Perspectives Press» Meet the Authors of Perspectives Press’ Books on challenged family building, infertility, adoption

Arleta James, M.S.

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Arleta James, M.S., P.C.C, has been an adoption professional for a dozen years. She spent several years as a caseworker for the Pennsylvania Statewide Adoption Network placing foster children with adoptive families and the now works as a therapist providing services for attachment difficulties, childhood trauma and issues related to adoption. She was the 1999 Pennsylvania Adoption Professional of the Year. She is currently on staff at the Attachment and Bonding Center of Ohio.

She is the author of the 2009 Perspectives Press release Brothers and Sisters in Adoption: Helping Children Navigate Relationships When New Kids Join the Family

H. David Kirk, Ph.D.

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H. David Kirk is a Canadian sociologist (as well as an adoptive parent) considered by most to be the “grandfather” of modern adoption. He studied at Cornell and taught at McChill and University of Waterloo. The author of the highly influential Shared Fate: A Theory and Method of Adoptive Relations and Adoptive Kinship–An Institution in Need of Reform, his “retirement speech” given at the AFA conference in Dallas in 1995, is reprinted by Perspectives Press in the booklet Looking Back, Looking Forward: An Adoptive Father’s Sociological Testmament. In retirement in British Columbia, he continues to author an internet column “Shared Fate and More.”

Ellen Sarasohn Glazer and Evelina Weidman Sterling

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Ellen Sarasohn Glazer is a clinical social worker specializing in infertility, adoption, third party reproduction, pregnancy loss and parenting after infertility. She has worked in fertility centers and for adoption agencies and is now in full time private practice in Newton, Massachusetts. Ellenï¿½s practice includes in person and telephone counseling and coaching for individuals and couples considering adoption, egg donation and gestational care. She is the author of two books: The Long Awaited Stork: A Guide to Parenting After Infertility (Jossey Bass, 1998) and Experiencing Infertility: Stories to Inform and Inspire (Jossey Bass, 1998) and the co-author, with Dr. Susan Cooper, of two books: Without Child (Lexington Books, 1988) and Choosing Assisted Reproduction: Social, Emotional and Ethical Considerations(Perspectives Press, 1998). Ellen is also a freelance writer and essayist, whose articles have appeared in the Boston Globe, The New York Times and Newton Magazine. She has two daughters, Elizabeth and Mollie Glazer. It was their long awaited arrivals that inspired Ellen’s work in the field of reproductive medicine.

Evelina Weidman Sterling is a doctoral student in the Department of Sociology at Georgia State University. Her primary research interests include issues related to public health, gender and sexuality. In addition, Evelina holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of Mary Washington and a Master’s degree in Public Health from the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health. Evelina is a Certified Health Education Specialist. She has spent over ten years working in the field of public health and health education. Previous positions include working for the American Association for Health Education, Health Resources and Services Administration, Gallaudet University and the American Heart Association. She is currently working part-time as a consultant to various non-profit and government agencies in the areas of evaluation and health services research and has written several articles, as well given numerous presentations regarding reproductive health. She is the co-author with Angie Best-Boss of two other books, Living with PCOS: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (Addicus Books, 2000) and Budgeting for Infertility (2009). Evelina lives in Atlanta with her husband and two children.

Joan McNamara

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Joan McNamara, M.S., has been immersed in adoption for almost four decades as an adoptive parent, advocate and activist, and professional. Her research, training, and publications have been recognized and used widely in the US, Canada, the UK, and elsewhere around the world. But she says that it has been personal experiences with children in her own family and other families that have provided her with unique insights into some of the issues and thoughts of children coming from orphanages and foster care. Eleven of the thirteen children she and her husband Bernie have parented (now all adults) came into their family through adoption and foster care, many internationally.

