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This is your one-stop shop for educational resources on all things foster care. Search topics like new parent tips, reunification or sibling dynamics. This one-of-a-kind collection offers parents easy access to videos, podcast episodes, blogs, book recommendations and more.
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The Basics of Trauma-Informed Parenting
Child Bridge Podcast
This podcast explores the reality of foster care through true stories told by those who've lived them. Hear from the children who've grown up in the system, the foster and adoptive parents who raise them, the birth parents who fight for them and the experts who devote their lives to helping them heal. Join us on this journey as we delve into the heart-wrenchingly beautiful stories God writes and redeems through foster care.
In this deeply moving episode, former foster youth Trent Taylor shares how God redeemed his story of trauma, fear, and instability. Through gentle honesty and faith-filled insight, Trent invites foster, adoptive, and kinship parents to release the pressure to “fix,” embrace patience, and trust God’s timing. His words offer encouragement for weary parents and a reminder that healing comes through consistent love, safety, and the presence of Christ.
Kevin and Tiffany Geer share how their family stepped into foster care quickly, kept saying yes, and learned to take it one day at a time. They talk about keeping sibling groups together, celebrating small daily wins, and leaning on community support when the load feels heavy. If you’re fostering, adopting, or caring for kin, this episode reinforces a simple truth: saying yes — again and again — creates space for God to work.
What if success in parenting wasn’t about your child’s behavior? In this conversation, adoptee, mom of six, and parent coach Melissa Corkum shares how she shifted from “I’m failing” to a definition of success rooted in her own nervous system care, presence, and connection. She opens up about chaos, out‑of‑home care, shame, and how prioritizing her regulation changed how she shows up — even when outcomes don’t look “perfect.”
Foster, adoptive, and kinship parenting can strain even strong marriages. Ryan & Kayla North of One Big Happy Home share how they’ve avoided becoming “just roommates” by staying intentional, communicating honestly, repairing with apologies, and keeping a united front with their kids. With humor and hard-earned wisdom, they offer practical guidance for building a resilient marriage — especially in the seasons when parenting feels overwhelming.
Watch the video of this episode on YouTube.
In this special bonus episode, Jason Johnson unpacks why foster, adoptive, and kinship dads need spaces where they don’t have to explain themselves — places where everyone in the room simply gets it. Child Bridge created the new “Just For Dads” Journey Group after hearing from Montana foster families that dads need meaningful connection and support. This conversation encourages dads to show up, find community, and discover they’re not alone.
If fear, hesitancy, or “one day” thinking has held you back from fostering, this episode will speak right to your heart. Jason Johnson unpacks the deeper fears we face — grief, disruption, inadequacy — and offers a grounded, faith-driven perspective on courage, calling, and caring for vulnerable children.
Parenting children with trauma and invisible disabilities can feel isolating and overwhelming. In this episode, Amy J. Brown shares her journey as a mom to six — three adopted — and offers practical tools for navigating grief, finding hope, and leaning into God’s presence in the chaos. Whether you’re fostering, adopting, or caring for kinship kids, this conversation will remind you: you are seen, and you are not alone.
Jeff and Emmy Ort share their 15-year journey of fostering and adopting, including raising a child with special needs. In this heartfelt conversation, they reveal how faith and community sustain families through hard days, why asking for help is strength — not weakness — and how joy and sorrow can coexist in the foster care journey.
This week’s guest is Amanda Auer, a mom of 4 who has an incredible story walking through a difficult journey of kinship care. You’ll hear her talk about what it was like to be educated about trauma on-the-fly, how challenging circumstances make our faith more concrete, what it looks like to live a life of compassion and surrender, and so much more. This conversation was incredibly rich, and I was just soaking in everything she said. I look forward to hearing what stands out to you!
Dr. Jana Hunsley shares her personal and professional insights on sibling dynamics in adoptive families. As a teen, her family adopted seven children in four years — a life-altering experience that shaped her career and research. In this episode, she offers practical tools for building connection, supporting all children in the home, and navigating the invisible struggles siblings often face. It’s a powerful reminder that every child matters — and every story deserves to be seen.
Burnout doesn’t have to define your story. In this episode, certified health coach Chantel Oakley shares practical ways to restore energy and joy through small, doable steps. Learn why movement matters, how to start with “just do something,” and why self-care isn’t selfish — it’s essential. From recognizing signs of burnout to modeling healthy habits for kids, this conversation offers hope and actionable strategies for foster, adoptive, and kinship families.
Navigating the holidays as a foster or adoptive family can feel overwhelming. Therapist and author Daniela Coats shares practical strategies for honoring traditions, supporting kids through grief, and creating emotional safety for every child. From managing expectations to building new traditions and prioritizing self-care, this episode offers hope and actionable tools to make the season more peaceful and meaningful.
