The Power of Adoption
March 26, 2013
Hosted by Lisa Ferentz
[Download MP3] [itunes] [Bookmark Episode]
Guest Information
Episode Description
We will explore the current state of adoption, including misconceptions about the process, who is adopting, who is placing their children up for adoption and who needs to be adopted in the United States. We will look at what makes an adoption successful or unsuccessful, how to talk with kids about adoption, and the challenges and rewards of adopting older children and profoundly traumatized kids. We will also look at how early life traumas impact a child’s ability to trust and attach to adoptive parents. Our guest will also describe what happens when adopted kids want to seek out their birth parents. Most importantly, we will share moving and heartwarming stories about the ways in which the lives of infants, developmentally delayed kids and older kids have been changed through the healing and reparative process of adoption.
Inspired Journeys: Overcoming Adversity and Thriving
Archives Available on VoiceAmerica Health and Wellness Channel
Our program will educate and inspire. Lisa will interview authors, clinicians, and everyday people who have experienced or witnessed adversity and all of its life changing consequences. We will explore the impact that sexual abuse, domestic violence, bullying, physical disabilities, panic, depression, self-destructive behaviors and addictions have on individuals, families and our society. At the same time, we will focus on how to overcome and transcend trauma through empathy, self-love, forgiveness, self-awareness and acts of kindness. Lisa will talk with guests who demonstrate the resiliency of the human spirit and have helped others achieve true healing. We will discuss the power of attachment, learning how to be in the moment, how to reclaim a sense of spirituality, hope and optimism. You will learn how to find meaning even in the most difficult traumatic experiences and will come to understand that survivors can thrive, pay it forward, and help others to heal as well.
Lisa Ferentz
Lisa is a Clinical Social Worker, educator, author, actress, wife and mother. She has been in private practice for 30 years, using a wide variety of expressive therapies to treat adolescent and adult survivors of trauma, abuse, and neglect. In 2009 Lisa was given the Social Worker of the Year Award by the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work. She is the founder and President of the Institute for Advanced Psychotherapy Training and Education, providing continuing education workshops and Certificates in Trauma Treatment to mental health professionals. She has been an Adjunct Faculty member at several Maryland Universities. Lisa published articles on self-mutilation and eating disorders and is the author of the book Treating Self-Destructive Behaviors in Trauma Survivors, A Clinician’s Guide. She recently completed another book entitled, Letting Go of Self Destructive Behaviors, A Workbook of Hope and Healing. A recognized expert in the trauma field, she is a national and international presenter and keynote speaker. She provides ongoing consultation to practitioners and mental health agencies. In her free time, Lisa acts, directs, and choreographs in community theatre productions. Her compassionate approach to therapy, along with her belief that trauma can be transcended and survivors can truly thrive, makes her the perfect candidate to host Inspired Journeys, a program that educates and inspires, while celebrating the strength and resiliency of the human spirit.
