Welcome to the Open Sky Webinar

1. Welcome to the Open Sky Webinar We will be starting at 6pm. See you soon!

2. Attachment and Adoption: Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults in Wilderness Treatment Joanna Bettmann Schaefer, Ph.D, LCSW

3. Agenda • Attachment theory and practice • Attachment applied to adolescents and young adults in wilderness • Adopted adolescents and young adults in wilderness • Strategies for supporting adopted adolescents and young adults

4. The Origins of Attachment Theory • John Bowlby developed attachment theory out of his work with abused children in England • His ideas grew from evolutionary biology, ethology, developmental psychology, and cognitive science • Primary proposition: the infant’s tie to the mother emerges out of evolutionary pressures – a biologically based desire for proximity • Infants are predisposed to seek proximity to parents in times of distress (survival, biological function) (Karen, 1994)

5. Bolwby’s Attachment Theory: Basics • A child is born with a predisposition • to become attached to caregivers. • 2. The child will organize their own behavior • and thinking in order to maintain those attachment relationships, which are key to psychological and physical survival. • 3. The child will often maintain such • relationships at great cost to his/her • own functioning. • 4. The distortions in feeling and thinking that stem from early disturbances in attachment occur most often in response to the parents’ inability • to meet the child’s needs for comfort, security, and emotional reassurance. (Slade, 1999, in Handbook of Attachment)

6. Basic Principles of Attachment Relationships Proximity maintenance(seeking closeness) Separation distress(protest when separation is involuntary) Safe haven(returning to the attachment figure when faced with threat) Secure base(greater ability to explore in presence of attachment figure)

7. Infants Seek the mother primarily Need to be fed, held, diaper changed, rocked to sleep Rely on caregivers entirely Adolescents and young adults Seek peers more obviously Still need attachment relationships with parents Often resist being held by parents, want to be held by boyfriend or girlfriend Shifting from family of origin to romantic relationships outside of family Attachment from infancy to adolescence (Allen & Land, 1999, in Handbook of Attachment)

8. Adolescents and young adults who are comfortable with closeness (indicators of secure attachment) Trust Relationship satisfaction Commitment Closeness and interdependence Self disclosure Adolescents and young adults who are anxious in relationships (indicators of insecure attachment) Lack of trust Relationship dissatisfaction Jealousy High levels of conflict Coercion, domination and distress in response to conflict with another person Lack of compromise Attachment Styles in Wilderness (Feeney, 1999, in Handbook of Attachment)

9. Attachment Issues in Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults • Adoptive loss: pervasive, ambiguous, often misunderstood (Boss, 1999). • Adoptees are at greater risk for insecure attachment (Paperny, 2004) • Girls particularly at risk (Nilson, 2000)

10. Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults in Treatment • Adolescence is peak period for psychiatric referrals (Riley & Meeks, 2005) • 1/3 of adolescents referred for treatment are adopted (2% general population is adopted). (Miller et al, 2000) • Adoption is a circumstance of great emotional importance. (Riley & Meeks, 2005) • Some feel adult world has failed them, that they are “damaged goods”

11. Adoption can intensify normal developmental challenges of adolescence: Independence & Self-Sufficiency (Awakens feelings of loss) Restructuring the Superego (“Which parents do I please?”) Search for Identity (“How, when I don’t even know my real parents?”) Challenges of Adoption in Adolescence

12. Importance of Peer Relationships to Adopted Adolescents • Peer relationships particularly important (especially for girls) (Fullerton, Goodrich & Berman, 1986; McGinn, 2001) • Client: “My friends are more important to me than my family. My friends are my family.” • More likely to reject close ties with adults (Fullerton et al, 1986) • Interventions: • Reinforce positive peer relationships (in past, in treatment) • Build/rebuild trusting relationships with therapist, treatment staff, family relationships

13. How Adoption and Attachment Issues Present in Wilderness • If asked about impact of adoption, most deny issues (Riley & Meeks, 2005) • Separation anxiety, being sent away, has heightened meaning for adoptees • Times when feel “different” (birthdays) • Process relationship losses and transitions

14. Parents of Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults: Common emotions and dynamics: • Tentativeness (e.g., Don’t feel full title to child) • Shame (e.g., Infertility) • Anger (e.g., “All I’ve done for you”) • Defensiveness (e.g.,“Not an issue”) • Disavowal (e.g., “Adoptive” in application) • Grief & loss (e.g., “Bio child would have been more compatible”) • Guilt (e.g., Giving the child away)

15. Supporting Attachment in the Wilderness Therapy Setting • Honor the importance of relationship transitions: goodbyes, losses, changes • Peer departures • Staff changes • Allow for time to process aftercare • Prepare adolescents for relationship losses • Transitional objects as a reinforcement of positive attachment experiences • Transition to wilderness: from parents, siblings (photos, childhood comfort objects) • Transition out of wilderness: from peers, treatment staff (cards, poems, homemade gifts)

16. What Parents of Adopted Adolescents and Young Adults Can Do • Consider: • Family comfort level communicating about adoption • Your own attitudes towards birth parents • Dynamics of the adoptive family and how these impact the adopted adolescent/young adult

17. Thank You for Participating! Contact Information for Presenter: Joanna Bettmann Schaefer, Ph.D, LCSW Joanna@openskywilderness.com (801) 587-7600 Please keep this browser window open. When the presentation is complete, it will take you to a short survey for today’s webinar.