Symposium on Adoption Considerations

Symposium on Adoption Considerations with Michael Trout

3-Part Symposium

Thank you for joining us as we welcome Michael Trout and other experts in the field to discuss Adoption Considerations. During this 3-part Symposium, a variety of speakers will discuss topics including:

Mental life of the first mother
Possibility of dissociation defense to protect from impending grief
Impacts that emotional withdrawal may have on the prenate
Relationship with the adoptive parents
What can be done about these considerations?

APPPAH’s Symposium for Adoption Considerations will be held on
3 consecutive Thursdays, 12:00- 2:00 pm Eastern-

October 27, November 3, November 10

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Session One

October 27, 2022, 12-2 pm EDT

The Mental Life of the Intended Adoptee and the First Mother

Presenters: Michael Trout and Tiffany Junker-Sudela

Session Two

November 3, 2022, 12-2 pm EDT

Part 1: Supporting Connection Between the Intended Adoptee and the First Mother, Before Birth

Presenter: Rebecca Molitor

Part 2: Social and Cultural Issues in Adoption: Thoughts From a Half-Century Career

Presenter: Sharon Roszia

Session Three

November 10, 2022, 12-2 pm EDT

Part 1: Understanding the Attachment Narrative of the Adoptive Parent: Can We Enhance the Match?

Presenter: Karen Buckwalter

Part 2: Final Discussion with all presenters

Additional Speakers

Tiffany Sudela-Junker

Tiffany Junker-Sudela is a mother by adoption of two children with vastly different trauma-based special needs. Her award-winning documentary, My Name is Faith” speaks to the family’s early journey as they came to terms with the impact of their daughter’s difficult beginning. She brings today her striking story of the relinquishment of her first two children, and her prenatal experiences with each.

Rebecca Molitor. LCPC

Rebecca Molitor is a counselor and consultant specializing in the fields of early development, attachment and trauma. Her private practice—Compassionate Growth Counseling—has been a place of support and curious inquiry for children and adults for over 20 years, as she focuses on supporting the creation of coherent narratives. Rebecca is also a prenatal bonding (BA) facilitator and trainer-in-training. In recent years, she has returned to her childhood joy of writing poetry, especially Haiku.

Sharon Roszia

Sharon Roszia is a consultant at the National Center on Adoption and Permanency and was the developer of the Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency in 1988. This work became the focus (and the title) of her book, published in 2019 and of her workbook for adults in 2022. She is also the author of The Open Adoption Experience. She has sixty years of experience in adoption clinical practice and has worked in both public and private agencies as well as private practice. Sharon is a parent by birth, adoption of older children and foster care.

Karen Doyle Buckwalter, MSW, LCSW

Karen Doyle Buckwalter is director of clinical practice at Chaddock. She has been a teacher on issues related to attachment, adoption and foster care in the US, the UK, Australia and Denmark. She is the co-author of two books: Raising the Challenging Child and Attachment Theory in Action. Having completed the Adult Attachment Interview coding course in 2007, she has become passionate about the use of the AAI in clinical practice.

Michael Trout, MA

Michael Trout completed both his undergraduate studies in philosophy and his graduate studies in psychology in Michigan. He completed his specialized training in infant psychiatry at the Child Development Project, University of Michigan School of Medicine, under Prof. Selma Fraiberg.

In the mental health field since 1968, and in private practice since 1979, Mr. Trout directs an institute engaged in research, clinical practice and clinical training related to problems of attachment. He was the founding president of the Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health and the International Association for Infant Mental Health, was on the charter Editorial Board of the Infant Mental Health Journal, served as Vice-President for the United States for the World Association for Infant Mental Health, and served on the Professional Advisory Council, the Board of Directors and as Editor of the Newsletter for APPPAH–Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health.

In addition to publishing a number of book chapters and journal articles–as well as the 2005 book, co-authored with a foster/adopt mother, The Jonathon Letters, and the 2008 Baby Verses: The Narrative Poetry of Infants and Toddlers–Mr. Trout has produced 16 documentary films that are in use in universities and clinics around the world, including five films on the unique perspective of babies on divorce, adoption, loss, domestic violence and parental incarceration. His meditation CD for foster and adoptive parents is entitled The Hope-Filled Parent. He co-authored See Me as A Person: Creating Therapeutic Relationships with Patients and their families, with Mary Koloroutis. His final book, This Hallowed Ground: Four Decades in Infant Mental Health, was published as an audiobook in 2019; the print edition will be released by Cambridge Scholars in late 2021. Mr. Trout won the Selma Fraiberg Award in 1984, for “…significant contributions to the needs of infants and their families”, and a Lifetime Achievement Award by ATTACh, “for his decades of work with children of loss and trauma”.

The most important part of Mr. Trout’s work was always in the quiet private practice where he saw families and children of all ages every week. After 46 years, he retired in the summer of 2014.