professionals with specialized training to
understand the impact of loss and early
adverse experiences and help youth and their
families address the challenges they may be
experiencing. This specialized training is called
adoption competency.

ADOPTION COMPETENCY BENEFITS
FOR FAMILIES
Many therapists and mental health professionals
receive little to no specific training in graduate
school on the needs and challenges of adoptive
families. Studies conducted by both the Center
for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.)
and the North American Council on Adoptable
Children indicate that adoptive parents often
have difficulty finding services to meet their
unique needs or had to go through multiple
providers before finding a therapist who
truly understands the issues and experiences
relevant to adoption.

Untrained therapists who lack adoption
competency will not be able to assess the
situation accurately, which will impact treatment
strategies leading to ineffective interventions.

Adoption-competent practices save families
the stress and despair of implementing tools
and responses in their homes that don’t best
serve the family’s needs. Various adoption-
capable supports can help and greatly assist
in creating a holistic environment where
families can thrive. When children have
16 Washington FAMILY NOVEMBER 2021
support and services that help them process
their past traumatic experiences, they are
better able to develop healthy and appropriate
coping skills. Similarly, when parents are
provided with tools and strategies that make
sense based on their adoption experiences,
they can better provide support and stability
for their children.

C.A.S.E. therapists have been trained under
their own accredited, nationally recognized
Training for Adoption Competency (TAC)
program and have the skills, insight and
experience to help families navigate the many
obstacles that affect them. TAC is accredited
by the Institute for Credentialing Excellence.

This comprehensive, evidence-based training is
designed exclusively for licensed mental health
professionals providing clinical knowledge and
skills needed to effectively serve the adoption
kinship network.

THREE SIGNIFICANT
REASONS WHY ADOPTION
COMPETENCY MATTERS
Adoption competency has implications for
everyone involved with adoptions.

I
Adoption Competency Helps Kids
and Families Thrive
Many children who experience foster care and
adoption have experienced early trauma in
their lives, which can lead to behavioral and
mental health difficulties. The impact of these
experiences compromise well-being in the
family system.

Adoption competency refers to professionals
who have had specific training about the needs,
SOLARSEVEN /ISTOCK /GETTY IMAGES PLUS
When the losses we experience are not
appropriately recognized and supported, it
makes processing grief more difficult. This
situation can impact the security and stability
of the child’s current family placement,
possibly lending itself to the very disruption
the child or youth fears.

Youth may experience happiness at feeling
safe and secure in a foster home yet sadness
that their birth parent was not able to provide
such care. Other times children feel relieved
to have the permanency of being adopted
yet angry at the circumstances that led to
adoption. They may also fear that this home
may also not prove to be truly permanent.

These complex feelings may lead children or
youth to experience anxiety, depression or
other behavioral and mental health challenges.

Imagine having all these complicated feelings
at the same time while others are telling you how
wonderful it must feel to be adopted. Of course,
adoption is wonderful, and it is a significant
protective factor, particularly for children
and youth with traumatic and compromised
beginnings who are at higher risks for
developmental, health, emotional, behavioral and
academic challenges. But the adoption doesn’t
erase the past. When children and parents lack
supports from people who understand their
unique needs, the stability of the home can be
compromised. These families need mental health