Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss observing National Adoption Month. As adoptive parents, we probably already think and talk a lot about adoption. And this month, we might even find ourselves sharing on social media smiling, happy photos. After all, adoption helped us build a family! Why wouldn…

Listen to excerpts from Growing Intentional Families Together's Discovery Webinar Is Adopting a Child Right for Me? Hosts, adoptive parents, and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, continue their hiatus 'til June. Meantime, they've been busy working with their colleagues and have recently launched Is Adopting a Child Right for Me? Child-…

Join hosts, adoptive parents, and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss their upcoming course, Is Adopting a Child Right for Me? Child-centric and adoption attuned, it’s a six-module, on-demand course that offers information, preparation, and competency to make that important, life-changing decision to adopt a child ... or …

Taking a break is an opportunity to catch a breath, reassess, and tweak ... SO this episode is a rebroadcast as your hosts take a winter-into-spring hiatus. Join us for new episodes in June! A desire to connect with another person is at the heart of every conversation. Too often our words land in an unintended way. Mismatches are not uncommon in co…

Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss 4 EASY things to do as resolutions for the year ahead. These suggestions were designed with the holiday weary listener in mind. They remain applicable as we move further along in the coming year. Like all parents, adoptive moms and dads can neglect their own se…

Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how to go about building an Adoption Attuned Library. Last month they discussed "The Top Six Reasons You Want an Adoption Attuned Library." And now in this follow-up episode, 3 types of readers are addressed and an example of how a specific book for each type f…

Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss why its important to develop a family library that is Adoption Attuned. Books serve as an immensely valuable tool for helping families address adoption complexity. And, a loving parent’s lap offers the perfect, safe place to share a book. So you can see why dev…

Did you realize that adoptive parenting and hurricane preparedness have a lot in common? Think of it as “hope for the best yet prepare for the worst.” Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how preparing to be an adoptive parent is like storm preparation. We can’t think that challenging parent/child…

Join hosts, adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they celebrate 50 episodes of The Essentials for Adoption Attuned Parenting. Susan and Gayle discuss special podcast highlights including: Adoption Attunement' foundational truths How coaching can benefit adoptive families The gains and the losses for all in the adop…

Hosts Susan David and Gayle Swift have taken an August hiatus to spend some time with family, friends and extended relatives! Please join them for a rebroadcast of their interview with adoption author, adoptee, and adoptee genealogist, Lynn Grubb for an enlightening first discussion about genetic genealogy for adoptees. Lynn lets us in on what you …

Join adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how we can make our adopted children -- all children -- feel safer in a world that is currently experiencing many events that make us all afraid. It seems as if violence is permeating our world whether here in the United States or thousands of miles away. So wh…

Join hosts, adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they focus on mothering and how we can nurture respectful, healthy relationships between ourselves and our children's birth moms. With so many competing emotions in adoption, all three parties in the adoption constellation -- birth mother, adoptee, and adoptive mothe…

It is that time of year again -- we just honored mothers on their special day, graduations of all sorts are being celebrated, and Father's Day is just around the corner. Join hosts Susan David and Gayle Swift as they revisit a previous episode discussing how to manage holiday celebrations, the Adoption Attuned way.…

Adoption coaches, Susan David and Gayle Swift, are joined by special guest, adoption consultant Abby Jacobson as she shares her personal adoptee experience that now assists her in understanding the unique issues that adoptees face. Abby's candid sharing is refreshing, informative, and one of inspiration for adoptees and the families that love them.…

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss Adoption Attuned parenting strategies. This month, they'll focus on 5 of the unique, additional, and essential characteristics that adoptive parents need to parent well. Parenting is surely a tough job and adoptive parenting is parenting on steroids! But…

At the heart of every conversation is a desire to connect with another person. Too often our words land in an unintended way. Mismatches are not uncommon in conversations between parent and child. So what can we parents do to avoid these conversation mishaps? Join hosts, adoption coaches and parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss how…

