THE ROAD TO EVERGREEN: ADOPTION, ATTACHMENT THERAPY AND THE PROMISE OF FAMILY

Rachel Stryker. THE ROAD TO EVERGREEN: ADOPTION, ATTACHMENT THERAPY AND THE PROMISE OF FAMILY. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY (2010), 192 pgs.

Rachael Stryker wrote a convincing narrative about a very controversial treatment modality for Reactive Attachment Disorder (RAD), commonly diagnosed among children adopted from foreign and domestic institutional facilities. The Evergreen model incorporates talk psychotherapy, holding therapy and therapeutic-parenting training. Stryker did not smooth over the fact that there were highly publicized adoptee deaths and litigation involved in the history of the Evergreen model. Stryker's scholarly perseverance over an 8-year period enabled her to interview all the stakeholders involved in the model. As an observer participant at a well-known attachment clinic in Evergreen, Colorado, Stryker employed an ethno-semantic methodology to interview of therapists, adoptive families and clinic staff. At the same time, she perused hundreds of client files from different attachment clinics, both public and private non-profit...