Foster Parenting Step-By-Step ─ How to Nurture the Traumatized Child and Overcome Conflict

Dr. Kalyani Gopal presents a step-by-step guide for would be foster parents in the United States. She provides an introduction to institutional foster care in the US, noting psychological and sociological features as well as legal and bureaucratic formalities. The first two "stages," as they present the chapters, focus on coming to the decision to foster and preparing for it once you've decided. Later stages look at what's important about the welcoming stage and being ready for displaced trauma, adaptation and attachment, specific issue areas as parents (school, mental health, agency related, etc.), evidenced based strategies for empowering foster children, and finally letting go as they transition to independent or other living. Irene Clements, president of the American Foster Parent Association, writes an approving forward. Dr. Gopal is a clinical psychologist with a 25 year background working with foster parents. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Dr. Kalyani Gopal is a licensed clinical psychologist with over 25 years' experience specialising in working with foster parents. She regularly contributes to Foster Focus magazine offering expert advice. She is on the Lake County Child Protection and Child Fatality Team and is an international speaker on foster care and child abuse. She is President and Clinical Director of Mid-America Psychological and Counselling Services in Merrillville, Indiana and supervises five outpatient clinics in Indiana and Illinois. She is President, Clinical Psychology of Women, APA, Division 12, Section IV and lives in Merrillville, Indiana, USA.