The Adoption Parenting Playbook
A practical, trauma-informed guide for foster and adoptive parents. Learn to understand your child's nervous system, and to answer their story with safety.
Listen to the Audiobook Buy the Print Book on AmazonAs an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Your child's body remembers
Every child who comes home through foster care or adoption carries a story their body remembers long before their mind can tell it.
That is why the usual parenting advice so often backfires. Charts, consequences and time-outs speak to behavior. Your child's behavior is coming from a nervous system shaped by everything that happened before.
The Adoption Parenting Playbook helps you listen to that story, and answer it with safety.
Inside the Playbook
- Why adoption and foster parenting is different, and why standard advice can make things harder
- How trauma shapes your child's nervous system, and how to read the signals behind big behavior
- How to stay regulated yourself, so your calm becomes your child's calm
- How to rebuild trust and repair after hard moments
- How abuse can shape a child's nervous system, and how to respond with understanding
- What to do when a child's nervous system resorts to aggression or violence
A book to keep within reach
The print edition is made for underlining, sticky notes and coming back to on the hard days. Keep it by your bed, in your bag or on the kitchen counter.
Prefer to listen? The Playbook is also available as an audiobook, narrated by me. Find out about the audiobook.
Get Your Copy on Amazon
Meet Maxine Golden
Maxine Golden is a Parent Coach and Clinical Director of the Center for Parent Coaching, Brainspotting & Therapy in Brandon, Florida. She has over 25 years of experience with foster, adoptive and court-involved families.
Her work draws on Brainspotting, Polyvagal Theory, TBRI and play therapy. She is also an adoptive mom, so she knows these hard days from both sides.
"I wrote this book for the parents who love their children deeply and still feel lost. You are not alone, and there is a way forward."
What parents are saying
"This book is transformative. I have never known a book to have it all in one place. It's like an A to Z for the pre- and post-adoption journey. When I started this journey, I had no clue what to do or how much was involved. It continues to help me, and I even got the audiobook so I could listen while I'm out and about. Thank you, Maxine Golden!"
Richard, The Adoption Parenting Playbook
This book is for you if...
- You are a foster, adoptive or kinship parent
- You are preparing to foster or adopt
- You support families as a case manager, guardian ad litem, therapist or teacher
- You want to understand your child, not just manage their behavior
Questions
Where can I buy it?
The print book is available on Amazon. Use any of the buttons on this page.
Is there an audiobook?
Yes. The Playbook is also available as an audiobook, narrated by me, on this website.
Can professionals use it?
Yes. Case managers, therapists and teachers can use it to understand and support the foster and adoptive families they work with.
Your child's behavior is communication. Let's learn the language together.
Buy the Print Book on AmazonAs an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.