Empowered To Connect (ETC) Parent Training is an interactive learning experience designed specifically for adoptive and foster parents. The ETC Parent Training was developed by Empowered To Connect and relies heavily on the Trust-Based Relational Intervention® (TBRI®) model developed by Dr. Karyn Purvis and her colleagues at the TCU Institute of Child Development.
ETC Parent Training equips parents with a holistic understanding of their child’s needs and development while empowering them with the tools and strategies to effectively meet those needs, build trust, and help their child heal and grow. The training is taught from a Christian perspective and focuses on a wide range of topics and issues relevant to adoptive and foster parents, including helping parents understand the impact of their child’s history, what they themselves bring to the parent-child relationship, the fundamentals of attachment, the impact of fear, and the importance of meeting their child’s sensory processing, nutritional and other physiological needs.
The Connect Course includes the following nine sessions:
- Building a Foundation of Connection
- Understanding What Your Child Brings to the Relationship
- Examining What You Bring to the Relationship (Part 1)
- Examining What You Bring to the Relationship (Part 2)
- Attachment: Discovering the Heart of Connection
- Understanding the Needs of the Whole Child
- Putting It All Together: Connecting While Correcting (Part 1)
- Putting It All Together: Connecting While Correcting (Part 2)
- Putting It All Together: Connecting While Correcting (Part 3)
During the in-class sessions participants cover the above material contained in the ETC Parent Training Manual. In addition, the in-class sessions are supplemented by weekly assignments, including reading and a variety of participatory “at-home” exercises. You can view the ETC Parent Training Resource List here.
The cost for the training is $100 per family, which includes all materials and required resources. Married couples are required to attend together and singles are encouraged to attend with a support team member. Class sizes are limited to no more than 12 families. Continuing education training credits are available for foster/adoptive parents who complete the training.
Course Leaders
The leaders for the 9 week ETC Parent Training Course are John and Robin Daniel, the Directors of Forever Families. John and Robin have are blessed to be parents to 8 amazing children: John David, Joshua, Rachel, Rebekah, Josiah, Ruth, Rose, and Jeremiah. Six of their children came into their family through the miracle of adoption, but they forget which ones. Professionally, John is a nuclear pharmacist with NuTech, Inc., where he has worked since 1999. Robin is a registered nurse by training and a mother by choice.
Our Connect Course is scheduled to start September 10, 2017.
For more information about the Empowered To Connect Parent Training or to inquire about registering to attend an upcoming class, contact j.daniel@tylerforeverfamilies.org