Beyond Hope: How Transracial Adoption Therapy Offers Healing for Families in Crisis
This episode features Host Tiffany Silva Herlin, joined by Reggie Wilson and Cristell Marcial (LCSWs), discussing when parents of transracial adoptees should consider residential care, like OASIS Ascent, for a child struggling with identity, trauma, and behavior. The experts highlight the overrepresentation of adoptees in residential settings and emphasize the importance of adoption-competency training for staff, providing "mirrors" for youth through diverse staff and peers, and involving parents through education and family systems therapy to ensure successful reintegration. This conversation offers crucial information and hope for families in crisis.
Tiffany Silva Herlin is joined by clinical experts Reggie and Cristell for the final episode of the Bridging Cultures mini-series. This discussion focuses on the difficult decision for parents of transracial adoptees to seek residential care when their child is struggling with significant behavioral challenges and complex identity issues. They explore how specialized programs like OASIS Ascent offer a safe and structured environment for healing and stabilization by covering these topics:
- Signs for Residential Care: Recognizing when lower levels of care have failed and when safety (emotional, physical) has become the primary concern for the family.
- Adoption-Competency in Treatment: The need for therapists to receive specialized training, such as the TAC program, to address issues of identity, culture, and attachment in transracially adopted youth.
- The Power of Representation and Peer Support: How having staff and peers who provide a "mirror" helps reduce stress and encourages self-advocacy and cultural exploration through activities and assignments.
- Parent Support and Reintegration: How family systems theory, parent support groups, and psychological evaluations help parents understand and address their own biases and guide successful reintegration after treatment.
If your family is navigating the challenges of transracial adoption and is seeking clarity or stabilization, this episode offers invaluable insight into finding programs that treat the whole child and family system. Understanding the therapeutic approach and the available resources can help you find hope and healing for your situation.
Ready to find support? Visit oasisascent.com or call 855-701-2721 to learn how programs like OASIS Ascent provide a path to stabilization and healing.
Introduction to Residential Care for Transracial Adoptees
Tiffany: Welcome to our final episode of Bridging Cultures from our mini-series. We've talked about what transracial adoptees experience and how parents can support them. Now, we'll turn to what happens when kids are really struggling and need residential care.
Today, we'll explore how residential programs, like OASIS Ascent, help kids work through identity, mental health, attachment, and trauma while supporting parents through the process. Let's welcome back Reggie and Cristell to talk about this. I'm your host, Tiffany Silva Herlin, a licensed clinical social worker. Let's begin.
Tiffany: Cristell and Reggie, thank you so much for joining us for our last episode on talking about this topic. We're so excited to continue the conversation.
So, let's dive in. We're going to be talking about what parents who have transracial adoptees may need to know when it is time to seek out residential treatment. We'll also cover how residential treatment programs like OASIS can support them and help them through their journey, through this difficult process and the challenges they may be facing.
Let's start by taking one step back and talking about why transracial adoptees might be overrepresented in residential treatment settings.
Reggie: I think one reason is that there's not a whole lot of knowledge about what's going on with these kids- what's going on in the background. When the behaviors start, parents are looking for places for help and for stabilization.
When they come to a residential place like OASIS, one of the things that we are really proud of is that we're very diverse. They can go to our website and see our diversity. We also do a lot of training with our staff on various things, and one of them is adoption. We feel like we do a really good job with our clients who come through and have been adopted.
Statistics on Adoption and Residential Treatment
Cristell: I think this also just goes back to some of the statistics again. If we're looking at adoption in general, there's an overrepresentation of adoptees in the residential setting.
And then again, with 70% of adopting parents being White, we know that transracial adoption may simply be overrepresented in the families we're working with in the residential setting.
Tiffany: That makes a lot of sense. How can parents who may be listening and are at that point considering residential treatment, how do they know when it's time to start looking for that? What are the signs and tells?
Reggie: I think, first of all, you want to look at behaviors- what is going on? Has lower levels of care failed? Have you tried outpatient therapy, and what has that accomplished? Have they had mentors? Maybe you've done day treatment or IOPs (Intensive Outpatient Programs)?
When their kids come to us, we usually see a lot of anger. We see a lot of pushing away from parents. We see a lot of substance use.
I like to let our parents know that our kids are trying to find their identity, and they're frustrated because in a lot of ways they're discouraged from that. And not just from maybe parents, but just from the world in general. They're just trying to find out who they are.
