March 2025 Practice Committee/ACN Forum

The spring CCA Forum and Adoption Community Network semi-annual meeting were held jointly on March 24, 2025, at UConn Health in Farmington.   About 40 people attended this in person, first ever combined meeting!   Our guest speaker was Ruth Pearlman, LICSW from Northampton, MA.   Ruth is a psychotherapist and adopted person who has spoken to CCA in the past on the topic of Sensory Integration,  Trauma and Behavior in Adopted Children.  This year, her topic was Grief and the Magical Thinking of the Adopted Child.   The presentation was insightful and comprehensive, focusing on the idea that “if everything happens because of you, and thinking is the same as doing, then most losses are your fault”.    Ruth showed how developmental theories of attachment and cognition explain this phenomenon in our kids and illustrated the point with a clip from the film Wicked where Elphaba talks about her guilt for causing her mother’s death.   

After Ruth’s presentation we moved on to the agenda for the adoption community meeting with updates from individual members, agencies, and DCF, AAP and CAFAF.   We are excited to join forces with the Adoption Community Network as there is good collaboration and communication already with CCA!  Our next combined meeting will be held in September 2025.