Post Adoption and Attachment Program There are several therapists at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Family with a specialized interest and clinical experience in working with families who have adopted children internationally from institutions and domestically through foster care.  We are available to help parents and their children navigate the attachment and relationship issues that can sometimes surface in adopted families. Our treatment philosophy is grounded in attachment theory and infant mental health principles of relationship. Many children who have experienced emotional neglect and/or trauma have great difficulty trusting that adults can take care of them and meet their needs. Additionally, children who have not experienced the sensitive loving attention of a consistent caregiver did not learn to regulate their feelings adequately, which is a key component in the development of a primary attachment relationship. Our treatment aims to work directly with the child and parents together to help the child learn to trust his parents and to experience his parents helping him to regulate his emotional experience.  The therapist helps guide the child to feel and experience the difficult emotions that he would otherwise avoid; however, this time he is not alone, he has his parents with him as he processes these painful feelings. Through this experience the child is able to experience the empathic attunement of his parents, the sensitive regulation of his feelings, a better understanding of his internal experience, and a more positive attachment relationship with his parents. We work closely with parents to help them better understand what their child needs from them emotionally in order to attach fully and develop close, loving relationships. We also help parents to be more aware of their own attachment histories that may be interfering in the understanding of their child. To that end, we work with parents to help mitigate the negative influence of these issues on their relationship with their child.