Welcoming a child through adoption, foster care, or kinship is beautiful AND complex. Tona, Jesse, and Becca share candid stories from NICU stays to international travel, name the emotional “roller coaster” of early days, unpack “cocooning,” and offer concrete ways families and their people can prepare, communicate, and support attachment. If you’re a waiting family, a new parent, a grandparent, or a friend who wants to help, this one’s for you.
Eric and Shelly Basye share their story of adoption and parenting, shaped by faith and a deep commitment to living out the gospel. From welcoming a refugee teen to adopting children both domestically and internationally, their journey is marked by conviction, resilience, and hope. This episode offers encouragement for families navigating hard things and reminds us that God makes beautiful things out of brokenness — even in the messy middle.
Parenting kids who’ve experienced trauma can feel exhausting and uncertain — but you don’t have to stay stuck there. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, Parent Coaching can help equip you with the tools, strategies and confidence you need to bring more peace to your home.
In this episode, nationally recognized parent coach Tina Feigal shares real-world techniques like those you’ll learn in Child Bridge’s Parent Coaching Program. From reflective listening to “I See You” letters to heartfelt appreciation, these tools help parents shift from feeling stuck and exhausted to feeling equipped, connected and hopeful.
💡 Learn more and sign up for Child Bridge’s Parent Coaching Program: https://www.childbridgemontana.org/coaching
📖 Present Moment Parenting by Tina Feigal: https://howdoiparentthischild.com/book-present-moment-parenting
📝 Free parenting resources from Tina Feigal: https://howdoiparentthischild.com/resources
🌐 Learn more about Tina Feigal’s work: https://howdoiparentthischild.com
What does it look like to view the transition from highschool to young adulthood through a developmental lens? TBRI Podcast regular, Kim Glaudy, joins us to kick off our miniseries about this very topic. Kim and Sarah talk about the way that attachment, biological changes, mindfulness, and more play out in our relationships with young adults as they gain independence.
In this bonus episode, occupational therapist Saydee Miller helps us understand the deeper story behind food struggles in kids from hard places. She explains how trauma shapes a child’s relationship with food and offers practical ways to build safety and trust during meals. From interoception to simple tools for daily routines, Saydee gives foster and adoptive families the insight and encouragement they need to support healing — one bite at a time.
🔗 Resources mentioned in the episode:
- Kelly Mahler’s Interoception Curriculum: https://www.kelly-mahler.com/product/the-interoception-curriculum-a-step-bystep-guide-to-developing-mindful-self-regulation/
- Katja Rowell, MD (“The Feeding Doctor”): https://www.thefeedingdoctor.com/
- Eating Disorder Center of Montana: https://edcmontana.org/
For many kids from hard places, bedtime isn’t restful — it’s triggering. In this episode, occupational therapist Saydee Miller joins us to explore why sleep can be so difficult for children with trauma histories and how caregivers can respond with compassion, patience and practical tools.
From sleep journals and bedtime routines to sensory regulation strategies and “cookie dough rolls,” Saydee shares trauma-informed insights to help you shift the focus from sleep to safety and connection.
Whether you're a foster parent, adoptive caregiver or simply raising a child who struggles to settle at night, this episode will equip you with hope and help for bedtime battles.
📚 Resources:
Learn more about Dwell Pediatric Sleep: https://www.instagram.com/dwellpediatricsleep
Explore Interoception Tools from Kelly Mahler: https://www.kelly-mahler.com
Teens who have experienced trauma often carry unspoken grief, identity questions and emotional walls that can leave caregivers feeling shut out. In this episode, author and adoptive mom Susan Tebos shares wisdom from her own parenting journey and from the teens whose stories she gathered in her book We’ve Been There.
From anger and grief to silence and withdrawal, Susan helps unpack why teens may not talk — and what it looks like to keep showing up anyway. If you're parenting a teen from a hard place, this conversation offers empathy, practical tools and a reminder that healing takes time — and love that doesn’t quit.
Screens are everywhere — and so are the risks that come with them. In this episode, we explore what it means to raise digitally safe and spiritually grounded kids in today’s tech-saturated world, especially for families parenting children from hard places.
Our guest shares practical tools and insights for online safety for kids, from managing screen time to navigating social media and addressing hidden digital risks. More than just filters and apps, this conversation is about discipleship, trust, and creating safe rhythms at home that will guide children toward wisdom and resilience.
Whether you're a tech-savvy parent or feeling overwhelmed by it all, this episode will equip you to engage the digital world with courage and clarity.