Join adoption coaches and parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift as they host special guest, adoption coach and consultant, and adoptee, Sharon Butler-Obazee. They'll be discussing ideas for making your new year's parenting resolutions Adoption attuned and child centric. Make resolutions that are solid for 2022 and beyond. Ms. Obazee is a well-traine…

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they interview adoption author, adoptee, and adoptee genealogist, Lynn Grubb for an enlightening first discussion about genetic genealogy for adoptees. Lynn lets us in on what you need to know before starting and some other considerations you might not have considere…

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they discuss Gayle's recent book, co-authored with adoptive parent and adoption coach, Sally Ankerfelt, Reimagining Adoption: What Adoptees Seek from Families and Faith. Their book has been well received by both faith communities and those in the adoption constellati…

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Susan David and Gayle Swift, as they interview adoption author, adoptee, adoptee genealogist, and adoptive parent, Lynn Grubb for an enlightening discussion about the adoptee experience. Let's continue to discover together Adoption Attuned considerations as we strive to raise healthy and happy adop…

Join us as we listen to a special reading of GIFT coach, adoptive parent, and award winning author, Gayle Swift as she reads, The Blessing of Fatherhood.

This is a previous edition originally broadcast in February 2020. Join adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, as they discuss a few of the adoption myths that persist in our culture.

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David of Growing Intentional Families Together as they host special guest, author and adoption writer, Lori Holden for a discussion about the benefits of openness in adoption. Lori’s book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole is on require…

Adoptive parents and GIFT Family Services' adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David are joined by special guest, UK adoption coach and adoptee, Simon Benn. His work with children focuses on showing parents how to help their children be happy, build their children's confidence and strengthen their resilience. This is the 2nd part of a 2-par…

Join hosts, GIFT adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, as they discuss the longing for all people to belong, especially our adoptive children. The saying is that we're all a little Irish on St. Patty's Day; it's both a call for merriment and to be part of the "in" crowd. While we nor our ancestors may not hail from…

Adoptive parents and GIFT Family Services' adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David are joined by special guest, UK adoption coach and adoptee, Simon Benn. His work with children focuses on showing parents how to help their children be happy, build their children's confidence and strengthen their resilience. In this episode we learn his "s…

Join adoptive coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David as they discuss the importance of "giving voice" to adopted children. They talk about how adoptees' voices are sometimes minimized and offer suggestions on how to adoptive parents can be better listeners.

Adoptive parents, adoption coaches and long time hosts of The Essentials for Adoption Attuned Parenting, Joann DiStefano and Susan David are joined by colleague, Sally Ankerfelt to discuss GIFT's upcoming Subscription Series by the same name. Sally and Susan highlight the first course in the series, Getting It Together Before You Adopt, designed fo…

Join adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, as they discuss the importance of connection for our adopted children during this difficult COVID 19 era. Listen to a few ideas they share about how to connect. They encourage parents to be Adoption-attuned as they intentionally create rapport and connection with their chi…

Join hosts adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, for a discussion on the importance of handling the disappointments of infertility or the burden of financing an adoption early rather than later so that pain and resentment does not get in the way of building a solid relationship with your adopted child.…

Join hosts, adoption coaches and adoptive parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, for a discussion about a less explored but very important aspect of Adoption-attunement (AQ), follows ethical practices.

Join adoption coaches and parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David as they host the fourth and final episode of a series dedicated to adoption-attuned parenting and the quest for racial equity. They'll be joined once again by colleagues, Gayle Swift and Sally Ankerfelt, for an interview with special guest, adoption coach and adoptee, Sharon Obazee.…

Adoption coaches and parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David host the third in a four part series of special editions of Essentials for Adoption-attuned Parenting. They'll be joined once again by colleagues, Gayle Swift and Sally Ankerfelt, for an interview with special guest Lola Adebara, Founder and Executive Director of Minneapolis based Partne…

