Testing the Limits of Unconditional Love. Thoughts on “The Tell: A Memoir”

How many times have you said, “Through adoption I’ve learned to love unconditionally”? Have you ever doubted that belief? Has it ever been rocked to the core by challenging circumstances or by the vehement disapproval of your child by a neighbor, teacher or family...

Looking Good, Feeling Good

Over the next few weeks, schools around the country reopen. The air pulses with excitement. The lassitude of summer gives way to the frantic busy-ness of school. New supplies, new teachers, new classes all bring the anticipation of a fresh start. But school also...

Heather T. Forbes, LCSW: Your Child is Misbehaving, Are You Listening?

GIFT is proud to post this important article which Heather Forbes, LCSW wrote for us. She is renowned for her work through the Beyond Consequences Institute. Through BCI, Heather Forbes advocates a healing, therapeutic response to parenting kids with trauma. She has...

Negative Behavior: A Strategy for Tranferring Pain onto Parents

A recent article written by the Adoption Council of Ontario focused on the concept of inducement which they define as “a psychological concept which describes the use of non-verbal communication to induce one’s own emotional state in another. Inducement is a...

Family Story Telling: Have I told you about the Time I …

Umenta.com reported on recent research by Dr. Marshall Duke of Emory University indicates that children benefit from repetition of family stories. “Duke found that children who were exposed to family stories experience “higher levels of emotional well-being, and also...
Attention Shapes Who Children Become

Attention Shapes Who Children Become

Remember when we were kids and we craved our parent’s attention? We’d call their names and plead for them to watch whatever we were doing: a cartwheel, an energetic dance or, perhaps leaping high into the air. It was as if, our actions lacked value until our parents...