Annual Adoptive Families Conference

Sign up to attend the annual Adoptive Families Conference at Isleta Resort! Each participant will learn valuable, cutting edge strategies for bringing connection back to their family environment. Join us for a full day of skill building, connection and fun! We've got great workshops for parents and fun activities for the kids planned.

Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) is designed to meet the basic relationship and developmental needs of children and youth from "hard places" as well as the needs of the adults who seek to help them heal, learn and grow. TBRI has 3 sets of principles:

Connecting Principles: Create connections that disarm fear, gain trust and enhance learning.

Empowering Principles: Empower learning and regulation by meeting physical and environmental needs.

Correcting Principles: Shape beliefs and behaviors, are dramatically effective because kids feel safe, connected and empowered.

Conference Provided by:

Join us for a full day of skill building, connection and fun! Sign up to participate in the annual Adoptive Families Conference at Isleta Resort! We've got great training and activities for the kids planned.

Debra Delulio Jones, M. Ed.

Connecting Workshop & Opening Speaker

As an educator and parent of a biological daughter and an adopted son, Debra Delulio Jones, offers more than two decades of first-hand experience in training children with special needs, including adopted, foster, and at-risk children who’ve experienced neglect, abandonment, abuse, trauma, or substances in utero.

She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Special Education and a Master of Education degree, with a specialty in Language and Learning Disabilities, both from Texas Woman's University. She taught Special Education in Fort Worth ISD and Eagle Mountain/Saginaw ISD.

Her academic training was enhanced and put to the test after adopting a son, Dane, from an orphanage in Romania. He suffered early neglect, abandonment, and malnourishment, along with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and lead toxicity. Although only 11-months-old when he came into their home, by the time he was 11 years old, his severe learning and extreme behavior problems had disrupted the whole family and plunged everyone into despair and hopelessness.

Debra sought help from many experts, but gained the most insight and practical knowledge from Dr. Karyn Purvis and Dr. David Cross at TCU's Hope Connection Camp for adopted children. As a result of applying these new parenting strategies, Dane reached a level of stability and independence that his parents never dreamed possible. His success story is featured in both the March and May 2011 issues of Fostering Families Today.

In 2007, Debra formed Parenting Adoptees Can Trust to educate and assist parents who are on a similar journey with troubled children. In 2016, she created an LLC and re-branded her business as Parent Intervention & Training to better reflect the services they offer. As Director of Parent Intervention & Training, Debra and her team train and support other parents and professionals in the research-based parenting model developed by Drs. Purvis and Cross. It is called Trust-Based Relational Intervention� (TBRI�). Their desire is to provide a clear path to lasting behavioral transformation and deep healing for parents on hard journeys.

Sarah Mercado

Empowering Workshop & Closing Speaker

Sarah Mercado is a Training Specialist with the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development (KP ICD). As training specialist, Sarah’s main focus is instructing professionals working with children who have experienced trauma, in Trust-Based Relational Intervention^�(TBRI^�). TBRI^�, a holistic, attachment-based, and trauma-informed intervention designed to meet the complex needs of vulnerable children, offers practical tools for caregivers to help those in their care reach their highest potential.

Sarah earned her Bachelor’s Degree from Sweet Briar College in Virginia. She began her career as a direct care staff working with adolescent boys living in a Residential Treatment Center (RTC). After serving in the RTC for several years, she shifted her focus to foster care, where she was Regional Director for a foster and adoption agency.

Sarah spent 20 years serving youth and families within residential and foster care settings as a direct-care worker and trainer before beginning her work with the Purvis Institute in May 2016. Sarah lives near Austin, TX with her husband, AJ, and their two girls, Scout and Bella.

Alan Jones

“Dad’s Lunch”

Alan joined his wife, Debra, as Administrative Director of Parent Intervention & Training after retiring from 27 years in education. An advocate for at-risk children and father of a biological daughter and an internationally adopted son, Alan has come to completely embrace the Trust-Based Relational Intervention� model.

As a father, Alan uniquely understands the pressures that dads face as both protector of their families and nurturer of a child who never learned to trust and displays maladaptive behaviors. It is his passion to use his experiences to help parents, particularly dads, who are struggling to connect with their children.

Both Debra and Alan travel throughout the country and internationally to speak, hold parent training workshops, and provide in-home intensive interventions. They reside in the Fort Worth, Texas area.

Alicia Carter

Correcting Workshop

Alicia Carter is a licensed master-level Social Worker (LMSW) and is a TBRI Educator. She is currently the Director of the Albuquerque Outreach Office for MCH Family Outreach. She has served in this position for nearly 7 years. Alicia has a strong background in prevention services. She is also a trained facilitator for Nurturing Parenting and Circle of Security and facilitates several classes throughout Albuquerque on a weekly basis. Alicia is passionate about the power, hope and healing that can come through connection. She is married and the mother of a three-year-old boy. She often shares that her son has been her greatest teacher.