Main description:

This collection bridges the voices of international scholars and adopted persons to share knowledge about clinical practice with adopted people in adolescence and early adulthood.

Coming at a time when countries are beginning to focus on adoption reform, this handbook is the first to address not only the external, systemic contributions to their developmental complexities, but also the underlying, internal meanings of being adopted as children become adolescents and mature into adulthood. It explains how adopted clients differ from those not adopted and emphasizes the need for clinical research on adopted people in this older age group. Exploring how clinicians can understand their client's clinical needs, it offers specific protocols and frameworks for assessment and necessary modifications in language and treatment. With a foreword from Miriam Steele, chapters examine the legal and sociopolitical cultures, policies, and practices in which adoption is embedded, calling for broad systemic change.

Embracing theoretical, conceptual, and global perspectives, this handbook is written for clinicians in all disciplines, at all tiers of practice, administration, and training, identifying the key roles they can potentially play in expanding and better focusing our understanding of the psychology of being adopted.

Contents:

Foreward

Miriam Steele, PhD

Part I: Introduction- The Impact of the Adoption, Legal, and Mental Health Systems on the

Development of Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults

Doris Bertocci, Christopher Deeg, and Linda Mayers, Editors

1. The Larger Context of the Systemic Contributions from Adoption, Family Law, and

Mental Health: How They Relate to Clinical Practice

Doris Bertocci and Linda Mayers

2.Where are We Now? Trends and Observations After Five Decades of Adoption Study

in the Netherlands

Rene Hoksbergen

3. Challenging Adoption Narratives: Adult Adoptees Write Remembrances - Four Australian Case Studies

Catherine Lynch, Sue Green, and Alison Ingram

Part II Developmental Complexities and Necessary Modifications for the Assessment

4. Life Begins Before Adoption: The Primary Subsets of Adopted Persons as a Guide

to Considerations for Assessment and Treatment

Doris Bertocci

5. The Adoptive Family Narrative and Its Effects on the Adopted Person's Development

Steven Nickman

6. On the Inner World of the Adopted Person: A Psychoanalytic Conception of the

Psychology of Adoption

Christopher F. Deeg

7. Shedding Light on Birth Fathers in Adoption: A Personal, Professional, and

Academic Perspective.

Gary Clapton

8. The Ecology of Growing Up Adopted in India and Ireland: Measures of Mental Health with Implications for Clinical Practice

Meera Oke, Sahana Mitra, and Valerie O'Brien

III Considerations in Medical Care

9. Adoption Medicine: Special Considerations in Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine

and Young Adult Medical Care

Elaine Schulte and Laurie Miller

IV The Spectrum of Search and Reunion

10. Revisiting the Meaning of the Search

Doris Bertocci

V Complexities of Psychotherapeutic Treatment

11. Observations on Clinical Problems and the Need for Shifts in Perspectives

Doris Bertocci and Linda Mayers

12. Notes on the Psychoanalytic Treatment of the Adopted Person

Christopher F. Deeg

13. From Fragmented to Firm Foundations in Identity Formation: A Neurosequential

Approach to the Treatment of Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults with Early

Developmental Trauma

Alan John Burnell and Jay Vaughan

14. Similarities and Differences in Attachment Representations between Late-Placed

Adopted and Non-Adopted Adolescents: A Study from Italy

Cecelia Pace, Stefania Muzi, Fabiola Bizzi, and Donatella Cavanna,

15. Countertransference Challenges in Working with Adopted Adolescents: Notes of An Analyst in Private Practice

Anna Balas

VI Epilogue The Editors