Parents look at residential treatment not only for their child, but also for their family.
Cristell: I would say if they are at the point of looking at residential, it's often based on safety. Specifically for OASIS, we're focusing on that stabilization to then figure out the best next step for the child.
Yes, we're focusing on transracial adoption- which is often a huge piece once we work with these families- but a lot of the times when I'm working with the families, that wasn't the first thing that was brought up. It's something that we're starting to ask about more, or that I'm even noticing parents bring up on their own more now.
But the transracial adoption wasn't the initial reason. It's because some struggles, based on that and maybe other factors, have escalated to a level where there is now a lack of safety, and we need something that is a higher level of care.
Tiffany: Yeah, I think that's a great point to discuss: the safety, whether it be emotional, physical, or even sexual. Is there concern that parents don't feel like they have the tools and ability to keep themselves, their kids, and maybe other kids in the home, safe from the behaviors and the things that are going on, right?
Finding the Right Residential Program
Tiffany: And so stabilization is huge. You do a great job of providing that safe space to stabilize, and then figure out the next step. How do parents find programs like OASIS to help their kids?
Reggie: Well, there are several different ways. I think one of the most productive ways is to hire an educational consultant. These are people who know the industry; they know programs, they know people. They know characters who might fit well with any particular child.
They know the system. A parent who is impatient trying to find something may just put their child in the first residential treatment center they find, and it may not be a good fit. Hiring an educational consultant can help them find the right place for their child and the particular behaviors they're seeing. So, I would say that would be the first step.
But there is also word of mouth- getting out there, asking around, asking friends and neighbors what their experience has been with a certain program.
The internet is certainly another good source of knowledge for parents. But I also would say: do your work, do the interviews. Interview programs. We love parents to come and visit us. We love parents who will call us and just interview us over the phone about what we can provide. So, I think it's really about the parents getting out and not being in a rush to find a fit for their child.
Tiffany: Yeah, I love that. Like you said, one of the most efficient and helpful resources out there is an educational consultant. They can help you navigate this big industry and world, especially when you're in crisis and trauma, struggling, and needing a quick solution to provide safety for you and your child.
Reggie: Yes.
Tiffany: They're going to really help you navigate it because it's a lot. Even if you do go on the internet, there are so many options, and you just don't know which ones are good, which ones aren't, and what's a good fit.
Reggie: Yeah, 100%.
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: Just to add to the point about educational consultants, when Reggie and I first presented on this topic, it was with an educational consultant, and he was great. It was cool to see that families he works with, and that we work with, are going to have that level of support at all the different levels. It’s not only the therapist who is aware of and addressing this, but also their educational consultant who's going to be with them even further than we would be in our short-term setting with OASIS.
Reggie: Shout out to Josh Doyle.
Tiffany: I was going to ask, "Is it Josh?"
Reggie: Yes.
Cristell: Yep, it was Josh.
Tiffany: I love Josh.
Reggie: He's amazing.
Tiffany: He really is.
Reggie: He helped us a great deal in putting this together, as Cristell said. So yeah, big shout out to him.
Tiffany: Cool. Yeah, he's great. I've worked with him, and he's just fantastic to work with. How does OASIS approach issues of identity, culture, and race in therapeutic work?
Cristell: Again, this is something that may not be the first thing that is brought up, but it is something that I like that we're including when we get the short summary of a kiddo coming in for admissions that week.
It’s a description that includes: "They're adopted. Is it a transracial adoption? How has this affected them?"- if the family has already opened up about it. Then, from there, our team, Reggie and I, can continue to address it.
Sometimes parents aren't ready. Sometimes kids aren't ready. And sometimes there's just a mix of all of it. It’s about being aware of what level the family is at in that process. We continue to have that lens as we're addressing other struggles the kid might have, whether with their anxiety, depression, sense of belonging, identity, or suicidal ideation- all of that.
We are just aware that the transracial adoption piece may be an additional factor. If they correct us and tell us, "No, that's okay," then that's fine. But we need to be able to ask if that is a factor or just have that as background knowledge for us.
Training for Adoption Competency in Therapists
Tiffany: I think that's just common ethical training that every therapist should be addressing: how does identity, culture, and race affect the issues that you're seeing with the family and the client you have, especially if they are transracially adopted?
What training or competencies are staff given to support adoptees from diverse racial backgrounds?
