Intervention in adoption: advancing the development of good practices

For a good intervention in adoption, all the elements involved in the process must be taken into consideration: professionals, children and families. Systemic Theory serves as a basis, because it allows families and professionals of protection systems to be helped with more perspective, more openly, analyzing reciprocal influences and advancing through a collaborative relationship. The premise of acting on adoption in accordance with the best interests of the child is that adults should consider the needs of the child, but children should also be proactive agents throughout the process. This Symposium aims to address with novel practices the current challenges faced by professionals working with the diversity of today’s families. It always has in the background the promotion of children’s right to participate and be involved in their educational and adoptive processes. The first communication will present a research work and training of professionals about the evaluation of LGBT candidates. The second communication takes into account the growing recognition of the importance of preparing the child for adoption and the interest of taking into consideration the child’s opinions, for which a focus group research paper with children on adoption will be presented, and the data will be confronted with proposals for intervention. Thirdly, there will be a communication on clinical intervention with children in post-adoption, focused on the role of play as a space for building relationships and psychological organization. Finally, and following the life cycle of these families, a space will be dedicated to clinical intervention with adopted adolescents, based on research contributions and with a focus on attachment and systemic theory.

Professor Margarida Rangel Henriques is Psychologist, Researcher and Psychotherapist at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Porto. She teaches at the Bachelor, and Master levels, as well as in the PhD Program. Her main research areas are Clinical Psychology, Adoption and Parent-Child Interactions, focused on attachment and narrative co-construction and Narrative Psychology. She is member of the Pro-Child CoLab, Against Poverty and Exclusion, a National funded Multidisciplinary Association focused on developing research and intervention in the fields of health and well-being, social participation and protection, development and education, as well as in the domain of technological development (digital and nanotechnology). She is head of the Psychology Intervention Centre for Children and Adolescents in the same Faculty, where she also works with parents and families and supervises a team of child clinical psychologists. In this context, she created a psychological intervention service for adoption and children living in residential care. She is a specialized clinician in Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies, Family Therapy and Narrative Therapy. She has extensive experience in the training and supervision of professionals in the field of child promotion and protection, as well as in clinical psychology.