Sometimes the Behavior Isn't Really About the Behavior
Meltdowns. Defiance. Shutdowns. Food issues. Sleep problems. Aggression. Control. Difficulty attaching.
It's easy for a parent to look at challenging behavior and ask:
“Why is my child doing this?”
The Adoption Parenting Playbook helps parents begin asking another question:
“What is happening beneath this behavior, and what does my child's nervous system need from me right now?”
That's one of the central ideas of Maxine's book. She teaches parents to understand behavior as communication from the nervous system rather than assuming it's simply a calm, rational decision by the child.
That message is also very consistent with current professional guidance encouraging trauma-responsive parenting that recognizes the neurobehavioral side of challenging behavior and prioritizes relationship and connection.
What You'll Learn
Understand what's happening beneath challenging behaviors
Learn how trauma, attachment, loss, and previous experiences can affect a child's nervous system and behavior.
Respond differently to meltdowns and dysregulation
Learn practical ways to respond without unintentionally escalating the situation.
Build safety before demanding compliance
Understand why felt safety can be such an important part of connection, trust, and regulation.
Prepare before your child comes home
Build realistic expectations, prepare your family, identify support, and understand what the early months may actually look like.
Strengthen attachment and connection
Learn ways to build trust through everyday interactions, repair, consistency, and connection.
Navigate the hard stuff
The Playbook addresses issues that families may encounter involving grief, food, sleep, aggression, identity, siblings, school, birth-family relationships, kinship care, and more.
Know when it's time to get additional help
Understand when a situation may require professional therapeutic or crisis support.
This isn't intended as a book parents read once and put away. Maxine specifically designed it so parents can return to the chapter that addresses what is happening in their family at that particular time.
Who Is This Book For?
Prospective Adoptive Parents
Prepare for more than paperwork and home studies. Begin understanding the emotional, relational, and nervous-system needs your child may bring home.
Adoptive Parents
Whether your child has been home three weeks or twelve years, find practical guidance for the challenges happening in your family right now.
Foster Parents
Understand trauma-responsive parenting and learn practical approaches for children whose experiences may have taught their nervous systems to expect danger or disruption.
Kinship Caregivers
Grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, and other relatives face their own unique challenges when stepping into the parenting role.
Professionals
A practical resource for agencies, therapists, case managers, parent educators, churches, support groups, and organizations serving adoptive and foster families.
For agencies →The broad audience isn't something we're adding for marketing purposes. Maxine explicitly says the Playbook was written for adoptive, foster, kinship, and court-involved families.
The Adoption Parenting Playbook
$19.99
A Nervous System Guide to Calming Meltdowns and Building Connection in Foster and Adoptive Families
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