Joan was Associate Director of Family Resources, a special needs adoption program, the Education Director for Carolina Adoption Services and also founded and directed the Home Again program, which was one of the first organized, national programs to assist children and families in crisis facing possible disruption of an international adoption. Currently she is the Director of Social Services for Hopscotch Adoptions, a not for profit international humanitarian aid and adoption program. In addition she is the co-chair of the Education Committee of the Joint Council for International Children’s Services.

Although there has been much written about international adoption for adults, there is far less from the perspectives of the children themselves, and no widely available materials for children related to Eastern European adoptions. Joan McNamara saw a need that desperately needed to be filled, and Borya and the Burps is her joyful and innovative contribution to the field, a loving gift to children from Eastern Europe and their new families

Juliet C. Bond, LCSW

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Juliet Bond has been working in the foster care and adoption field for over 10 years. She attributes her professional dedication to children and families to the life lessons and unconditional love her own beautiful children and husband have afforded her. Currently, she provides counseling and support to birthparents at The Cradle, in Evanston, Illinois, one of the country’s oldest and most respected adoption agencies. Juliet wrote Sam’s Sister after seeing several birthmothers abandon their adoption plans due to anxiety around revealing their decision to the children they were already parenting. During her research, Juliet discovered that over 60% of birthmothers were parenting other children at the time of placement! She was particularly interested in providing avenues for children to deal with grief and loss around having a sibling adopted. Juliet felt, with better tools, birthmothers and their children might feel more confident and comfortable in making their adoption plans. She hopes this book affords comfort and peace to families making such an important life decision

Deborah D. Gray, MSW, MPA

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Deborah Gray, founder of Nurturing Attachments, is a clinical social worker specializing in the areas of attachment, grief, and trauma. She has spent 20 years counseling children and families, specializing in children who are fostered or adopted. Her private practice philosophy is one of empowering parents with information and techniques so that their skills and styles are used in meeting the needs of their children. Her passion is to help children and their families to develop close, satisfying relationships

Deborah is a popular presenter due to her practical approaches of promoting attachment, shaping behavior, and working through trauma and grief. She teaches in the Cascadia /Northwest Adoption Resource and Portland State University Post-Graduate Certificate Programs in Foster Care and Adoption Therapy. She has keynoted national conferences including Joint Council of International Children’s Services (JCICS), American Association of Adoption Attorneys (AAAA), Midwest Adoption Conference, ATTACh, and Families for Russian and Ukrainian Adoption.

Deborah received her Masters in Social Work from Syracuse University as well as a Masters in Public Administration in Health Care from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. She is a licensed social worker and licensed mental health counselor in the State of Washington. She has also been a therapeutic foster parent.

Deborah Gray is the author of the best-selling book, Attaching in Adoption: Practical Tools for Today’s Parents, 2002, and Nurturing Adoptions: Creating Resilience after Neglect and Trauma, 2007, which was a 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award finalist for best professional book. Both of her books were published by Perspectives Press, Inc.

Contact Deborah at deborahdgray@yahoo.com

Ellen Sarasohn Glazer and Susan Lewis Cooper

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Ellen Sarasohn Glazer, is a clinical social worker with twenty years experience focusing on infertility, pregnancy loss, adoption and related issues. She is also program counselor at the Fertility
Center of New England Memorial Hospital in Stoneham.In addition to her PPInc-published book, she is also the author of The Long Awaited Stork arenting after Infertility.

Her writing partner was Susan Lewis Cooper, Ph.D, who died in the spring of 2003 of pancreatic cancer. Susan was a
psychologist in private practice with over twenty years’ experience specializing
in infertility, adoption, and third party reproductive options. In addition she was
a psychologist at the Reproductive Science Center-Boston and at Focus Counseling
and Consultation, Inc., in Cambridge, where she was co-director.

The two Boston-based women met
during years of working with RESOLVE (both served on its national board of directors)
and struggling with their own infertility quests. Both women are members of the American
Society of Reproductive Medicine’s Mental Health Professional Group. Together they
wrote twp previous books (both now out of print) and Ellen wrote the still-in-print
The Long Awaited Stork. One of their co-authored books, Beyond Infertility:
The New Paths to Parenthood, was revised, rewritten, expanded and updated for
a winter, 1998, release through Perspectives Press under the title Choosing
Assisted Reproduction: Social, Emotional and Ethical Considerations

Patricia Irwin Johnston, M.S.

