Grab your pen and notebook!

Empowered to Connect is a wonderful resource for adoptive parents that we refer to often!  Our YWAM families are all asked to read “The Connected Child” and to view the video series below – What Every Adoptive Parent Should Know.   This preparation is done prior to bringing your child home but its value is most applicable in the months and years when you are in the trenches of attachment and bonding.  Here is a short collection of video links addressing a few of the issues adoptive parents help with.  Be sure to visit the Empowered to Connect Resources webpage.

Dr. Karyn Purvis

What Every Adoptive Parent Should Know

In order to truly understand children from hard places — what they have experienced, the impact of those experiences and how we can help them heal and grow — it’s important that we understand some of the basics.  That’s why we have put this collection of eight Empowered To Connect videos together — to introduce (or re-introduce) you to some of the most important basics that we believe every adoptive parent can benefit from.

How Do I Handle Manipulation and Control?
Parents often find that their child from a hard place is prone to use manipulative and controlling behaviors. Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis and Michael Monroe offer insights to help adoptive and foster parents better understand these behaviors and respond effectively.

Total Voice Control: Focusing on How You Say What You Say

Possibly one of the most practical and useful tools Dr. Karyn Purvis teaches parents is what she calls “Total Voice Control.” This tool equips parents to focus on how they use their own voice when interacting with their child.  Watch as Michael Monroe talks about how parents can use this tool to focus on how they say what they say, and as a result more effectively promote connection and understanding between themselves and their child.

 

Keeping Connection as the Goal

Connection is at the heart of how God relates to us and how He has called parents to relate to their children. Watch as Dr. Karyn Purvis explains why it is important for adoptive and foster parents to always keep connection as their goal, regardless of the behaviors or challenges they are facing.

 

Building Trust By Saying Yes

Children need a balance of nurture and structure in order to learn to trust and grow. Parents can provide this balance by learning to offer “yes’s” (nurture) as much as possible, along with the “no’s” (structure) that are invariably required to protect and teach their children.  Watch as Amy Monroe explains the importance of saying “yes” to your child (as much as possible).