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Therapists & Clinicians

Helpful Handouts

  • Matters of the Heart: Mental Wellness for Children & Youth
    Starting conversations about mental health with children and youth can feel overwhelming, especially when they’ve experienced trauma. These discussions are key to nurturing their emotional well-being and building trust. This handout offers practical tips for parents and caregivers to make these conversations easier.

Tip Sheets

  • The Wider Scope of Therapy
    Therapy isn’t just about traditional talk sessions anymore. With a variety of innovative approaches available, it’s important to understand the options and find what works best for the child in your care. This tip sheet provides an overview of several therapeutic interventions, offering insights into their benefits and applications.
  • Uncovering Myths about Therapy
    Therapy can be a crucial part of healing for children who have experienced trauma, but many myths and misconceptions can create barriers to seeking help. This tip sheet aims to dispel common myths about therapy and provide parents and caregivers with the knowledge they need to support their children effectively.
  • Making the Most of Therapy for the Child in Your Care
    This resource provides essential tips for caregivers to maximize the benefits of therapy for children in their care. It emphasizes the importance of establishing good communication with mental health providers, being responsive to the child’s feedback about therapy, and advocating for a therapist experienced with foster care and adoption. Caregivers will learn how to support children before and after therapy sessions, recognize signs that a therapist may not be a good fit, and maintain confidentiality.
  • Depression in Teens Who Were Adopted: What Families Need to Know
    Parenting teens is challenging, but when adoption adds extra layers of complexity, understanding their emotional landscape becomes crucial. Our tip sheet, “Depression in Teens Who Were Adopted: What Families Need to Know,” offers invaluable guidance for parents navigating these turbulent years.

Recorded Webinars

  • Mental Health 101: An Introduction to NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Wisconsin
    In this webinar, parents and caregivers will learn the differences between mental health and mental illness, different diagnoses, and how they can present, as well as guidance on how to assist your child during a mental health crisis.
  • Youth and Mental Health
    This webinar provides participants with a comprehensive overview of mental health concerns that affect youth in out-of-home care, with attention to developmental trauma. The intent of this webinar is to educate foster, adoptive, and/or kinship parents on the prevalence of mental health issues among youth in out-of-home care. The presenter explores specific childhood mental health concerns, what we might see from a child who is healing from their experiences, and strategies and community resources that we can use to assist the child in our care with their healing.
  • Utilizing Creative Arts in Treatment
    Every child is unique, and so are their experiences. Because of that, it is important for caregivers to learn about a variety of therapies that could bring healing to children. This webinar will explore how the creative arts are utilized in the treatment of complex trauma. Parents will learn about opportunities in music, art, dance, and movement, and how they can be used to create a healing environment for children.
  • The Many Faces of Anxiety: Recognizing and Responding to Fears, Worries, and Panic
    How do you recognize and respond to the worries, anxiety, and panic of the children in your care? Watch this webinar to learn specific language to use with children (and yourselves), calming strategies for moments of anxiety, communication strategies during anxious times, and resources that are accessible and easy to use.

Additional Links & Resources

  • Adoptee Therapists in Wisconsin
  • Black Clinicians Milwaukee
  • Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.)’s National Directory of Adoption Competent Professionals. Search this national database to locate qualified adoption therapists in Wisconsin. Read their individual profiles to learn more about them before connecting with them via phone or email.
  • Healthy MKE: Find mental health and substance use care resources for adults, children, and families in Milwaukee County.
  • imi.guide is a digital, research-backed mental health tool that youth can use on their own. It was developed by Hopelab, in partnership with CenterLink and the It Gets Better Project. imi.guide supports and helps LGBTQ+ teens explore and affirm their identity and learn practical ways to cope with sexual and gender minority stress that are helpful, relevant, inclusive, and joyful. This is done through supportive and affirming resources, activities, and stories from LGBTQ+ youth in 4 areas of interest and need: minority stress, queerness and LGBTQ+ identity, internalized stigma, and gender identity and expression.
  • Uplift WI: This line is for Wisconsin residents and is staffed by certified peer specialists – people with lived experiences of mental health, substance use, and other related life experiences. Call this line if you need someone to talk to for support when things are difficult or when you just need a peer to connect with. You do not need to be in crisis to call this line. This line is anonymous, confidential, and not directly connected to crisis linkage services.

Crisis Resources