Reggie: First of all, I am very proud of the makeup of our staff. Cristell mentioned this earlier- we have a great location. We are in the middle of two colleges and we can draw from them, and our staff are amazing.
In terms of training, we do training twice a week on different shifts. We teach a number of things in terms of how to interact with our clients, what to look for. We talk about trauma, we talk about certain behaviors, we talk about patterns of behaviors, and we talk about the function of the behaviors.
In terms of adoption, we spend a lot of time talking about how these behaviors may come from a different area than what we think. For example, what an oppositional kid might look like on paper- there may be a lot of stuff going on in the background in terms of their adoption.
We want to make sure that we give our staff the tools to work with, and that's just talking to them, having open door policies. We have chats that they use to chat back and forth with all the therapists. They know that they can come to us if they have a question or a concern about a kid, especially a kid who's been adopted, and the behaviors that they're seeing.
Tiffany: I love that you guys have a diverse team with your staff and also the therapists.
A study by the Donaldson Adoption Institute found that less than 25% of clinicians nationally are considered adoption-competent. Which I would say is true. We work with so many adoptive families, yet not all of us, even as therapists, are trained on this. I've been a therapist for a number of years, and just diving into this topic with both of you has really taught me so many things that I probably could have known, and should have known, as I was working with so many families. So just becoming more aware.
I love that we're having this conversation to open the door for more discussions like this and education for people, whether you're a therapist, a family, or parents- it doesn't matter. What other training resources might you want listeners to be aware of that programs like OASIS might utilize?
Resources for Adoption Competency Training
Reggie: I think that's a great question. When we were putting this together, Cristell, Josh, and I were referred to the Centers for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.).
Going to their website, I was amazed at the vast resources they have. They brought together the best thinkers in child welfare, adoption, and lived experiences, and created a curriculum for competency in adoption. I would encourage any therapist who is around transracial adoptions- or adoptions in general- to take this course. They also have a course called TAC (Training for Adoption Competency). That training has three levels:
The first level is for master's program students (like one and two years). The second one is for post-master's clinicians. The third one is for those with six to ten years or more in the industry. In each of those levels, there is a lot of information for therapists to learn about adoption and transracial adoptions.
The TAC training is a more intense kind of program with 12 modules. It is a once-a-week commitment that goes for something like nine or ten months. You have to be really committed to that because it's pretty time-consuming. But the information and the resources that you learn from this training are invaluable. You can pass this on to parents as well. There's also a section there for just general knowledge about adoptions. I would encourage therapists, parents, and anyone who wants to learn to go to that website, C.A.S.E. (C-A-S-E), and see if there's something you can take from it.
Cristell: As we're talking about this, we know it's a lot to take in, just even in the initial conversations about it. I think it's great that these training programs that we have found really acknowledge that. That's why they have the different levels.
They know it may be an introductory course for students or new clinicians, and then so on as they gain their own experience. There's just more and more they can take on from there, but they won't be overwhelmed right away. They can take it at their own pace, and I believe they provide the trainings in person and online, so there's some flexibility there.
Tiffany: That's wonderful. There are a lot of great resources, some we haven't even mentioned, but if you are looking for a competent therapist, you want to see what they may be trained in. Not only have experience with it, but also training, and there are various...
Reggie: Yeah, and I would...
Tiffany: ...certifications.
Reggie: I would add that when you do the TAC training, because it's detailed and time-consuming, it's almost like EMDR. Cristell went through EMDR not too long ago, and it's pretty time-consuming. At the end of the year training, you get a certificate that identifies you as an adoption-competent therapist. That's something that any program, or you yourself, can actually market yourself as someone who is competent in adoptions.
Cristell: And going through the training, there's a component of having consultation specifically for that, just as we would once we're becoming fully licensed. But now, specifically for this area, they have that as part of the training. Students are expected to come and share their own examples. I think that's really nice. With the EMDR training that I went through, that's what we were expected to do- show how we're actually practicing it and get some guidance as we start to do it. They take that same approach.
Reggie: Which I think is good. They just don't want some person off the street who says, "Hey, I think I want to learn about it," and they get halfway through it and say, "Eh, it's not for me."
Cristell: Yeah.
Reggie: So, they want you to be committed to it. This is very important. Let's just face it, adoption competency is tough. We don't want to leave anything behind. We want to make sure that when we talk about adoption, when anybody is talking about adoption, they have all the latest resources and all the learning tools at their disposal to be able to help the families that they serve.