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Pat Johnston is Perspective Press’ publisher. She has been writing and speaking and advocating about infertility and adoption issues for 30 years, beginning as a long-term volunteer in Indiana coalition building and with RESOLVE (for which she chaired the national board of directors for three years) and including several years on the national board of Adoptive Families of America. An innovative thinker, in 1979 Pat and two partners (Carol Hallenbeck, RN and reproductive endocrinologist Dr. William R. Keye, Jr., who was later president of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine) conceived of and planned what they later discovered had been the first consumer symposium on infertility held anywhere in the world! It became the model for the RESOLVE/Serono symposia series.

She was a regular columnist (“Growing Up Adopted: 0-2″) for Adoptive Families magazine for over five years (ending in 2000.) Pat is an on-line expert for INCIID’s Exploring Adoption and Expecting by Adoption and Parenting in Adoption bulletin boards. As well, she is a frequent contributor to many other boards, magazines and newsletters. Her books include Understanding Infertility: Insights for Family and Friends, Taking Charge of Infertility, (Adopting after Infertility, Launching a Baby’s Adoption which are both being replaced by 2008′s Adopting: Sound Choices, Strong Families), and Adoption Is a Family Affair! What Relatives and Friends Must Know and editing the poetry anthology Perspectives on a Grafted Tree: Thoughts for those Touched by Adoption.

Pat has been given several awards during her years in the iinfertility and adoption communities, including the 2007 Angel in Adoption Award from Congresswoman Julia Carson and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption; the 2006 Robert Todd Duncan award from Butler University’s Alumni Association to an alum whose personal or professional achievements bring honor to the University; a 2005 JCICS “110% Award” for above-and-beyond commitment to JCICS; and a 2004 Kaleidoscope Best of the Best Award (Consumer Watchdogs) from As Simple as That.

Additionally, she received the 1992 Friend of Adoption award from the Adoptive Parents Committee of New York and New Jersey; in 1991 Resolve, Inc, named its annual volunteer service award to a chapter volunteer in her honor; she received a 1989 Adoption Activist Award from the North American Council on Adoptable Children.

Pat and her husband, Dave, are the second generation of their family to extend it beyond infertility through the adoption of their three children, who are now adults. Her grandmother was a birthparent. Her niece is now adopting. Pat Johnston’s decision-making and special-issue-exploration workshops for consumers and her in-service trainings for allied professionals are routinely praised for their friendly, inspiring, and gently provocative nature. Frequent topics (as one hour sessions or mixed and matched for half and full day sessions) include the following list. The list, however, is not exhaustive and Pat customizes her presentations for each audience. Be sure to ask about other topics.

Infertility: Issues and Decisions

Life at the Crossroads

Taking Charge of Infertility

Making Good Decisions

Creating a Balance

For Men:What to Do when You Can’t “Fix It”

Fostering Effective Communication between Partners

Dealing with Family and Friends

Coping with the Holidays

Choosing the Right Professionals

Doctor/Patient Relationships

Where Do We Go from Here?–Evaluating Options

When Is Enough, Enough?–Knowing When to Stop

Ethics and Choices

free

less

The Quasi-Adoption Options: Donor Insemination, Surrogacy, Egg and Embryo Adoption

Is Adoption for You?–Making the Decision

Is Adoption for You?–Making the Commitment

Tough Adoption Choices–Making a “Match”, Openness, Artificial Twinning, and more

Parenting after Infertility

Parenting in Adoption

Making Ethical Choices in Choosing a Route to Adoption

Expecting by Adoption: A Little Bit “Pregnant.”

