Support for All Members of the Foster Care and Adoption Constellation
Celia Center is a 501c3 non-profit organization based in greater Los Angeles.
Adopt Salon Constellation Support Group Founded 2009
Pre/Post Foster Care & Adoption Constellation Support Group – NOW ON ZOOM – ALL INVITED FROM ACROSS THE COUNTRY
A monthly virtual open support group for all members of the Adoption Constellation: First-Birth Parents, Adoptees, Former Foster Youth, Foster Parents, Legal Guardians, Adoptive Parents and Kinship Families.
A place for the Adoption & Foster Care community to come together to share stories, thoughts, feelings, ideas, receive psycho-education, process grief/loss, learn about search and reunion, and build strong bonds/connections.
Facilitated by Adoption Psychotherapist in Training and Adult Adoptee
Cathy Koley, Supervised by Founder Jeanette Yoffe M.F.T.
In 2014, a study was conducted HERE on the efficacy of this group.
93% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that:
The support group increased their knowledge and provided a safe place for them to share stories, thoughts, feelings, and ideas.
87% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that:
The support group provided opportunities for them to process grief and loss.
The support group provided them with opportunities to build strong bonds and connections with others.
91% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that:
They are able to understand themselves better because of this group.
Participants reported:
1. I understand my adopted daughter much more since coming to this group.
2. I learned priceless information regarding the emotional well-being of the adoption and foster community.
3. I am better able to understand, relate, and talk to an adoptee and foster youth.
4. I have learned how to approach an upcoming reunion.
5. I am developing better relationships and intimacy with family.
7. I recommend this group to anyone in the experience of adoption and foster care!
Open Adoption: Is it worth the angst, fear and complication?
For decades adoption was shrouded in secrecy, shame and sealed records. In the early 1990s a new way of adoption—called open adoption— slowly began to take hold. Open adoption means that the adoptive and the birth families are known to each other and can maintain contact. Today, most adoptions are open.
29 Things I Wish I Knew Before Adoption Entered my Life
A first mother shares her story about planning an adoption and speaks from the heart. This Grown in My Heart Adoption Carnival Topic was supposed to be “10 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Was Touched By Adoption”, but I can’t use the feel good wording of “touched”. I was not touched by adoption, it’s more like torched, trampled, traumatized, terrorized, tortured and torn apart by adoption.
Adoption and Foster Care Competency Online Training
Get 36 hours of continuing Education Units in one place: Adoption and Foster Care Competent Courses.
• Watch the Video Modules
• Take the Test
• Receive Certificate of Completion!!!
Post-Adoption Transitional Support
5 Hours of Continuing Education. This course was designed to help parents and professionals understand the general experiences children may exhibit in adoption-related challenges that identify losses, understand the importance of attachment, and explore common questions for adoptees.
Meet Jeanette Yoffe
Executive Director of the Celia Center, Inc.
Psychotherapist and Adult Foster Alum/Adoptee
Jeanette’s desire to become a child therapist with a special focus on adopted and foster care issues derived from her own experience of being adopted and moving through the foster care system in New York City, ethnically born to Argentinean and Irish parents. She is now blazing a trail as a resident in Los Angeles for 20 years with Celia Center and Yoffe Therapy, a group mental health center. Her personal experience has informed her education and provided insight into the unique stresses involved with these issues. Because of Jeanette’s life experience, she can more easily connect and relate to the children, teens, adults and their families she works with. She is an exceptional child-care worker who is dedicated to helping each of her clients reach their full potential through mental health therapy and make the difficult journey from despair towards resiliency and hope. https://www.jeanetteyoffe.com/
"As Mayor of the City of Los Angeles, and on behalf of its residents, I commend Celia Center . . . . I wish Celia Center continued success as [it supports] families through the tough but rewarding process of foster care and adoption."
Eric Garcetti, Mayor, City of Los Angeles
Presented by Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti to Celia Center at the 2014 Facing Trauma with Truth Conference
Contact Celia Center
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