Customer Reviews

Creating Ceremonies: Innovative Ways to Meet Adoption Challenges

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Written by Cheryl A. Lieberman and Rhea K. Bufferd, Creating Ceremonies: Innovative Ways to Meet Adoption Challenges is an important resource for helping adoptive families cope with developmental challenges and life transitions. Each chapter includes actual scripts of rituals and ceremonies that have been used by the authors to help adopted children, parents, and professionals cope with various life-cycle phases from preadoption to leaving home. In chapter five, for example, the scripts address issues of loss and detachment. The ceremony "What is Going to Happen Now?" is a ritual designed to help young adopted children deal with an impending divorce. In this narrative, the parents announce their decision to divorce, encourage the child's expression of painful feelings, and make clear that the child is not at fault for the divorce. The remaining chapters address many other issues such as bolstering self-esteem, celebrating anniversaries, and ackowledging fears.

I strongly recommend Creating Ceremonies for clinicians interested in working with adoptive families. Since the scripts are applicable to challenges facing families in general, this book also serves as a helpful resource for all family therapists. The scripts can be modified during sessions to fit clients' unique situations and, also, can be used as a self-help resource for adoptive families.

A friend told me how helpful this book was and I decided to buy it. I have 3 children -- none of them adopted. The ceremonies have been EXTREMELY HELPFUL to me and my family. Even my husband likes them. We have used their ideas to help with nightmeres, death of a pet, anger, feelings, and tricky transitions. This book is very practical and has helped us be more creative and less frustrated with our children. Buy this for your family and your friends. It is a great gift for anyone with kids. I wish we had purchased it sooner.

I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend and it started to help us immediately. We had to move a year ago and our kids (5 & 8) were a mess. This time we did ceremonies for moving, saying goodbye to the old house and hello to the new, and saying hello to our new neighborhood and neighbors. This move was a breeze for our kids. They loved what we did and so did we. My wife and I would never have thought about doing these ceremonies on our own. We would have braced ourselves for another horrible experience with our son and daughter. This book would be a great gift to any parents whether they have adopted kids or not. We consider it one of the best gifts we ever gave our family.

A remarkable and practical approach to handling the enormously sensitive and challenging issues facing adopted children, adoptive parents, and other family members. Very applicable concepts for any child in a family, not just adopted children. I will definitely make use of this book!

As an adult adoptee, I can say I needed this book when I was younger. The title is deceiving. It tackles all the issues adoptees and even foster kids can relate to. I wish my parents had done these ceremonies with me. Some of them would have helped a lot. The ones around fear, loss, transitions, and self-esteem would have been especially helpful. Get this for your family today -- don't waste another minute thinking about it.

This book shows families how to honor and cherish simple and complex acts of every day life. The authors lead readers through real life situations with compassion, knowledge, empathy and personal stories. It's an educational read for potential parents of adopted children and a must read for those who have already welcomed children into their homes.

I bought this book because a friend suggested it. It sounded like a lot of fluff.

It turned out to be a lifesaver!

There were times I was at the end of my rope and I found a way to turn a rough situation around because of this book.

During calm periods I used other ideas to teach or enhance self-esteem in my two children.

Do yourself a favor and buy this sooner rather than later. I wish I had. It is a jewel.

Voices of experience provide insightful and practical examples of dealing with issues faced by adoptive parents and children. Easy to read format that encourages the reader to think creatively about his or her own situations.

As an adoptive parent, I was feeling hopeless about one of our sons. A social worker recommended this book and we started to use it. We were awkward at first but it has helped us through some rough times. I wish we had bought this book two years ago. Do yourself a favor and buy this book. It may be the best investment you ever make. It was for us.

A well-organized and thorough exploration of the use of ceremony in adoption situations, this book will be helpful to the lay reader as well as to those actively involved in adoption as professionals or family members.