Intercountry adoption is declining and many adoptees at any point of their life are in search of therapeutic services. Specialized care is scare and regular services seem to be missing the point.... Show moreIntercountry adoption is declining and many adoptees at any point of their life are in search of therapeutic services. Specialized care is scare and regular services seem to be missing the point. Regular therapeutic services do not cater to the specific needs of adoptees because they often forget to take the early adversity into account.Adoption specific therapeutic services are called for worldwide, this needs not be very difficult. Affective neurobiology, trauma and attachment research next to adoption studies have given practitioners many tools to design a sustainable therapeutical practice for both adoption aware assessment as well as adoption aware treatment. Show less
Although intercountry adoption, according to systematic reviews as well as meta- analysis, is a successful intervention from a perspective of child protection, often a long road of therapy and... Show moreAlthough intercountry adoption, according to systematic reviews as well as meta- analysis, is a successful intervention from a perspective of child protection, often a long road of therapy and support is needed. Intercountry adoptees are overrepresented in mental health services worldwide, as they are in the Netherlands. The single focus on classifying the problems and using mainly CBT or videobased treatments, are not enough to help these children and their families. In this practice based article I propose to use Waters’ Star model (2016) for both assessment and treatment of mental health problems. In doing so, not only overt but also covert issues are addressed, e.g. dissociation. The latter is a common coping mechanism in intercountry adoptees but not often referred to in assessment or treatment. A tailor made treatment plan, involving the parents as co-therapists employing attachment based, developmental, trauma- and neurobiologically informed interventions will be discussed. The approach is illustrated by using case-examples. Show less
