Continuing Education

Events

Introduction to Open Adoption: First Person Accounts

Date: March 9 9:00am - 5:00pm Location: York Graduate Center - Room 115, Graduate Campus

What is open adoption? How does it work? Is it confusing to the participants? Is it sustainable? 

As counselors and therapists, we will all work with clients who are affected by adoption in some way. For instance when working with an individual or couple considering placing a child for adoption, or when working with an individual, couple or family where open adoption already exists and the families involved encounter challenges. 

This workshop will offer counselors and therapists an introduction to open adoption and adoption ethics including:

• Overview of open adoption when facilitated by an agency or adoption lawyer

• Ethical concerns around birth certificate access, coercion, etc. 

• Impact of social media on the adoption process

• Community resources for clinicians and clients

As a framework to explore open adoption from many perspectives, workshop content will draw from blogs and interviews exploring personal experiences from people involved in adoption. Examples of how adoption is portrayed in popular media will also be explored. 

Based on participant needs and interests, specific issues that arise in open adoption will also be addressed, for instance: transracial adoption; same sex partner adoption; single parent adoption; adoption ethics; desires for different levels or types of openness within open adoptions; open adoption and social media; and post-placement grief.

A note for non-clinicians:  This workshop is open to non-clinicians interested in pursuing open adoption and wanting to explore common issues that arise in adoption, however workshop content is primarily geared toward professional counselors and therapists. 

Workshop Details & Registration

Date:  Saturday, March 9, 2013

Time:  9 a.m. - 5 p.m.  

Instructors: Meg Jeske, M.A., and Heather Schade

Noncredit/CEU:  7 hours, $125 by 2/22, $150 after. $40 students. Lunch is included. Reduced student spaces are limited. 

Register now

• To ensure your place and to avoid cancellation due to insufficient enrollment, please register no later than two weeks before your course or workshop is scheduled to begin. 

About the Presenters

Meg Jeske, M.A. ‘09 is a therapist in private practice who supports individuals and couples around gender, sexuality, parenting, adoption, grief and loss. She is also an adoptive parent in a transracial, open adoption. Meg received her M.A. in Counseling Psychology from the Lewis & Clark Graduate School of Education and Counseling in 2009.

Heather Schade is a mother through open adoption and is the caretaker of Open Adoption Bloggers, a network of writers from all sides of adoption.