Download Core Training registration form

Training

Pre-Adoption “Core Training”

Internationally Adopting Families are required to take 24 hours of training before they adopt, including 12 “core” hours. Many parents dread the thought of 12 hours of “parenting classes”, but most people are pleased to discover that the course content is focused on various adoption-related issues. Pass Center is interested in providing families with tools, skills, and insight that are based on the most cutting edge and current research. All of the classes taught at Pass Center are taught by clinicians who 1) work with adoptive families, 2) who have had experience as adoptive or foster parents, or 3) who have been adopted themselves.

The basic content of the core training includes, but isn’t limited to the following:

• Attachment
• Trauma
• Grief & Loss
• Talking to your child about adoption
• Race & culture
• Facilitating your child’s adjustment
• Parenting & discipline strategies that are appropriate for children who have suffered trauma, neglect, and loss
• Post-Institutionalization Issues & PTSD
• Early Developmental Trauma and Brain Development

Pass Center for Families has been training families since 2000. Our 12-hour “core training” is a curriculum designed specifically for internationally adopting families. It meets Colorado’s “Core Training” requirements as well as Hague standards.

Children who have been harmed by early loss, trauma, or neglect are not “doomed” to a life of pathology and problems. Parents play a tremendous role in healing the wounds these children come home with and filling in gaps in development. Parents are empowered in this role when they have a solid understanding of how early developmental trauma impacts children. Parents begin to develop a framework and basic understanding of how they can facilitate healing in their children. They learn how to help their child by encouraging the development of emotional regulation and coping skills, cultivating healthy attachment patterns, and understanding when to reach out for help.

At Pass Center, we pride ourselves on keeping class sizes small enough that parents can dialogue and comfortably ask questions. Instruction methods include lecture, media, and small group exercises.