About the Book
Based on a hugely successful US model, the Seven Core Issues in Adoption is the first conceptual framework of its kind to offer a unifying lens that was inclusive of all individuals touched by the adoption experience.
The Seven Core Issues are Loss, Rejection, Shame/Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, and Mastery/Control. The book expands the model to be inclusive of adoption and all forms of permanency: adoption, foster care, kinship care, donor insemination and surrogacy. Attachment and trauma are integrated with the Seven Core Issues model to address and normalize the additional tasks individuals and families will encounter.
The book views the Seven Core Issues from a range of perspectives including: multi-racial, LGBTQ, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, African-American, International, openness, search and reunion, and others. This essential guide introduces each Core Issue, its impact on individuals, offering techniques for growth and healing.
Table of Contents:
Foreword: by Deborah Silverstein; Preface; 1. Introduction: Seven Core Issues in Adoption & Permanency; 2. Loss; 3. Rejection; 4. Shame and Guilt; 5. Grief; 6. Identity; 7. Intimacy; 8. Mastery and Control; Appendices: Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency; 1. The Authors' Foundational Values and Beliefs; 2. Rituals and Ceremonies for Healing by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon; 3. Forgiveness by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon; 4. A Child's Developmental Journey Through Adoption & Permanency by Allison Davis Maxon; 5. Seven Core Issues and Foster Care by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Allison Davis Maxon; 6. The Seven Core Issues and Kinship Families by Joseph Crumbley and Allison Davis Maxon; 7. The Seven Core Issues and LGBTQ Families by Abbie Goldberg, Clark University, MA, USA and Cynthia Roe; 8. The Seven Core Issues as Seen Through the Eyes of the Latino Family by Dee Dee Mascarenas; 9. Seven Core Issues and the African American Family by Lynn White Dixon; 10. Seven Core Issues and the Multi-Racial Family by Lynn White Dixon; 11. The Seven Core Issues in International Adoption: From an Asian Adoptee by Huyen Friedlander; 12. Seven Core Issues in Adoption/Permanency in Tribal Communities by Kathryn England Aytes; 13. Siblings and the Seven Core Issues by Heidi Staples; 14. The Search and Reunion Experience Through the Lens of the Seven Core Issues in Adoption/Permanency by Gina McKernon-Cindrich; 15. The Seven Core Issues in International Adoptions by Lynne Silver; 16. Openness and the Seven Core Issues in Adoption/Permanency by Sharon Kaplan Roszia; 17. Single Parenting and the Seven Core Issues and Adoption/Permanency by Mary McGowan; 18. The Seven Core Issues and Third Party Reproduction and Surrogacy by Kris Probasco; 19. The Seven Core Issues and Step Parent Adoptions by Michael Grand; 20. Adopted Children with Special Health Care Needs by Carol Biddle; 21. Schools, Learning and the Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency by Blaze Newman; 22. The Lifecycle of the Adoptive/Permanency Family - Stages and Tasks by Sharon Kaplan Roszia; Contributor Biographies; References; Index
About the Author :
Allison Davis Maxon LMFT is the Chief Operating Officer at the National Center on Adoption and Permanency. She has 26 years of adoption practice in child welfare, foster care and mental health. She is a curriculum developer and Master Trainer based in California, USA.
Sharon Roszia, MS, 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. She has 55 years of adoption clinical practice in the field of child welfare. She is a national and international trainer, as well as a curriculum developer. She is based in California, USA.
Review :
For decades, I have been responding to these "seven core issues" as an adopted person, as a parent by adoption, as a poet. Now I imagine myself as a therapist trying to help someone in the adoption constellation. I would definitely want this book close at hand.
A beautifully-organized handbook, full of both strong, conceptual understandings and practical recommendations for living, surviving and thriving in this world of adoption.
As an adopted person, I'm very familiar with the seven core issues, both comprehensively and experientially. Yet even with my prior knowledge, there was a deeper understanding to be attained through the pages of this book. Having had the pleasure to work with and consider both Sharon and Allison my friends, I've seen first hand the passion they have for adoption and helping children find permanence. Their collective expertise, contained here, is, in my opinion, the gold standard for understanding and working towards permanence in adoption.
Too often as healthcare providers, we focus on the medical, contractual, and economic aspects of adoption and 3rd party reproduction. Acknowledging the 7 core issues and their impact on all parties associated with this process is an important first step in improving the care we deliver to our patients.
As an adoptive Dad of three kids from foster care, I found the book to be an insightful and useful resource. It gives voice to both the challenges and resiliencies of those touched by foster care and adoption.
What do you get when two highly experienced, talented, thoughtful and respected adoption experts write a book together? The answer is this exceptional piece of work, which falls into the rare `must have, must read and must use' category of literature relating to all sorts of `nontraditional' families. From my perspective as both an adoption professional and an adoptive parent, I couldn't recommend it more strongly.
This is a very comprehensive, inclusive, updated version of The Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency, which is definitely an amazing resource for families, agency professionals, clinicians, academics, consultants and many others impacted by adoption. The excellent contributing authors have had a variety of professional and personal experiences related to child welfare (i.e. as adoptees, foster youth, kinship care providers, and adoptive and foster parents), as well as having professional training and expertise in working with diverse population groups impacted by the child welfare system.
Not only does this book highlight the core issues of adoption and permanency, it is unique, as it includes specific chapters which focus on these issues for ethnically diverse families including: Latinos, African Americans, Tribal communities, Asian and multi-racial families. The book includes content on the implications of the core issues in work with adoptive, kinship families, birth/first families, foster families, and LGBTQ families. It provides very real and practical examples of the impact of losses, vicarious trauma experienced by children and parents, while including content on strategies for coping and gaining resilience. I would highly recommend this book for use in courses on "Contemporary Issues in Adoption and Foster Care", "Child Welfare" and others which are designed to prepare professionals for work in this very important area.
This is a book that has been itching to be written for a very long time, as the framework of the Seven Core Issues has shaped thinking on adoption for the last three decades. Yet the benefit that this book was not written until now is that it is even more expansive. Rarely if ever have I read a book that covers so much ground so effectively. I have immense respect for the authors and their work. Roszia and Davis Maxon are critical thought leaders.
