Thank you for the feedback. I will keep working to improve my summarization skills.

1. Adolescents in Foster Care
and Emotional Resiliency
Lisa Dickson

2. Workshop Overview
1. Behavior in Its Context
2. Trauma, Survivor Behavior and PTSD
3. Network of Emotional Support for
Adolescents
4. Teens As Active Agents in the Healing
Process

3. Part 1: Stigma of Foster Care
Culture of Foster Care Postcard project
www.fostercarealumni.org

4. Activity #1
Anonymous
confession
• Index cards: Don’t
write your name on
them
• Only write: What’s the
worst thing you ever
did as a teenager?
• Turn them in
Activity created by Michael Sanders

5. Case file language

6. Context of behavior

7. Updating the case file
• What is written in my file?
• Is it accurate?
• With whom is it being shared?
• Will this information help or
harm?
• Desire to close file and/or
update the information.

8. Adolescent Brain Development
Prefrontal cortex grows
during pre-teen years,
and is pruned back
during adolescence.
Source: PBS Frontline: “The Teen Brain is a Work in Progress”

9. Magnified consequences
• Consequences and Risks: In general, foster children
and foster alumni operate by a different set of rules and
consequences. And they have a lot more paperwork!
• Let's say you're a teenager and you act out. Will you:
a.) Be transferred to a totally different place to live?
b.) Be grounded for a month?
• Let's say you're in college and you do a poor job of
budgeting. Are you:
a.) Now homeless?
b.) Able to call Mom or Dad to bail you out?

10. Part 2: Survival Behavior

11. Activity #2
Move to
another
seat
. Under your chair are instructions telling you to move to another seat.
It will be inconvenient to move yourself and all of your belongings.
Imagine what it’s like to be a child with no voice in the matter.

12. Children are wired for survival
￭ Child development: In order to survive, children in a
hostile living environment learn to by highly sensitive to
signs of danger.
￭ Bowlby’s attachment theory; babies experience a
parent’s emotions as if they were their own.
￭ What you learn to live with, and what you learn to live
without (security, protection).
￭ Whether or not you learn the language to express
emotions (emotional vocabulary).

13. Trauma of displacement
￭ Lack of predictability:
Life doesn’t make sense
anymore.
￭ Feeling powerless:
Why can’t I fix this?
￭ Want to exercise control:
If I do “A,” then “B” will happen.
￭ Feelings of inadequacy:
“I’m the type of person that
people can walk away from…”
￭ Self-blame: “It’s all my fault.”
Haunted by guilt and shame.

14. Foster care and PTSD
￭ According to a 2005 Harvard/Casey study, former
foster children suffer PTSD at a rate twice that of
Vietnam war veterans.
One-fourth of foster care alumni had PTSD.
￭ The definition of PTSD is "a condition in which victims
of overwhelming and uncontrollable experiences are
subsequently psychologically affected by feelings of
intense fear, loss of safety, loss of control, helplessness
and extreme vulnerability. In children, this disorder
involves disorganized and agitated behavior.“

15. Physical effects
of trauma
￭ Fight or flight response
￭ Freeze response:
‘Playing possum,’
feeling helpless
￭ Disassociation:
Flee the scene
emotionally.
Blame self afterward.
Source: Naparstek, Belleruth.
Invisible Heroes: Survivors of
Trauma and How They Heal. NY:
Bantam Bell, 2004.

16. Aftershock of trauma
￭ Am I safe yet?
The world seems dangerous.
￭ It’s hard to concentrate:
Scattered, thoughts
Distracted, unable to focus.
Hard to sort out relevant details.
￭ Hyper-vigilance:
Body remains on alert.
Restless, can’t relax, easily
startled.
Source: Traumatic Stress in
Children, NRCFCPPP, January
8, 2008

17. Triggers
￭ Sensory cues
A familiar building, a shadow
approaching from behind, a
smell…
￭ Traumatic memories
are stored differently
Emotions, sensory details
Difficult to communicate
verbally
￭ Speechless Terror
PET scans demonstrate that
oxygen levels and verbal
centers of the brain are
affected during flashbacks.
Sources: National Institute of Mental
Health and the Ross Center for Anxiety
and Related Disorders

18. Memories resurfacing
The world seems threatening
after a traumatizing experience.
Bias toward noticing things that are
worrisome, frightening
￭ This can include:
- Flashbacks
- Intrusive thoughts
- Nightmares
￭ These are memories resurfacing
Finally safe enough to process.
Sources: National Institute of Mental
Health and the Ross Center for Anxiety
and Related Disorders

19. Part 3: Emotional Support

20. Activity #3
Whiteboard
“What’s the first thing you think of when you hear
the word/phrase: trust and reliable love?”
- What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you
hear the word “trust?”
- Has your trust ever been betrayed?
- How do you define a trustworthy person?
- How many chances should a person get

21. Foster care and Erikson
Erikson Stage 6:
Intimacy vs.
Isolation
The social task of
young adulthood is
to create strong,
long-lasting bonds
of friendship and
love.
Those who fail in
this task risk
remaining isolated
for the rest of their
lives.

22. Used with permission from Mark Stivers at www.markstivers.com

23. Copyright Lisa Dickson

24. Role of Siblings
During Family Upheaval

25. Siblings as Survival Unit
Copyright Lisa Dickson

26. Copyright Lisa Dickson

28. Part 4: Adolescents as Active Agents

29. How the system defines
permanency
• Safe, enduring
relationship
• Lifelong connections
• Legal rights
• Social status
• Provides for all levels of
development
• Family history, culture,
tradition, religion,
language
Source: Research Roundtable: Convening
on Youth Permanence, Casey Family
Programs and Annie E. Casey Foundation,
Sept. 12-13, 2006.

30. How youth define permanency
• “Staying in one place”
• “Not having to move”
• “A feeling of connection”
• “Like a permanent marker”
(Indelible mark on your life)
Sources: Chambers, K., et al. Foster Youth’s
Views of Adoption and Permanency. Urban
Institute, Child Welfare Research Program,
January 2008.
Sanchez, Reina M. Youth Perspectives on
Permanency, California Youth Connection,
California Permanency for Youth, 2004.

31. Activity #3
Blindfold activity
• One person is blindfolded
• We each can give them a
different instruction, but only
one instruction
• Try to navigate them to the
front of the room
Activity created by Angie Cross

32. Foster care youth: “Whenever I get a new social worker, I have to tell
them my whole life story. But I know nothing about him or her.”

33. Post Adoptive Issues
Copyright Grey Hilliard-Koshinsky, used with permission

34. Taylor
Model
Copyright Danny Taylor, used with permission.

35. Forgiveness
• Forgiveness of
self and others is
vital
• It is still okay to
keep yourself
safe
• Forgiveness does
not always mean
reconciliation
Forgiveness takes one person;
reconciliation takes two. We are
only responsible for our own
choices.

36. Healing is a process
1. Maslow: Surround yourself in a safe environment
2. Identify and grieve your losses
3. Fear of abandonment: Tendency to “test” people
4. Recognize your personal needs
5. Build a base of happy memories and safe experiences
6. Boundaries: What you are/aren’t responsible for
7. Control issues: Avoiding all-or-nothing thinking
8. Learn to trust safe people
9. Don’t tolerate abuse, learn to set limits with people
10. Conflict resolution: Learn to use words

37. Closing and Evaluation
Emotional resiliency isn’t an accident, it’s a collective effort.