405: How to Be a Therapeutic Adoptive Parent

Therapeutic adoptive parent

If you’ve been listening here long, you know that to believe that adoptive parenting is no different from regular old parenting will likely end up with you feeling blindsided some day, without tools and without strategies. This is because all adoptions are a result of some sort of rupture or disconnection, and even if necessary, leave a wound that needs acknowledgement and care. The attunement and tending abilities of the caregiver can make a huge difference for the adoptee in forming new connections, including within him or herself.

Adi Tilford
Therapeutic Adoptive Parent Adi Tilford

With me today is my friend and Therapeutic Parent Adi Tilford, a fellow Coloradoan. Adi is an adoptive mom and long-time educator advocating for therapeutic, trauma-informed living. Adi’s writing and speaking engagements illuminate the power of therapeutic love, the ongoing journey of healing from complex developmental trauma, and the in-the-trenches experiences of becoming a therapeutic parent, educator, and friend. Most of the year, Adi plays in the desert of Colorado where the cactus bloom and coyotes caper in the front yard. She is making her home the place she loves to be with her hubby Sam and their two incredible daughters.

Whether you're someone who is into therapy or who scoffs at it, you'll want to listen to the wisdom Adi has to share about becoming a Therapeutic Parent and making yours a Therapeutic Home.

Show Notes

Find links to all of Adi’s work at aditilford.com/subscribe. She's on Instagram at AdiTilfordWrites and on Facebook at AdiTilford-Author .

Transcript

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About this Podcast

Lori Holden (The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole) brings to you an array of articulate and thought-provoking guests with lived experience in adoption, each with valuable insights to share about the all-encompassing journey of parenting an adopted person from babyhood to toddlerhood to school age to teenage -- and ultimately to adulthood. Join us as we explore Adoption: The Long View.

Named a Top 25 Adoption Podcast

Lori Holden