Adoption coaches and parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David host the second in a four part series of special editions of Essentials for Adoption-attuned Parenting. Joined by their colleagues, Gayle Swift and Sally Ankerfelt, they discuss recent events in our country calling for racial justice and how that relates to adopted children of color. The…

Adoption coaches and parents, Joann DiStefano and Susan David host a special edition of Essentials for Adoption-attuned Parenting. Joined by their colleagues, Gayle Swift and Sally Ankerfelt, they discuss recent events in our country calling for racial justice and how that relates to adopted children of color. They share some of the things they cou…

Join your hosts, adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David as they discuss listening to understand your adoptive children rather than to refute, solve, or soothe their concerns or problems. Allowing our children to speak truth aloud is part of Intentional Parenting and Adoption-attunement (AQ) practices that can help us…

Join your hosts, adoptive parents and adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David for a discussion on how Intentional Parenting and Adoption-attunement (AQ) practices can help adoptive parents and their children stay or get regulated, build resiliency, and triumph over the challenge of the post-COVID-19 world.…

This month's The Essentials of Adoption-attunement Parenting touches base with adoptive parents who need to be aware that trauma and attachment issues will persist despite the whole world having stopped. It continues to be important to tune in with yourself first before you can offer help to your children. Take care of making them feel safe, nurtur…

Abandonment is part of adoption. Rejection is the belief that emerges from it. Adoptive families must learn to accept their children for who they are and at the same time, recognize that their presence in their family comes at high personal cost to them. While we have hopes and dreams for them, we have to make space for their attributes, talents, a…

GIFT adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss the myths that have pervaded adoption for decades. These myths are detrimental to the development of our adopted children. This short discussion emphasizes why we, as adoptive parents, need to find the courage to challenge these myths in our everyday life.…

GIFT adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss why intentional parenting is a must for adoptive parents and share some examples of what you can do to better attune with your adopted child.

GIFT adoption coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss the importance of adoptive parent's loving the child they have and not the child of their fantasies. Adoptive families can sharpen their adoption-attunement quotient or AQ by listening to this episode.By GIFT Family Services, LLC Coaches Joann DiStefano and Susan David

GIFT coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss possible causes of anxiety in adoptive parents and how this might create anxiety in their children. Learn ways to understand and support them using Adoption-attuned* practices. Some of the information is based on Privilege of Parenting by Bruce Dolin, Psy. D.…

GIFT coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss possible causes of anxiety in adopted children and ways to understand and support them using Adoption-attuned* practices. Some of the information is based on Privilege of Parenting by Bruce Dolin, Psy. D.By GIFT Family Services, LLC

GIFT Coaches, Joann DiStefano and Susan David, discuss why it's important to understand how perceptions of reality differ among members in adoptive families. Of course, it is important to be Adoption-attuned* and also to update how you perceive your children; appreciate their various aspects and shift your patterns and ways of being when appropriat…

Hosts and coaches, Joann and Susan, discuss the challenges that adoptive families may have faced in the past year. Using Adoption-attuned Parenting (AAQ) and "Well Formed Outcomes", you can shape and improve your families' relationships in 2018. Practicing intentionality and mindfulness allows for easier repairs of tensions and conflicts within you…

Adoption Coach, Sally Ankerfelt, hosts this enlightening interview with two young adult professionals who have experienced the foster/adoption care system firsthand and are now working to improve it for others with their organization, Partnerships for Permanence (P4P). P4P is an affiliate of GIFT Family Services and is a resource for families, chil…

In Episode 10, we focus on relationship building during the middle years, ages 7 through 12. Through the lens of Adoption-attuned* parenting and the coaching presupposition, "every behavior has a meaning", we consider some of the challenges that may arise during these childhood years. Learn how to create a supportive space in these conscious-develo…

In Episode 9, we will continue our discussion relating to differences that adoptive families face before, during, and after the adoption process. Today, our focus is centered on the adoption experience after the process in years 0 to 7, using Adoption-attuned* principles and the coaching presupposition, "the map is not the territory." We will consi…