Resources:
Example Cell Phone Contracts for Kids & Teens: https://bit.ly/43J5F3w & https://bit.ly/4jy3Qfx
Take It Down - https://takeitdown.ncmec.org/
In honor of National Foster Care Awareness Month, Tricia trades seats to share her own heart-wrenching story of childhood abuse and neglect. But her story didn’t end there. Listen as she highlights the life-changing impact her foster family made by loving her unconditionally. She boldly sheds light on the horrific reality many children in foster care still face today and the profound difference a family can make.
Kids who enter foster care often get tossed into an ever-changing web of people, places and plans. At the center of that wheel, walking alongside the child through it all, is their CASA. In this episode, Executive Director of CASA for Kids in Flathead County, Cindy Basnett, explains the role and heart behind the volunteers who help set the trajectory of a child’s journey through foster care.
James and Ashley Newell join us in the midst of a chaotic season of their parenting journey. The adoptive parents of two boys from foster care, this couple gets really real about the awkwardness, uncertainty, growth and goodness they’ve met along the way. And they share how all of it together worked to prompt them to start all over again. See how God prepared two ordinary people for an extraordinary journey.
About the Orts
Jeff and Emmy met in the 1990s working together at a camp in the PA/NJ area, called Handi*Camp, designed for children, teens, and adults touched by special needs. They have had fun along the journey as God has grown their family and sent them to maintain and further develop a similar camping ministry and year round outreach in MT, called Camp Promise. Jeff and Emmy have been joined along the way by 7 Ortlings (5 guys & 2 gals). Two of these fellows joined their crew through the route of foster care and have given them the opportunity to learn first hand/24/7 knowledge of caring for kiddos with both hidden and visible special needs. The You are Here spot on the "map" shows the Orts standing at the ready to follow God on a new adventurous path in serving their community, as they hand over the leadership of ministry after this summer of camp.
Related Links
Emmy - @montanaorts on instagram
Jeff - https://www.facebook.com/jkzort
Camp Promise -ongoing ministry of camp, new facility news, pictures, and even special Bible studies posted (also @camppromiseministries on Instagram)
“Adversity and trauma don't define the outcome of a life — rather, they describe an experience.” Researcher, missionary, author and marriage/family therapist Nicole Wilke dares to describe the formula for resilience, or the capacity to overcome adversity. In this episode, she draws on her real-world experience, professional knowledge and biblical faith to explore the science and scripture behind resilience.
Fear. Anger. Failure. Danica Montana went through a wide range of emotions when Child Family Services removed her children from her. Above all, she couldn’t believe that she had repeated the same cycle she’d grown up in, neglect and abuse that leads to devastation. Vulnerable and eye-opening, this is the rarely heard perspective of a birth mom’s journey as she’s lost and fought to regain her children from foster care.
Read the story of another birth parent who fought for his daughter and the role one selfless family played in reuniting them.
Many adoptive and foster parents wonder if their child may have FASD or they have a diagnosis but aren't sure what to do next. Last time Sandra explored the impact of prenatal exposure to alcohol on a developing baby and identify the primary, secondary, and tertiary symptoms of FASD. This week in Part 2, you will learn practical techniques for accommodating and supporting children with FASD.
Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—2 diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She encourages and equips foster and adoptive parents through her weekly Adoption & Foster Care Journey Podcast and blogs at SandraFlach.com. Sandra is co-founder of Justice For Orphans and author of Orphans No More: A Journey Back to the Father. She is also a trained facilitator of the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model. Sandra and her husband Wayne have been married 35 years. They reside in upstate New York where they love to spend time with family, especially their 8 grandchildren.
Many adoptive and foster parents wonder if their child may have FASD, or they have a diagnosis but aren't sure what to do next. In Part 1 of this workshop, you will explore the impact of prenatal exposure to alcohol on a developing baby and identify the primary, secondary, and tertiary symptoms of FASD. In Part 2, you will learn practical techniques for accommodating and supporting children with FASD.
Sandra Flach is a mom of 8 children, 5 through adoption—2 diagnosed with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She encourages and equips foster and adoptive parents through her weekly Adoption & Foster Care Journey Podcast and blogs at SandraFlach.com. Sandra is co-founder of Justice For Orphans and author of Orphans No More: A Journey Back to the Father. She is also a trained facilitator of the FASCETS Neurobehavioral Model. Sandra and her husband Wayne have been married 35 years. They reside in upstate NY where they love to spend time with family, especially their 8 grandchildren.
How do you see and respond to the birth parents who hurt a child you love? Author, speaker and foster mom, Jamie Finn, asks the big questions in this probing discussion of her own foster care journey. Jamie boldly digs into the root of what foster care is truly about, what makes it possible and why it’s worth it. Listen as she exposes the heart position necessary to love, lament and persevere like Christ.
Foster care means constant decision-making, and how you approach those decisions makes all the difference, according to Corree Roofener. Foster mom and host of the Courage Coalition Podcast, Corree invites parents to name the beliefs and values that drive them. Getting to know yourself, she says, can help you identify ways to care for your own soul on this often-self-sacrificial journey.
