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Jennie Owens

Jennie has worked with children of all ages for over 20 years and is the author of Dancing with a Porcupine, a real life parable about living successfully as the parent of special needs children. In addition to her MA in Education, Jennie has received extensive training in therapeutic parenting, trauma, and attachment in adoption. She has worked in multiple group home settings with abused and abandoned children and in several settings providing support for foster and adoptive parents, including doing foster parent Recruitment and Retention through Fostering Together and working as a foster parent trainer for the state through the Alliance for Child Welfare Excellence.

Most of Jennie?s experience, however, comes from the fact that she and her husband adopted three foster children nine years ago, who were 8, 10 and 10 when they came to live with them. All of her children have progressed leaps and bounds further than professionals ever expected, and now as teenagers they continue to provide her with on-the-job training every day.

Along with training foster parents, Jennie provides coaching services through Canyon Lakes Family Counseling for parents wanting to find more effective ways to parent challenging children, as well as parents who have experienced their own trauma through parenting them. Jennie is currently working on a book called ?Dancing with a Porcupine.? It chronicles her challenging experiences in parenting their children and her journey back to health and sanity after being told by a medical professional, ?If you don?t get rid of your stressors, you?re going to die.?

Jennie speaks at adoption and foster care conferences, retreats and workshops and leads foster and adoptive mom retreats. If you?d like to contact her about speaking at an event, please email her at jennie@foreverhomes.org.

Jennie Owens

Jennie Owens

When I’m not busy with our toddler, I’m online a lot. I’d love it if you reach and and connect.

I've just read:

Your Brain Electric - Everything you need to know about optimising neurotransmitters including serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline
Fifteen Minutes to Freedom
Dog Medicine
A Perennial Life: Finding purpose in every season
The Prodigal: A Ragamuffin Story
The Importance of Being Foolish: How to Think Like Jesus
Who's Pushing Your Buttons?: Handling the Difficult People in Your Life
The Christmas Sweater
Grace: For Those Who Think They Don't Measure Up
Nicholas Nickleby
The Primal Wound: Understanding the Adopted Child
Parenting the Hurt Child: Helping Adoptive Families Heal and Grow
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Going Rogue: An American Life
The One Year Bible, NLT
Dealing with the CrazyMakers in Your Life: Setting Boundaries on Unhealthy Relationships
Emotional Vampires: Dealing With People Who Drain You Dry
The Scarlet Letter
Zondervan Niv Study Bible, Compact: Updated Edition
Radical Together: Unleashing the People of God for the Purpose of God


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