Creating Safe Spaces for Cultural Exploration
Tiffany: How does OASIS create a safe space for cultural exploration and identity development?
Cristell: This might be part of other programs’ assignments for the kids too, but we have the kids write an autobiography when they first come in as one of their initial assignments, and that goes through family history.
One of the things I know I've done is sitting down with the clients and going through the questions. One, just to help them complete the assignment, because sometimes they need support to do that.
Tiffany: Of course.
Cristell: But another part is just to actually process what they're putting down in their autobiography and starting to explore: "What am I comfortable sharing with the community? What do I just want to process in a session? What do I feel comfortable sharing with my parents?"
Those may all be at different levels, and adding that part about adoption is usually a really big piece in all those different settings. Again, in their individual sessions, and in group sessions, a lot of the times we'll see the kids realize, "You're adopted too? Oh my gosh! I didn't know that," because they see themselves, or see each other, and they don't see the parents just as we would every week.
Going back to the family sessions, we have the kids also present their autobiographies in those. Again, that sometimes requires some of the parent coaching- letting parents know: "This is their perspective. Be curious, ask questions. We're going to start these discussions. It doesn't mean that you're wrong or that they have totally different experiences. It's just their perspective, and we need to bring those together." So that's one of the things that we do.
Reggie: Piggybacking on what Cristell was saying, we try to celebrate cultural holidays like Cinco de Mayo and Juneteenth.
This year for Juneteenth, what we did was we took our clients down to a Creole restaurant. I have a friend who owns a restaurant down there, and he had them sample some Creole food. While they were eating, he talked to them about what Juneteenth was all about. They had some background, because I prepped them before they left, but he was able to give them some background from a different perspective.
He talked about the slaves and how in Texas they didn't know that they were free yet, and how Texas was the last part of the nation to give up slaves. Once they found they were free, this was a point of celebration. This guy talked to them about that, but he also related it to their own mental kind of slavery, being stuck in their ideas that they have to be a certain way, or they...
Tiffany: Or even addictions, right?
Reggie: The addiction- all of it, yeah, for sure. He just had a way of making Juneteenth relevant to them. So we talked about it, then he made it relevant to them, and then challenged them to say, "What are you going to do about it?" I thought that was just a great way of celebrating Juneteenth with food and a really good discussion on how it relates to them.
Tiffany: You might have to tell me where this restaurant is after...
Reggie: Sure.
Tiffany: ...because I would love to try it.
Reggie: Sure, he would love to have you there.
Tiffany: That sounds fantastic. And yeah, what a great way to incorporate culture. I'm sure some of these kids could really relate to it and connect to that, so that's fantastic.
Reggie: Yes.
Cristell: Yeah, we've also been able to have a Rabbi visit our program pretty consistently for our Jewish students and clients that we have there. It's really nice to see sometimes they may not have been as involved in that before coming into residential, but then they start to see that and say, "Hey, I want to go. I want to be with my peers who I can relate to and explore this again." That's just another part that we can provide while they're there.
As Reggie mentioned, we'll celebrate other holidays, and that's done throughout the whole program.
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: We've been able to set up times like, "Hey, we're going to celebrate this culture today." So lunch will be a certain kind of food, and in school, they'll have some kind of history lesson on it. In groups, we'll address it in some way.
Sometimes it even comes down to really fun stuff for the kids. Like, I brought in Mexican candy, and that was so fun to see their reactions to it. And just to be able to explore something new, whether they related to it or not, but just having those open discussions about that. That brought up other discussions like, "I know about me, I..."
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: "...I want to do this. Can I teach my peers about this the next time that we have group?" And yeah...
Tiffany: Fantastic.
Reggie: Yes.
The Importance of Representation in Therapy
Tiffany: How do peer relationships, mentorships, and representation matter in a residential setting?
Cristell: It matters because it may be one of the first times that a child is seeing a mirror in that setting. I have an experience that has stuck with me over time, and I'm always a little hesitant in the way of wording it, but it was just the way it was said.
I was working with a mom and a daughter, where the mom is White and the daughter is Black. Most of the time in our residential work, we communicate through email first. Parents may not have actually seen pictures of the team online, and that was the case with this family. I got on the call, and it was a video call, so the mom finally got to see me. We got into a little bit of the introductory part, and then the mom said, "Can I just say I'm so happy you're not blonde, blue-eyed with a pixie cut?"
