Trust‐Based Relational Intervention™: Interactive Principles for Adopted Children With Special Social‐Emotional Needs

Abstract

Children who experience abuse, neglect, and/or   In the united States, there are approximately 127,000 adoptions annually (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2004). Currently, about 15% of these adoptions are intercountry adoptions, 39% are conducted through publicly funded agencies, and 46% are private adoptions. This can be contrasted with data from the early 1990s when, although the total number of children adopted was similar, only 5% were intercountry, 18% were publicly funded, and 77% were private adoptions. Currently, over half of the children adopted are from the child welfare system and from overseas, and many of these children are at risk for various relationship-based disturbances stemming from histories of abuse, neglect, and/or trauma prior to their adoptions by caring families.Despite the stable caring homes that these children are often adopted into, attachment problems, behavioral problems, and social problems are manifested in these children frequently. A recent meta-analysis on the reports of

Adoption Counselors' Perspectives of Counseling Postadoptive Families

“…Our findings provide anecdotal support for trauma and attachment‐focused therapy with adoptive and foster care populations (Carnes‐Holt & Bratton, ; Purvis et al, , ). Although our participants were not exclusively required to implement TBRI therapy, they all relayed witnessing family growth resultant from a TBRI‐informed counseling approach.…”

“…Counseling services were conducted weekly, in‐home, offered for a minimum of 6 months, and often extended for 2 or more years depending on levels of family functioning. At the time of this study, the program was undergoing a systematic shift toward trust‐based relational intervention (TBRI), a counseling approach intended to increase parent and child attachment through interventions grounded in attachment theory and neuropsychology (Purvis et al, , ). Because of wait‐listed TBRI training, the program's clinical director encouraged TBRI, yet permitted counselors to continue to use an integrative family therapy approach.…”

“…Securing a permanent and supportive family home has been associated with positive outcomes for foster care children (Barth, Crea, John, Thoburn, & Quinton, ; Triseliotis, ; Triseliotis, Hill, & Borland, ), yet, the elevated occurrence of chronic emotional–behavioral problems among this population of children can alienate family members, destabilize family units, and result in up to 25% of adoptions being legally dissolved—often referred to as disrupted (Dorsey, Conover, & Revillion‐Cox, ; Purvis, Cross, & Pennings, ). Researchers have found that the stressors associated with adopting a foster care child and the risk of a damaging disruption can be militated in part through access to and participation in adoption services (Barth et al, ; Dorsey et al, ; Hartinger‐Saunders, Trouteaud, & Matos‐Johnson, ; Hussey, Falletta, & Eng, ).…”

“…Parallel to publications across the other helping professions, authors have illustrated the need for parents to obtain counseling and therapeutic support services before, during, and subsequent to adopting (Adkison‐Bradley, DeBose, Terpstra, & Bilgic, ; Janus, ; Stinehart et al, ). Complementary studies examining child‐centered therapies have emphasized play therapy (Carnes‐Holt, ; Carnes‐Holt & Bratton, ) and parent–child bonding (Purvis et al, , ) as primary approaches for assuaging foster and adopted children's maladaptive behaviors.…”

Differences Between Adopted and Nonadopted Adolescents in Wilderness and Residential Treatment

“…Furthermore, adverse institutional circumstances may place adopted children at particular risk for attachment and social problems (Purvis et al, 2009). The correlation between favorable outcomes and age of adoption is more strongly associated with the external factors experienced prior to adoption than the child's age of itself van IJzendoorn et al, 2005).…”