Beyond Words Psychological Services

Webinar: Navigating First Family Connections in Adoption
2025-10-16 10:00 - 12:00 (America/Denver) | Virtual Webinar
Hosted by The Catalyst Center for California mental health providers seeking continuing education credits.
Navigating the complexities of biological relationships can be a sensitive and challenging process for many adoptees. Adoptees may seek out connections with their first family members for a variety of reasons, and as adoption professionals, it is crucial to provide a safe and supportive space for the exploration of these relationships. Factors such as assessing safety, developing realistic expectations, gauging emotional preparedness, setting boundaries, planning contact, respecting privacy, and building open and honest communication will be discussed.

UMOJA MN: Blow-Up to Bonding: Trauma, Behavior, and Attachment-Focused Discipline
2025-10-18 09:30 - 11:00 | Bloomington, Minnesota
Keynote for UMOJA MN hosted by EVOLVE Family Services. How can you turn moments of struggle into moments of connection? This session will unpack how the brain, implicit memories, and the “6 F’s” (Fight, Flight, Freeze, Friend, Fidget, Flop) shape a child’s trauma reactions. You’ll learn simple, compassionate strategies to turn challenging moments into opportunities for bonding, while setting limits in ways that build trust and strengthen attachment. Practical tools will also be shared for common struggles such as homework, lying, and sleep difficulties. Learn more at UMOJA MN Programs | EVOLVE Family Services.

Bringing Race Into the Room: Supporting Racial Attachment Needs with Transracially Adoptive Students and Families
2025-10-31 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual Webinar
Virtual training event for Sonia Shankman Orthogenic School staff members. Join Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker for an enlightening discussion addressing the complex dynamics of transracial adoption. Through the lens of the seven core issues in adoption combined with her groundbreaking model of the racial and cultural identity needs of transracial adoptees, she will provide compassionate and comprehensive support to professionals who work with transracially adoptive families. Grow your awareness of the internal and external experiences of adoptees of color as they strive to build a positive racial and cultural identity, enhance your understanding of the role race plays in parent-child attachment patterns, learn to discuss race and racism using developmentally appropriate language, identify strategies to guide adoptive caregivers’ understanding of their own racial biases, and build the confidence to bring race into the room in a manner that promotes safety, empowerment, and connection.

Transracial Foster and Adoption Placements: Assessing Prospective Parents for Fit with the Racial and Cultural Identity Needs of Youth in Care
2025-11-13 10:00 - 12:00 | Virtual Webinar
Hosted by the Catalyst Center to offer continuing education credits to California mental health providers. Maintaining the racial and cultural identity of fostered and adopted youth of color in transracial placements is crucial to supporting their lifelong mental health, but it can be difficult to determine how those needs will be met by caregivers who do not share their racial or cultural background. This training will outline the Hierarchy of Racial and Cultural Identity Needs of Transracial Youth, a groundbreaking framework for understanding and defining the best ways to assess prospective caregiver readiness to parent transracially in a manner that communicates and centers the needs of transracial adoptees of color. General content areas to be assessed and specific interview questions for prospective parents will be explored.

Webinar: From Blow-up to Bonding: Finding the Balance of Attachment-Focused Discipline in Adoption
2026-01-29 10:00 - 12:00 | Virtual Webinar
Hosted by Foster Adopt MN. How can you turn moments of struggle into moments of connection? Discover how brain development, implicit memories, and the “6 F’s” (Fight, Flight, Freeze, Friend, Fidget, Flop) can influence your adoptive or foster child’s reactions to traditional methods of discipline, and develop compassionate, creative, and effective strategies for limit-setting and consequences that simultaneously enhance healthy attachment patterns in the child-caregiver relationship. Tools to cope with common struggles will be addressed, including separation anxiety, transitions, homework, aggression, lying, stealing, hoarding, argumentativeness, and sleep anxiety.

Navigating the Seven Core Issues in Play Therapy with Adoptive Children (co-presenter Sabra Starnes)
2026-02-26 09:00 - 11:00 | Virtual Webinar
Hosted by Foster Adopt MN. Adoption weaves layers of emotion and experience into a child’s play and relationships, often in ways that can be both challenging and deeply meaningful. In this session, you’ll uncover how the Seven Core Issues in Adoption—loss, rejection, guilt/shame, grief, identity, intimacy, and mastery/control—show up in the play therapy room. Through practical tools and strategies, you’ll learn to spot these themes as they unfold, guide adoptive children in expressing complex feelings through play, and collaborate with caregivers to nurture their child’s healing and strengthen identity development.

Transracial Adoption Readiness: An Identity Needs Hierarchy
2026-03-04 08:00 - 10:00 | Virtual Webinar
Hosted by Hudson Valley Professional Development for New York mental health providers seeking continuing education credits. Maintaining the racial and cultural identity of fostered and adopted youth of color in transracial placements is crucial to supporting their lifelong mental health, but it can be difficult to determine how those needs will be met by caregivers who do not share their racial or cultural background. This training will outline the Hierarchy of Racial and Cultural Identity Needs of Transracial Youth, a groundbreaking framework for understanding and defining the best ways to assess prospective caregiver readiness to parent transracially in a manner that communicates and centers the needs of transracial adoptees of color. General content areas to be assessed and specific interview questions for prospective parents will be explored.