It was funny to hear. It wasn't anything bad; it was just that her daughter hadn't had somebody who was also a person of color to help her address her mental health needs.
I let her know that later, this was confirmed to be important to the child as we continued to talk about it. The daughter was super excited and was telling her family members, "Yeah, my therapist is a Latina, and it's super cool, and I get to talk to her about these different things." We were able to explore that.
On top of that, it was also an opportunity for me to check my biases and my blind spots because, yes, I'm a person of color, but I'm not Black. That was something I needed to now take and become more competent in, or just work with the rest of the team and figure out, "Okay, how do I best serve this family and this child, knowing there's this additional part of her treatment that we need to address?" It wasn't bad intentions for the mom to say it that way. It was just...
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: ...such a refreshing thing to see that my child has somebody who looks similar to them in some way.
Tiffany: Yeah, which, like we talked about earlier, having that mirror is the first step to helping them realize they're not alone and to have someone be able to hold space and relate to them. So much of the therapeutic work that we know of is when that person is able to be a witness and validate. Then, also having other people, like in group therapy settings, realize that other people have gone through what you've gone through- that's huge in the healing process, we know.
Reggie: Absolutely.
Tiffany: So...
Cristell: Just to also add, going back to attachment, some of our kids may struggle with this. In the residential setting, we know that interactions aren't just done in therapy, but it's the day-to-day, small interactions- greetings, seeing them, or the kids seeing us interact with other kids too.
It's about recognizing, "Okay, is this somebody who I can trust to then take into individual therapy or family therapy?" If they already are having those mirrors, maybe they're experiencing a little bit less stress because they know they don't have to take that educator role again. It's just, "Okay, people understand at least parts of my identity or things that I'm going through, and so now I don't have to be tiptoeing around that once I come to sessions."
Reggie: Yeah, yeah.
Tiffany: Love it. How can OASIS support adoptive parents while their child is in treatment?
Supporting Adoptive Parents
Reggie: I would say that, first of all, there's having a connection with the therapist. Being able to know that they can reach a therapist via email or phone call- that's number one.
I think also parent support groups. We run a weekly parent support group. Some of it follows a curriculum, and some of it is just an open mic: "Let's talk about what's important to you."
I've been in some of those parent support groups where they do talk about this, especially the adoptive parents. They talk about them not having that connection that some of the other parents have because their kid is adopted, and it stimulates some really good conversations.
So, I think that coaching and education, support groups, and I think we just need to understand that we need to bring the parents along with their child on the journey. It's about helping them also learn and look at their own biases, while the child is doing their work as well.
I think that's a big part of it. We use a lot of family systems theory in our work at OASIS, and it's really powerful. I know that during some of those works, when we have some really good sessions, there's not a dry eye in the group- including me.
But it's that realization that parents come to where, "Wow, it is not hopeless. I can pick up the pieces- we can pick up the pieces." And this is what I'm willing to do, and this is what the child is willing to do. We help them come together and realize that there is a future there.
Tiffany: OASIS is known for psychological evaluation. How does this play a role in helping families who have a transracial adoption?
Cristell: A lot of the time when families are coming in, it's because they're in a state of crisis, and we are focusing on reaching that stabilization. They may come already knowing that the transracial adoption is impacting their family and their child's mental health, or they may not quite be there.
As we do the psychological evaluations, sometimes there's that confirmation to parents that, yes, this is something that actually impacted my child. And, going back to those hard conversations, now they need to look at it- it’s there. Now we can make sure that it's addressed in their ongoing treatment, whether it's still at a residential setting, or going to a day program or an IOP, or just having outpatient services moving forward. It’s something that they can now take and make sure that it’s addressed.
Reggie: Yeah. I think it also can speak to the attachment piece. What does that look like? How does it play out between the parents and the child? What does that look like in terms of the behavior, and with regard to referrals to a higher or lower level of care?
I'm a firm believer that the longer a child is away from the home, the less likely- or it reduces the opportunity- to form attachments. I like to speak to that in therapy, but I think our evaluations can really speak to that in terms of going forward, what that looks like, and why it is important to have parents involved every step of the way.
Tiffany: Yeah.
Reggie: So...
Tiffany: I love that it sounds like the evaluation helps parents weed out those questions: Is adoption a big factor? What is the attachment piece? Is there a parent-child relationship issue? Is there trauma involved? It helps put together those puzzle pieces that may be missing or in the wrong place, and see a more clear picture and way forward for the family in regards to treatment.
