Discussion Guide:

In Part 1 (Conceptual Framework), each chapter ends with tools for all constellation members to address each of the seven core issues. Below I have featured a few of these tools. I have gone more in depth with how they can help your family work through the core issue. This should give you a good starting point when working with your children.

1. Loss: List all the losses in your life since you were born.
   One of the ways I like to do this with kids is by creating a timeline. This could be an activity that you work on little by little over several weeks. This is not your dreaded school project. This is getting into the really hard stuff from your child’s story (age appropriate of course). With little ones, I will use manipulative animals or people to demonstrate who was around during each period. Make sure your child understands how old they were when each event happened. It’s possible they weren’t even born yet. With older ones, it may be something you do on paper or even the computer. Help your child to visualize the who, what, when, where and why of each loss. Be honest with them when you don’t…

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About the Author: Audrey Frazier

Audrey grew up in Memphis, TN and attended Western Kentucky University. She and her husband, Jordan, are currently houseparents with Tennessee Baptist Children’s Homes in Brentwood, TN. They have adopted their two children from foster care. They can also have up to eight other girls in their residential home at any given time. They have had over twenty placements ranging in age from four to eighteen. In her free time, Audrey enjoys reading, watching tv, coloring, yoga, and eating good food.

**Transfiguring Adoption is a nonprofit organization seeking to nurture growth in foster and adoptive families by giving a HOOT about their families. Transfiguring Adoption does not intend for its reviewers nor its review to be professional, medical or legal advice. These reviews and discussion guides are intended to help parents to better be able to connect and understand their children who come from traumatic backgrounds.