This trauma-informed, psycho-educational program is designed for psychotherapists and counsellors working with adoptees and those affected by adoption. Volume One explores the emotional and psychological impact of adoption from conception through adolescence, including early separation, disrupted attachment, nervous system development, identity formation, and relational expectations. Drawing on developmental psychology, attachment theory, neuroscience, and lived experience, the online program supports ethical, adoption-aware, relationally attuned practice within clear professional boundaries.
Benefits to the learner:
The Emotional Fingerprint of an Adoptee: The Eight Essential Lessons: Volume One: The Foundational Years is the first instalment of a three-volume psycho-educational framework developed to illuminate the lifelong emotional journey of adoptees.
Despite its lifelong impact, the emotional and psychological trauma experienced by adoptees is still widely overlooked, misunderstood, or dismissed as a theoretical possibility, rather than recognised as a predictable, research-supported consequence of early maternal separation and the profound disruptions it creates in attachment, identity, and emotional development.
Volume One, explores the formative impact of conception, pregnancy, birth, early separation, childhood environment, and adolescent development on the adoptee’s emotional landscape, explored over four lessons:
• Lesson One: Conception to Six Weeks
• Lesson Two: Adoption to Six Years
• Lesson Three: The Middle Childhood Years (6-12)
• Lesson Four: The Teenage Years (13-19)
Each lesson integrates:
• academic research
• developmental and psychological theory
• trauma-informed principles
• lived-experience insights from both a biological mother and an adoptee
• reflective practice for the professional
Together, the lessons map how early separation, abandonment, rejection, grief, loss, pre-verbal trauma, developmental, relational, and environmental experiences form the emotional architecture that underpins identity, belonging, attachment, and connection throughout an adoptee’s life.
Each sequential lesson builds on the one before, following the adoptee’s natural developmental milestones and exploring the specific emotional challenges that emerge at each life stage. This structure guides practitioners from initial insight to deeper understanding, and ultimately to applied adoption-aware practice.
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The Emotional Fingerprint of an Adoptee Co-Creators, Karen Chaston and Kimberley Rankin provide:
• A unique and balanced integration of biological, psychological, emotional, and relational perspectives.
• An evidence-informed, trauma-aware, and ethically grounded framework aligned with the needs of counsellors and mental health professionals.
• Deep, personal insight into adoptee and biological-mother experiences, enabling practitioners to access perspectives rarely available in training.
• A respectful, collaborative, and professionally structured educational approach designed to support reflective practice and client-centred care across diverse therapeutic contexts.
Learning Outcomes:
Across this program, you’ll:
• Deepen your understanding of pre-verbal, developmental, and adoptee-specific trauma and its long-term influence.
• Recognise how early maternal separation imprints and shapes self-worth, trust, and connection throughout life.
• Integrate attachment, relational, and neurobiological insights into reflective and evidence-informed practice.
• Strengthen your ability to apply trauma-informed and adoption-sensitive frameworks within psychotherapy and counselling.
• Expand your awareness of how these early emotional experiences continue to echo through adolescence and adulthood, shaping relationships, identity, and emotional regulation.
• Enhance your professional empathy, self-awareness, and capacity to hold safe space for adoptees and their families.
This program invites professionals to not only understand the adoptee experience; but to integrate this knowledge into practice with compassion, sensitivity, and respect for the lifelong journey of healing and connection.
Presenters:
Karen Chaston and Kimberley Rankin bring complementary and deeply relevant expertise to the development and delivery of The Emotional Fingerprint of an Adoptee. Their combined backgrounds integrate professional experience, lived experience, and trauma-aware education to create a robust, comprehensive, and ethically grounded program for practitioners.
Karen contributes:
• Over 25 years of senior corporate leadership experience (CPA, CFO, and senior management roles).
• Formal postgraduate qualifications (Master of Accounting, Bond University).
• Professional development training in coaching, leadership, and emotional well-being (including BraveHeart Women: Leadership & Resonate Coaching Program, Authentic Education, and The Speakers Institute).
• More than a decade of experience designing and delivering personal development, loss-literacy, and emotional well-being programs through The Chaston Centre.
• Expertise in grief, loss, emotional imprinting, identity, and relational dynamics, informed by both academic study and lived experience.
• Lived experience as a biological mother navigating a decades-long reunion journey.
• Author of nine books, including an international bestseller, and extensive experience as a speaker, educator, and facilitator.
• Background in media and communication, including podcasts, radio co-hosting, and online education delivery.
Kimberley contributes:
• Lived experience as an adoptee from the Australian Forced Adoption Era, offering essential insight into the emotional landscape of adoption from infancy through adulthood.
• Over two decades of direct experience navigating reunion, identity formation, attachment disruption, emotional fragmentation, and healing.
• Deep understanding of pre-verbal trauma, grief, loss, and the developmental impacts of early maternal separation.
• A strong capacity to translate complex emotional and psychological experiences into accessible, meaningful insights for learners.
• Co-creator of the full framework, lesson structures, reflective content, and conceptual models underpinning The Emotional Fingerprint of an Adoptee.
• Advocate for adoptee voices, emotional attunement, identity restoration, and trauma-informed awareness across the adoption constellation.
• Experience with digital education formats, podcasting, and co-delivering lived-experience-based psycho-educational content
Disclaimer:
The content of this endorsed CPD course is provided by the external course provider. Attendees are encouraged to approach the material with an open mind and consider diverse perspectives, particularly those from lived experiences related to the topics discussed. For feedback regarding the course, please contact the course provider directly.