Reggie: Yes. Yes.
Successful Reintegration After Residential Care
Tiffany: What does successful reintegration look like for these youth when they leave residential care?
Reggie: I like to think of them using the skills and the information that they've learned from us, and going somewhere and building on that. I've had clients who have sent me graduation cards and things like that. I share it with the rest of the team, saying, "We are making a difference." Cristell has had parents call her and talk about how much further they are now than they were before they started.
Are they done working on it? No, but they recognize that things are getting better. I think that's really what that might look like.
Cristell: Yeah. Part of it also looks like the kids being able to advocate for themselves and express their needs. Working through that shame and grief is still ongoing at times, but they're able to just bring up those discussions and know that it's going to be welcomed by the parents as they continue to navigate that in a home setting now- not only the residential one.
It’s about actually being able to ask for what they need. Parents feel good about being able to provide that too, and actually having some of those services set up once they already leave OASIS, whether it's a therapist who can be a mirror, or somebody who's just aware that that will be a piece they need to continue to address.
Tiffany: I think we talked about that earlier: what changes can be made at home in the environment so that there are mirrors, so that the family is embracing the culture that their adoptee comes from, and things like that. This allows the adoptee to feel like they belong, that they have a place, and they're not alone.
I would love if you guys could end with a success story that you've experienced personally from OASIS in working with families with transracial adoptees.
Transformative Success Stories from OASIS
Reggie: I'll start. I have a story that's just as good, involving an older adoptee and his parents- very well-educated, both very nice people. They came to us with their son, who was abusing substances and being really disrespectful.
One of the things that they learned in therapy is that they were slow to validate and quick to dismiss. Anytime this young man would speak, they would say things like, "That really didn't happen," or "You need to turn the other cheek," or "That's not important right now, let's talk about real things." They talked about things they really wanted to talk about versus listening to things that he felt were important.
Through our work and just through what I've learned, I helped the parents understand that we need to listen. Once they started listening and validating, things started to change. Not too long ago, I got a high school graduation announcement that this kid was graduating. I was thrilled, and I wrote the parents back. One of the things they told us was that they felt that this kid coming to OASIS saved his life. For me, that's a big success story.
Tiffany: Absolutely. A lot of times, we hear those stories of this was their "second chance," and a lot of these kids' lives were saved because of a program like OASIS, and helping families integrate.
Cristell: There's a family I think of that I worked with not too long ago. Thankfully, the parents were already aware of the impact the adoption had on their child. The child had an additional experience: he actually wanted to talk to his biological mom, and the parents were happy to set that up for him. It was good to know that they had done that and hadn't taken it as a rejection from him, but just curiosity that he wanted to learn a little bit more about his background.
Unfortunately, that didn't go well. It sounds like the biological mom just wasn't in a place to be able to do that. The parents recognized that, and they let me know this throughout their child's treatment at OASIS. We were able to take a really trauma-informed approach to his treatment, addressing the grief and loss that he experienced from the adoption and this recent experience.
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: The kid responded really well. We were able to go a little bit deeper, using EMDR, actually, which we know can be really effective, even indirectly. He responded really well and was able to go home and reach that stabilization piece. He's actually still doing really well. I've had some communication, and it's good to hear those messages still from parents: "It's been really helpful. He's still going strong." They know they need to have some range of tolerance- we're still going to make some mistakes, and so is our kid, and that's okay. They were also able to set up some services for him.
Tiffany: What a great story to share- that parents are supportive, but things don't always go as planned, even if you're trying your best. Even though meeting his birth mom didn't go the way they hoped, you were able to recognize that, and they were able to help him through that trauma and that grief and loss. I just love that you guys were able to come here and join us for this important conversation.
Finding Hope and Healing for Families
Tiffany: And for our listeners out there searching for hope and healing, remember that there are programs like OASIS that can provide a safe space for transracial adoptees to process their identity and to heal.
If your family is in crisis, remember you are not alone, and support is out there. For information on OASIS and resources for adoptive families, please visit them at oasisascent.com. We'll make sure we put that in our notes. Thank you guys so much for being part of this series and helping bridge cultures in this conversation that's so important for so many people to hear.
Reggie: Tiffany, thank you so much.
Tiffany: Yeah.
Cristell: Yes, thank you so much for having us.