Fostering teens can feel like a huge undertaking. After all, you only have so many years to prepare them to head out into the world. Right? Author and mom of 11 children, Beth Guckenberger, says wrong. In reality, there is no finish line for parents. Because “children aren’t projects to be finished but people to be healed.” Hear real stories of what it’s like to raise teens in foster care.
To learn more about Beth and Back2Back Ministries, visit https://back2back.org.
Phill and Emily Christiansen have a message for those who are hesitant to step into foster care. “To be a Christ-follower is to say yes to the uncomfortable.” Pastor Phill and Emily discuss how foster care became their family’s mission. In this episode they discuss the combined difficulties and blessings of navigating sibling dynamics, birth families, loss and love.
Have you ever thought to yourself, “I just don’t like my child?” Co-author of “The Connected Parent,” Lisa C. Qualls, tackles the problem of blocked care – the breakdown in connection between a foster parent and a child in their care. In this episode, Lisa explains the brain science behind blocked care, removes the shame around it and lays out practical steps a parent can take to heal it.
Find Lisa online:
Instagram: @lisacqualls
Facebook: OneThankfulMom
Website: https://www.lisacqualls.com/
Tori Hope Petersen struggled to make sense of the events that led her into foster care. After abuse and neglect tore her family apart, she bounced between 10 different foster homes before the age of 18. Tori Hope grappled with the idea of God as darkness closed in around her. But God was not done writing her story, and ultimately drew her to Himself through the faith of her last foster family.
Every marriage has its struggles. Throw in the stress and complexity of foster care or adoption, and you've got a recipe for a serious spiritual battle. Beth Guckenberger shares the wisdom God has given her through 30 years of marriage and the raising of 11 kids. Discover ways to reinvigorate your marriage and prioritize unity in the face of stress, fear and foster care.
It started with a statistic. “If just 7 percent of Christians across the world cared for just one orphan, there would be no more orphans.” Co-founder of Child Bridge, Mary Bryan, recalls the journey that led she and her husband, Steve, to devote their lives to a Spirit-led mission— to find a family for every child in Montana. Today, that mission is carried out by staff, volunteers and foster/adoptive families across the state. This is the story of Child Bridge.
To learn more about Child Bridge, visit https://www.childbridgemontana.org/
We’re back for part two of our conversation about TBRI® and Teens with Scott Watters. If you haven’t had the chance to listen to the previous episode, go ahead and pause this one, go back and listen to our first episode with Scott, and then meet us back here for this week’s episode. Last week we talked about the teen brain and how to apply the TBRI® Empowering and Connecting Principles with teens, and today we’re going to dive into the TBRI® Correcting Principles.
Linked Resources from this episode:
Today we're tackling one of our most frequently asked questions: "How do I do TBRI with Teens?"
In this episode, Scott and our host, Sarah Mercado, talk about the teenage brain, the needs of teens vs. those of younger children, and what each set of TBRI Principles looks like when applied to teenagers. This conversation is another 2-part episode, so be sure to meet us back here next week to listen to part-two of this conversation.
Linked resources from this episode:
Many adoptive and foster parents have questions about how and when to talk with their kids about their stories.
What if your child’s story is really hard? Should you tell them the truth? How old should they be?
Don’t miss this interview with Lisa’s mentor and friend Jayne Schooler. She is an adoptive mom, co-creator (with her husband, David) of Trauma Competent Caregiver training, and author of multiple books related to adoption and foster care.
Click here to download a transcript for this episode.
What if I told you that calm isn't best? Calm isn't what we are working toward! And prioritizing calm gives other states of the nervous system a bad wrap!
Calm is just a byproduct of an attempt to regulate! In fact, there are risks to focusing on calm as our primary goal.
On today's episode, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S, is an international teacher, creator of Synergetic Play Therapy, founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute, and host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. She is the author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity and is the 2015 recipient of the Association for Play Therapy’s Professional Education and Training Award of Excellence.
Lisa and I have a lovely time discussing the difference between regulated and calm, including the risks of pretending to be calm when we aren't. As parents and clinicians who care for kids with a history of trauma, it's important to negotiate ways within ourselves that we can be honest and congruent with our true experiences (maybe we are mad!) while still remaining regulated and offering felt-safety.
Wait what?! Regulated and mad?!?!
Yup. Regulated and mad. Have a listen to see what Lisa has to say about this!
Mentor Moments give you a chance to join the conversation as we answer a listener question. These episodes guarantee we're providing the most helpful tools and resources for exactly where you are.
This week's question is: What do I do if I don't like my child? I never thought I would feel this way. Can you help?
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