Trauma Parenting for Parents

Trauma Parenting for Foster & Adoptive Parents

Learn non-traditional parenting techniques for foster care and adoption from a wide variety of professionals with years of experience in trauma care.

Buy $10.00

About This Session

Trauma parenting is a different form of parenting

Many traditional parenting techniques do not work so well with children with trauma backgrounds. Many of the ways we communicate and discipline children can feel very ineffective when trauma parenting. This leads to frustration, blocked care, and loss of caregiver satisfaction. We hope you will join our amazing panel that brings years of experience, and a wide variety of perspectives on foster care and adoption. If you have questions about trauma parenting, this session will be very helpful. If you work with children that have trauma, this also may be a good session for you to listen and learn about how trauma impacts our children.

"It was so helpful to hear the various experiences, suggestions, and thoughts from these amazing women. I so appreciated their openness, honesty, and willingness to share such hard things. It was gut wrenching but a beautiful ending to the weekend. Thank you!"

- 2023 Lost Sparrows Trauma Conference Attendee

Meet the Panel

About Stacey

Stacey Gagnon is a foster mom, adoptive mom, blogger, educator, published children’s book author, a registered nurse, and an international speaker. She writes the popular blog on adoption and foster care at ransomforisrael.com. Stacey and her husband Darren founded Lost Sparrows, Inc in 2016 to alleviate the flow of children into orphanages in Eastern Europe. She also began a program to help first responders communicate with schools when children are involved with the police called Trauma Lens Care. She has traveled across the US and Europe speaking and training on the effects of trauma on children and advocating for special needs children.

Stacey Gagnon

Lost Sparrows Founder

About Christy

Christy Irons has been a child advocate since she was 10 years old. Having been raised in a family that fostered children, Ms. Irons has built her own reputation as a strong advocate of foster children in South Carolina and internationally. Christy and her husband, Nigel, have one biological child and adopted 9 others. Ms. Irons has a widely read blog, The Sometimes 8 Irons, which chronicles the realities of a very diverse family life while actively seeking adoptive families for children in foster care. Ms. Irons holds degrees in Special Education and nursing. She is a member of the advisory board for Children’s Rights, a NY based organization advocating for rights of vulnerable children through the federal court system. Some may choose to adopt and others choose to be advocates, Ms. Irons has chosen to distinguish herself in both areas.

Christy Irons

Adoptive Mom, Child Advocate, Blogger

About Corletta

Corletta has earned an Ed.S. in Marriage and Family Therapy from Converse University. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that has spent the last 13 years serving as a School Mental Health Clinician in the largest school district in South Carolina. As a Chief on the School Mental Health Team, Corletta values her role in enriching clinicians and investing in school partnerships. She has presented at the Greenville County School Conference on Recognizing At-Risk Students and co-created mental health literacy lessons taught to all Greenville County School District high school students. Corletta would say that God has entrusted her with students and families that seek connection and understanding from a trusted adult. Though the diagnosis of her students vary, one thing remains the same; her students are valued and loved through the therapeutic connection that she provides. In addition to her professional career, she and her husband, Jay, are Sunday school teachers to some pretty awesome second graders. Corletta and Jay have four children of their own, three of which they had the privilege of adopting during their 12 years as foster parents. In her free time she enjoys working out, reading, and playing with her two Great Danes, Cruise and Zane!

Corletta Brown

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Foster Parent

About Vanessa

Vanessa offers a unique perspective drawing from her own story of childhood trauma and survivorship, clinical professional knowledge and expertise, foster-adoptive parenting, and her Christian faith. Vanessa and her husband, Mark, live in beautiful Winona Lake, IN with their four children. Vanessa has her Master’s in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with counseling experience, disciplined in developmental psychology and early childhood trauma and healing. Vanessa currently cares for her young children at home, while teaching part-time at Grace College in the Behavioral Science Department and as a public speaker. Vanessa is passionate about educating and equipping others on a variety of topics including, but not limited too: childhood development and trauma healing, navigating difficult relationships, emotion regulation, growth mindset and resilience building, foster/adoptive parenting, and importantly, faith development. Vanessa serves on the leadership team for Community Bible Study in the Warsaw/Winona Lake community, serving over 200 women and children. Additionally, Vanessa is an artist and small business owner, Join Vanessa. The business is centered on building creativity and connection in the lives of others through watercolor painting. Vanessa offers watercolor workshops, personal paint kits and gift boxes, private events, and sells her own collection of works. She is pursuing ways she can marry her clinical background with her creative background to better serve individuals, families, and groups struggling with chronic stress, trauma responses, and emotion regulation. Credentials: MA, CMHC, TF-CBT, Business Owner, Adoptive Mother, Survivor

Vanessa Pohl

Adoptive mother, LMHCA

About Shen-Quia

Shen-Quia Cobige is a successful flight attendant and is no stranger to the foster care system. Shen-Quia is the oldest of three sisters who were raised in the foster care system from a young age. Shen-Quia spent many years living in different foster homes until finally being adopted at the age 12. Despite her rough childhood, Shen-Quia was determined not to be a statistic, she graduated high school, went to college and worked successfully in real estate until starting her dream job as a flight attendant. Shen-Quia uses her experience in foster care to mentor young woman and be a positive role model.