Dr. Matloff has specialized interests and expertise in working with adopted children and their families. Not only has he worked with many of these families over the years, he also has two sons of his own that he adopted from Brazil. He understands first-hand many of the pitfalls in working with, and on their behalf the many adjustment-related issues of children who come from a compromised background and unfavorable beginnings. Dr. Matloff’s See You Tomorrow . . . Reclaiming the Beacon of Hope personally illustrates the joys and challenges in adopting and raising his two sons against the backdrop of the negative ramifications of an early history of abuse, neglect, and/or trauma.
Adoption Counseling
Supportive counseling for adoptive children and their parents centers on wellness and interpersonal relationships. Dr. Matloff is well-versed in such adoption related issues as in changing family dynamics, grief/loss, attachment and trauma, child development, and schooling. Counseling for adopted children seeks to relieve adjustment issues for the child or teen. Counseling for adoptive parents seeks to assist in dealing with their child’s grief, stress, role and boundary issues, and identity issues as it relates to their adoption. Dr. Matloff also conducts psychological evaluations for prospective adoptive parents.
Psychological Evaluation
A psychological evaluation, in addition to the home study, might be requested as part of the international adoption process to assess the psychological stability of the American parent(s) seeking to adopt, whereby each host country has its own requirements for what the evaluation should include and the length of the report; private U.S. adoption to assess the emotional stability of the prospective parent(s) and/or the stability of the relationship between couples; foster parent adoption to assess the development of the psychological bond between foster parent(s) and child toward finalizing the adoption; and a special needs adoption to assess the ability of the prospective parent(s) to meet and care for the needs of the child. A psychological evaluation can last about three contact hours and take about three weeks to finalize the report:
- The first hour is spent in an interview type of setting between the potential adoptive parent(s) and the psychologist to make an assessment that is independent of the home study report, which also is reviewed for the report’s purposes. If an in-person interview is not possible due to geographical limitations, then an interview may still be conducted with telecommunication assistance via Skype.
- The parents then complete the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2), unless otherwise specified; it is a 567 question, true or false test that takes about two hours to complete. It simply assesses a person’s ability to be in touch with reality, and whether there is evidence of depression, anxiety, etc. of a pathological nature rather than being nitpicking of the existence of normal emotional states.
- After completion of the interview and the scoring of the MMPI-2, the report is prepared in accordance with the specified requirements. Especially for international adoptions, the report is notarized with a copy of the psychologist’s license and apostilled with an authentication certification for use among nations that participate in the Hague Convention.