Launching a Baby’s Adoption

The Dance of Attachment

Promoting Attachment through the Senses

Getting Real: Understanding Entitlement in Adoptive Families

Growing Your Family–Entitlement, Attachment and More

Getting the Words Right–Using Respectful Adoption Language

Eggs, Cabbages Patches, Airplanes and Social Workers–What Kids Think and When

Children’s Developing Understanding of Adoption

Sex Education and The Adoption-Built Family

Conspicuous Families–Parenting across Racial Lines

Embracing Difference

Opening Ourselves to New Issues

Bringing Family and Friends Aboard

Promoting Understanding in the World Outside

Maintaining a Marriage while Growing a Family

And, for profressionals, The Family-Challenged Client in the 21st Century is a title encompassing a variety of topics pulled together in a half or full day workshop on dealing with today’s changing issues with a new generation of clients which is custom written for each workshop sponsor. Pat offers insights into what makes each generation so different with which to work, provides tools for engaging them, and presents materials professionals can use to help each client make his or her best decisions.

For detailed descriptions of the above topics, a copy of Pat’s vita, or to contact Pat Johnston about speaking for your organization, e-mail Pat at the office of Perspectives Press or call her there at (317)872-3055 between 8:30 and 4:00 Eastern time Mondays through Thursdays.

Anne Braff Brodzinsky, Ph.D.

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Anne Braff Brodzinskyis a parent by birth, by adoption, and through step-parenting. As a graduate student in psychology she became part of the Rutgers research team led by her now husband, Dr.David Brodzinsky, that has done the definitive research on how children of various ages–adopted and not–perceive and understand adoption’s process, permanency, and relationships. Out of this research and in dedication to her daughter, Anne wrote the adoption classic The Mulberry Bird. Directed at children no younger than 5 and up to about age 10, this story of a mother bird’s struggle to find the best way to provide her much-loved baby with the care he needed, was beloved in its 1986 edition and, after Anne’s doctoral research into how birthparents resolve the experience of adoption, The Mulberry Bird was carefully revised in 1996 to reflect more openness in adoption and the empowerment of birthfamilies.

Anne’s East Bay San Francisco, California practice includes many adoption triad members. Contact Dr. Brodzinsky via email at abrodzinsk@comcast.net or telephone her (Pacific time) at her office (510) 985-1773.

Vera I. Fahlberg, M.D.

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Vera Fahlberg retired in December, 1998, after a long and influential career as a pediatrician who traveled all over the world sharing her many years of specially focused experience and expertise in attachment therapy with families and mental health professionals. A frequent consultant to social service agencies and courts, Dr. Fahlberg wrote two of Perspectives’ books: the award-winning A Child’s Journey through Placement (which is considered by most professionals to be THE basic reference for those working with and parenting children who will spend part of their growing up years in any type of out-of-home care) and the now out-of- print Residential Treatment: A Tapestry of Many Therapies. For many years she was medical director at the world-renowned Forest Heights Lodge,a residential treatment facility for troubled adolescent boys. She has two grown children by birth and has fostered several other children.

We don’t produce videos, but several videos featuring Vera’s excellent trainings can be obtained through Northwest Media. Titles include “Separation & Loss for BirthFamilies,” “Insights into Birth Families,” “Foster Parents Working With Birth Parents,” “BehaviorManagement Using Supportive Control,” and “Re-education of Foster & Adopted Children.”

In addition, the well-known California parent group FAIR produced the DVD ”I wonder…Teenagers Talk about Being Adopted” which is an interview discussion led by Vera Fahlberg with a whole bunch of teens from a variety of ethnic/racial backgrounds who were adopted at various ages from newborn to young teen. It is available from FAIR , as is a new companion DVD “Sorta Happy, Sorta Sad…Children Talk about Adoption” featuring Dr. Joseph Crumbley with a variety of 6- to 11-year-old adoptees.

Dr. Fahlberg has retired and no longer accepts speaking invitations. You may reach her by email at fahlberg@yahoo.com