U N L I K E LY P L A C E S
I n t e r n a t i o n a l Pa r t n e r s F i n d Wa y s t o C o u n s e l Stor y by Neisha Roberts In a general sense, counseling looks like someone meeting with a licensed professional in an office setting for therapy. But what about in the far-reaching parts of the world where that’s just not realistic? It’s a question Lifeline Children’s Services’ (un)adopted® team mulled over for years. For adoptive and foster parents, Lifeline seeks to inform and build “therapeutic parents” — enabling moms and dads to learn the concepts of counseling that will help bring about healing in a child, explained Whitney White, Lifeline’s International Education Counselor based in Georgia. For (un)adopted, Lifeline’s international strategic orphan care ministry, one goal was to take this same model to international partners in places like Uganda, the Dominican Republic, Colombia, India, and Guatemala. “It’s not a far stretch, then, to implement these same principles to help equip and train ‘therapeutic caregivers’ — those who serve and care for countless children in homes and ministries around the world,” explained Whitney, who co-wrote Lifeline’s Caregiver Education (CE) curriculum with social worker, Allison Fuqua. CE has been shared dozens of times to train caregivers directly impacting children who have no living relative or come from extremely vulnerable environments. The curriculum equips caregivers with the skills needed to produce an environment of healing for the children in their care. The 10 modules, which include lessons on attachment, trauma, self-awareness, and making good decisions, help “get below the surface with children and help them know who they are individually and how they interact with the world around them.” Since its launch, CE has been shared in 12+ countries including the DR and Guatemala, to help support the therapeutic practices these (un)adopted partners have already set in place. For example, at La Baliza, a Niños de la Luz boys’ home in the DR, counseling often looks like “casual conversations while doing our daily activities with the kids,” explained Jon Haslett, who founded Niños in 1994. “We’ve found that being heard by someone who truly cares for them seems to do a lot of healing in and of itself. … Using a strengths/needs therapy concept has helped our staff handle difficult moments with the kids with compassion and more of a positive approach.” Jon and his team also use forms of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, but with a spiritual emphasis, he shared, teaching the children to look to Scripture and to Christ for truth and peace. Although most of the counseling that takes place at La Baliza is more organic in nature, the staff do have Summer 2020
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