Mental Health and Adoption Virtual Training Series for Adoptive Parents
Start: Oct 13, 2026, 7:00:00 PM
End: Nov 5, 2026, 8:30:00 PM
Contact: lizj@mareinc.org
Description
Parenting an adopted child or teen can bring incredible joy and sometimes challenges that are difficult to understand or navigate. When adoption and mental health intersect, parents may find themselves facing questions about trauma, attachment, safety, residential treatment, independence, and how to stay connected through difficult seasons. Adoptive parenting can sometimes feel isolating, especially when your family's experiences don't look like what you expected.
Join MARE for a three-part virtual training series designed specifically for adoptive parents. Each session will explore a different aspect of parenting adopted children and teens while navigating mental health challenges. Our presenters bring a combination of professional expertise and lived experience to offer practical information, encouragement, and strategies that parents can use in their everyday lives.
This series offers an opportunity to learn from experienced professionals and parents who understand the complexities of adoption, trauma, mental health, and family relationships. We hope you'll leave each session with greater understanding, practical tools, and a reminder that you don't have to navigate this alone.
Attend one session or join us for all three! All sessions are virtual, and registration is available individually for each training.
These trainings are free thanks to generous funders, and Foster/Pre-Adoptive Training Certificates are available for all three trainings.
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The Connection Between Adoption and Mental Health Struggles (with Dr. Courtney Vezina)
October 13 | 7:00–8:30 PM
How can experiences of adoption, trauma, attachment, disruption, and loss affect a child's mental health and development? This session will help parents better understand the complex connections between early experiences, relationships, the developing brain, and mental health.
Dr. Courtney Vezina is a Doctor of Counselling and Psychotherapy, Registered Psychotherapist, Clinical Director, and graduate-level counselling educator. Her clinical and teaching work focuses on children, youth, families, attachment, developmental trauma, and caregiver well-being.
Courtney also brings more than a decade of personal experience as a foster and biological mother, as well as the perspective of growing up as a "bio kid" in a family that fostered children and youth. She brings both professional expertise and lived experience to her work helping families understand the needs of children who have experienced adversity, disruption, and loss.
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Parenting From a Distance: Maintaining Connection with Your Child When Mental Illness Has Made It Too Unsafe for Them to Live at Home (with Anna Bernacki)
October 26 | 7:00–8:30 PM
What does it mean to parent when your child cannot safely live at home? How can parents maintain connection, advocate for their child, and continue to nurture their relationship when a child is in residential treatment or another living environment?
Anna Bernacki is a wife and mother to four children adopted through foster care and an adoptee herself. As the mother of two children who have required placement in residential treatment facilities, Anna brings personal experience with the heartbreak, advocacy, and perseverance involved in loving and parenting from a distance.
Her work is deeply informed by her experiences with adoption, special needs parenting, identity, belonging, and the ongoing effort to maintain connection while supporting a child's safety and healing.
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Parenting Teenagers Toward Independent Adulthood While Navigating Mental Health Struggles (with Melissa Smallwood)
November 5 | 7:00–8:30 PM
As adopted teenagers move toward adulthood, parents may find themselves balancing two important goals: supporting their young person while also helping them develop independence. When mental health struggles are part of the picture, this transition can become even more complicated.
Melissa Smallwood is a licensed therapist who provides parent coaching through her Mending Hearts program. A former foster youth, foster and adoptive mom, and counselor, Melissa combines professional knowledge with lived experience to offer hope, education, and encouragement to families navigating the complexities of foster care and adoption.
In this session, Melissa will explore ways parents can support teenagers as they develop greater independence while continuing to navigate mental health challenges, relationships, and the transition into adulthood.