While it is not nearly as common today as in the past, adoption professionals continue to encounter families where the children or teens do not know they were adopted.  In this workshop, Ms. Penny Zimmerman will address: 

• The common reasons and motivation behind parental secrecy
• The importance of professional intervention to ensure parental disclosure 
• How to assist parents in disclosure; 
• Children’s response to disclosure
• How parents can support children after disclosure 
• Adoption-competent mental health support

After Ms. Zimmerman’s presentation, Ms. Christine Koubek, an adopted adult who learned the truth at age 13, will share her story.

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About the presenters

Penny Zimmerman, LCSW-C, Clinical Supervisor for the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) has over 20 years of experience providing clinical and supportive services to children, adolescents, adults, couples, and birth, foster, kinship, and adoptive families. In addition to being an Adoption Competent Therapist, Penny’s clinical specialties include attachment, loss and grief, trauma/PTSD, the neurobiology of human development and trauma, and the therapeutic application of sensory techniques. Penny has completed extensive training in client-centered play therapy, Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy, narrative therapy, relaxation and regulation techniques, Theraplay, TF-CBT, and therapeutic and attachment-focused parenting. Penny is also a lead C.A.S.E. Trainer for both parents and professionals.  She brings a client-centered, holistic, creative, and supportive approach to her work.

Christine Koubek was born in Massachusetts, adopted and raised in New York, and has been reunited with her biological families for more than twenty years. Her award-winning essay, Portrait in Nature and Nurture, is now included in an adoption training manual. Christine is an award-winning writer, author, and writing teacher. Her nonfiction work has appeared in The Washington Post; Poets & Writers; Brain, Child; Coastal Living; Porthole; San Francisco Chronicle, NBCnews.com, and many other publications. Christine received an MFA in Creative Writing from Fairfield University, and was the recipient of residencies from the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Ragdale Foundation. She teaches personal essay and travel writing workshops at The Writer’s Center and enjoys working with writers one-to-one to help shape their stories. She co-founded Secret Sons & Daughters with another adoptee to create a place for adoptees to connect through the power of shared stories.