Building A Home Within Book On Foster Care Explores Successful Paradigm “One Child. One Therapist. For As Long As It Takes”

San Francisco, CA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Toni Heineman, founder and executive director of non-profit organization, A Home Within, and the national Children’s Psychotherapy Project (CPP), announced today the culmination of ten years of groundbreaking work by CPP in the recently published book, Building A Home Within: Meeting the Emotional Needs of Children and Youth in Foster Care. More than a dozen foster care experts from CPP give psychologists, social workers, counselors, foster care parents, teachers, pediatricians, attorneys, and program administrators an introduction to the successful paradigm, "One child. One therapist. For as long as it takes." Psychologists share their triumphs and challenges of pro bono weekly psychotherapy sessions with foster care children and how it benefits the foster care community.

“We, at Children’s Psychotherapy Project, believe that long-term therapy with the same therapist for as long as it takes is one of the ways to provide foster care children with stable, lasting relationships with caring adults they can trust, even when they are moved into different environments,” says Heineman. “What foster care children are too often lacking is a home to go home to. They have to build a home within themselves that they can carry with them. Therapeutic continuity is one of the ways to help these children develop healthy emotional and social tools to have strong relationships throughout their lives.”

Building a Home Within: Meeting the Emotional Needs of Children and Youth in Foster Care book addresses the neuropsychological effects of foster care on children; the specific challenges of preschool children in foster care; kinship care; reunification with parents; foster children and the educational system; collaboration between public and private forces; and the transition out of foster care at age 18. The combined emphasis on biological, psychological, and social aspects of actual counseling experiences makes it unique among other books on the subject. A comprehensive, personal resource, this book helps lay readers and therapists fully understand the emotional needs of children and adolescents in foster care.

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Building A Home Within
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"The Children’s Psychotherapy Project (upon which the book is based) is an excellent program which deserves to be better known throughout the country within both the social services and mental health communities,” says Dan Hughes, Ph.D., psychologist and author of Building the Bonds of Attachment.

Foster care expert and Psychologist, Toni Heineman, established the Children’s Psychotherapy Project (CPP) in San Francisco under the umbrella of her non-profit organization, A Home Within, which is dedicated to building lasting relationships with foster care children and to raising awareness of issues confronting children in foster care.

Since 1994, CPP has grown to include eleven chapters nation-wide with over 200 therapists volunteering their professional services to foster care communities across the country and serving over 150 children nation-wide. There is no time limit on the therapy provided and the services are tailored to the individual. Therapists meet with the parents, biological and/or foster, and may act as advocates within the school or child welfare systems to make sure their client’s needs are met. CPP provides support to therapists as well with weekly consultations with other CPP therapists. On an annual investment of $50,000, a CPP chapter provides a minimum of $250,000 direct services to children in foster care.

For more information, please contact Executive Director, Toni Heineman: A Home Within, 2481 Clay Street, San Francisco, CA 94115 USA Phone: 1-888-898-2AHW or (415) 474-6365, Fax: (415) 474-6409; Email: admin@ahomewithin.org. www.ahomewithin.org.

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