEU hours | |
| SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT | Carol Spigner |
| ONLINE FACILITATOR | Doris Dodson |
| DATES | March 1-31, 2009 |
| LOCATION | Distance Education |
| FEES | $140.00 |
Issues of difference, identity, and belonging affect adopted children and adoptive parents alike. Adoptive parents may feel they are different from biological parents because of the circumstances surrounding adoption. Children feel confusion because of their histories and connections to two families. The differences may be compounded by additional issues brought on by transracial or transcultural adoptions, adoption by gay or lesbian couples, single parents, and adoption by a child’s relatives. Diversity is a major theme of adoption given the demographics of children needing families, changing family forms, and globalization of adoption. In the public child welfare system, waiting children are disproportionately children of African American and Native American heritage. Clinicians need tools to tailor their interventions to the cultural, social, and familial dynamics that shape the family’s experiences.
This course presents a framework for understanding diverse families. Topics include identity, the impact of social stigma on the functioning of the family, the subtle social and environmental issues that affect the stability of adoption, the cultural context of diverse families, and the dynamics of relative adoptions. The professionals also explore their own identity, background, and potential biases that may impact their work.
| 10 CEU hours | |
| SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT | Richard Delaney |
| ONLINE FACILITATOR | Doris Dodson |
| DATES | April 1-30, 2009 |
| LOCATION | Distance Education |
| FEES | $140.00 |
Often adopted and foster children exhibit behavioral challenges, learning disorders, and other special needs that defy traditional parenting techniques, tax educational and social services, and exact a toll on the child and family. This session provides a detailed framework for understanding significant behavioral problems and relationship difficulties in special-needs adoptions. Emphasis is placed on practical ways for mental health providers to consult with adoptive and foster parents on dealing with classic problems such as food issues/eating disorders, lying, stealing, bedwetting, encopresis, sleep problems, anger outbursts, fire setting, and parentified behavior. This session focuses on understanding behavior problems in the context of the child’s history of past exposure to maltreatment and to dysfunctional family roles. This session provides numerous case examples and illustrative interventions.
| 14 CEU hours | |
| INSTRUCTOR | Deborah Gray |
| DATES | Fri May 15, 2009 8:30am-5pm and Sat May16, 2009 8:30am-5pm |
| LOCATION | Portland State University, Portland Campus |
| FEES | $280.00 |
This two-day workshop provides best practices for professionals working with families raising children with many complicated issues. This class applies the concepts and skills learned throughout the program, including practical, yet flexible ways to integrate children into their new families. The overlapping themes between grief and trauma are addressed: hypervigilance, avoidance of loss, and anger and guilt. Develop home and school approaches that encourage children to flourish even after trauma and neglect. Participants learn protocols for family centered therapy for this specialty population, including the development and implementation of treatment plans. Adoptive and foster families need professionals who thoroughly prepare and support them – not just through the placement/adoption process but also as the family grows.
NOTE
This course is mandatory for therapists earning a certificate but can be taken by other therapists. It is not open to child welfare professionals.
It is highly recommended that all previous courses be completed prior to this class.
The prerequisite for this course is completion of at least five classes (three workshops and two online courses). Both Friday and Saturday must be completed together. It is also highly recommended that this class be taken face to face to increase the opportunities for practice discussions. However, it is available via video streaming.
