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The Family Minds Institute is a non-profit dedicated to helping support foster and adoptive parents, and the professionals who serve them, through research, trainings, interventions and supports that are designed to increase child resilience and strengthen family relationships.

 

The Need

Parenting is hard!  Foster and adoptive parenting is even harder.  Often parents do not have the support, resources or effective trainings that are proven to actually help parents, especially those with children who have been traumatized or have difficult to understand behaviors.  

 

We believe that trainings and education can be effective in helping parents, but they must go deeper than the "typical' trainings foster and adoptive parents receive.  Psycho-education is training that has a more intense psychological basis and is designed to do more than just deliver information.  There are many techniques and clinically informed tools that parents can use at home with their children! This is especially important for families who do not have access to clincial services.  

 

As a community, we need to "up the game" with the quality of interventions, trainings and supports that are available for families and the professionals who serve them. The Family Minds Institute is hoping to contribute to this change.  

Current Projects

The Family Minds Intervention

is now a promising practice!

 

Read about the latest study results evaluating this intervention:  

Adkins, T., Luyten, P., Fonagy, P. (2018) Development and Preliminary Evaluation of Family Minds: A Mentalization-based Psychoeducation Program for Foster Parents. Journal of Child and Family Studies 27(8), 2519-2532.

Family Minds Intervention

This is a trauma-informed, psycho-educational intervention that increases parents' ability to be reflective, to mentalize;  to see inside their own mind and that of their children.  This can increase secure attachments and lower behavior problems!

RCT of Family Minds
Due to a generous grant from Sue Fairbanks, LCSW, we are now running an RCT (Randomized Control Trial) of Family Minds with foster/adoptive parents in Austin and DFW. This will help FM become an Evidenced-based Practice (EBP)! Click HERE to read more...
London
The Anna Freud Centre in conjunction with University College London is leading a study that involves clinical and psychoeducational intervention with foster/adoptive parents in London.  Some of the Family Minds curriculum will be included and studied.

Podcast Interview

Listen to the latest interview with Dr. Tina Adkins as she discusses her work and the importance of mentalization in helping parents create secure attachments with their children and how it helps adults securely relate to others!
http://www.therapistuncensored.com/mentalizing/
Speaking Engagements
Dr. Adkins is also available for public speaking engagments and staff trainings on a variety of topics related to children's mental health, trauma, child welfare, parenting, attachment and neuroscience.  She is a dynamic and well received presenter with many years experience training and teaching to a variety of audiences, from parents to professionals, including DFPS staff, CASA, psychologists, lawyers and judges. 
Upcoming Trainings/Talks:  
 
Coming soon...

"I attended a presentation by Tina Adkins recently and was really blown away. Tina has a very approachable and relaxed style combined with a deep knowledge and experience base. I highly recommend learning from her."

Emily Mathon

Executive Director

Mariposa Pathway

We are a 501 (c)(3) non-profit 

EIN: 81-0928829

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