u How will your clients’ needs change after placement?

u How can you support your clients’ long and short term needs?

u What about the children? How do you include them in the process when they can’t speak for themselves?

u What about open adoption? Isn’t it confusing for the child?

u How can pregnant women/couples be supported as they consider making an adoption plan? How best can you support a relationship between AP and BP?

u What is normal for an adopted child?

u In what way are adopted children different than children who are being parented by their biological parents?

u How can teachers identify and support the needs of a child who is adopted?

u How can schools work collaboratively with adoptive parents, who may feel that their family is expected to be like all other families -- even though families formed through adoption have their own unique characteristics.

Services:
Most adoption professional’s awareness of adoption is limited to the period immediately pre and post placement. They are often unaware of how what they do affects their clients long-term. However, the needs of clients at the time of placement only take into account their becoming parents. When professionals fail to understand that clients need help preparing to be parents, they often set their clients up for pain and confusion down the road. I train adoption professionals in a way that allows them to support both their clients’ long and short term needs, therefore being as helpful to their clients’ as possible. There are a number of different services available.

Professional Consultations:

Helping legal and mental health professionals understand the role that adoption is playing in a particular situation and working to develop strategies for addressing current challenges..

Short-Term Crisis Management

Sometimes things happen that throw clients into disequilibrium. During these times it is helpful to work with someone who is trained in family systems who can provide a structure and a “holding environment” so that you can help clients struggle forward in safety.

Consultations for Mental Health Professionals:

Some people are already working with a therapist. I am available to meet with clients and their therapist to give them a sense of the role that adoption is playing in their lives without disturbing their therapeutic relationship.

Trainings and Seminars:

Education for therapists, educators, doctors, nurses and legal professionals about the long-term nature of adoption. These trainings are held on-site-schools, adoption agencies, etc.

"This fall at Friends in Adoption, attorneys, social workers and adoption advocates alike had the unique opportunity to participate in Michael Colberg's brilliant, brave, and characteristically bold approach to the challenges and ethical complexities of adoption. In a word....powerful!."
Dawn Smith - Pliner, Founder and Director, Friends in Adoption, Adoptive Mother.

Clinical Mediation:

Mediation is becoming a common form of dispute resolution. But does it resolve anything? All too often people are forced to accept a resolution that is unlivable for either party. Clinical mediation offers people an opportunity to get to a beginning place – a place where their intentions are clear and then later offers support, education and guidance as the parties begin to work together to get to a place that is, if you’ll excuse the expression “win-win.”

If we are going to create child-centered adoptions, we need to help children find value in all of who they are. This means helping them find value in both their biological and adoptive heritages. Clinical mediation helps both adoptive and biological families learn about and act from a place that values the unique contribution that they can make to the well being of the child.

PreAdopt Program:

Is adoption right for your clients?

A curriculum designed to help both pregnant women/couples and prospective adoptive parents understand both the ongoing nature of adoption and how adoption will affect and inform their lives over the long-run. How do people make choices now that include the things that will be important to them in the future. How do people make decisions about which form of adoption is right for them (open v closed, domestic v international, infant v older child)? How will adoption affect the other relationships in your life?

Representative Trainings:

Yale Law School Legal Clinic, New Haven, CT.
Columbia Law School Legal Clinic, New York, NY.
Hampshire College – Pre Law Lecture, Amherst, MA.
The Mayor’s Task Force on Open Adoption – What Open Adoption Is And Is Not, New York, NY.
The Los Angeles Commission for Children's Services - Foster Child Placement Committee, Los Angeles, CA.
Friends In Adoption – Attorney/Social Worker Alliance – Good Adoption Practice, Middletown Spings, VT.
Ongoing Supervision group for Therapists, New York, NY.
Adoption Resource Center – The Cape Cod Trainings, Provincetown, MA.
The Post Graduate Center for Mental Health, New York, NY.
The Center For Family Connections - Founding Co-director, Senior Clinician, Cambridge, MA.
Greenwich House, New York, NY.
Beginnings – a nursery, New York, NY.
Village Community School, New York, NY.
Friends Seminary, New York, NY.
International Preschool, New York, NY.
Rutgers University Adoption Certificate program, New Jersey.
Harvard Medical School Post Graduate Education Seminar, Cambridge, MA.
Cambridge Hospital Ongoing Education, Cambridge, MA.
The Kinship Center, Orange County, CA.
The International Conference On The Rights Of The Child, Montreal, Canada.
The Biannual Conference On Open Adoption, Traverse City, MI.
The Adoptive Parent's Committee, New York, NY.
The American Adoption Congress.
The Evan B. Donaldson Foundation Conference On Ethics In Adoption, Los Angeles, CA.