This post-graduate certificate program, developed through a collaborative partnership between GSSW’s Erna and Brad Butler Institute for Families, the Adoption Exchange and the Colorado Department of Human Services, provides advanced training and education in the field of adoption.

The certificate curriculum focuses on specialized theories and practices for working with all members of the adoption triad: birth parents, adoptive parents and adopted individuals. The program emphasizes the development of a framework for understanding the complexity of being a child or adult in a family by adoption, and the therapeutic skills that enable practitioners to work at the individual, couple, group and family levels of clinical practice.

MSW or postgraduate degree is required.

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• Describe current and historical trends in adoption practice in the United States and Colorado.
• Explain and apply the key theoretical perspectives in adoption and their empirical support to cases.
• Explain the adoption life cycle.
• Discuss key treatment issues facing birth and adoptive parents.
• Describe the core issues in adoption and their impact on children, youth and adoptive families.
• Apply the principles of strengths-based, family-centered, culturally competent practice to adoptive families.
• Recognize and describe key issues in clinical practice with children adopted from the child welfare system.
• Explain the key similarities and differences in adoption for infants and older children.
• Apply diagnosis, assessment and intervention strategies with adopted children and their families pertaining to trauma, attachment and neurological issues.
• Explain the key components of a treatment plan for the adopted child and family.
• Apply appropriate therapeutic interventions and effective techniques in practice with adopted children and families.
• Explain the key search and reunion issues for the adoptee.
• Explain the perspectives and implications for practice of the adoptive parent/family and birth parent family on search and reunion.
• Demonstrate the ability to assist children and families in understanding the key issues in transracial and transcultural adoption.

Successful graduates may be listed as having completed this specialized course on the Colorado Post-Adoption Resource Center (COPARC) website - A statewide community-based network of services to support adoptive families.

This program is brought to you in partnership with:

• Colorado Department of Human Services
• The Adoption Exchange
• Butler Institute for Families

Find out more about the Graduate School of Social Work at the University of Denver.