Beyond Training: What Foster Care Taught a Trauma Professional with Megan Hamm

Amy Stone welcomes licensed professional counselor and foster parent Megan Hamm to discuss how becoming a foster parent transformed her approach to working with children and families experiencing trauma. Megan shares her personal journey, the challenges of supporting kids in crisis, and how her lived experience informed her work as a mental health professional.

About the Guest:

Megan Hamm, Ed.S., LPC-S, RPT, is a Licensed Professional Counselor, Registered Play Therapist, and trauma-informed parenting expert. She specializes in helping foster and adoptive families turn emotional chaos into connection through her signature H.E.A.R.T. Framework. As the Amazon best-selling author of Heart of the Matter, Megan equips caregivers and professionals with practical tools to manage meltdown behaviors and foster healing. She’s passionate about dismantling mental health stigma and empowering families to thrive.

Main Topics Covered:

• Why lived experience is invaluable in trauma-informed care for children and families
• Megan’s journey from professional counselor to foster parent
• The emotional realities and surprises of fostering
• Redefining trauma—from past histories to the present-day realities for children in the system
• The importance of adult self-regulation and accepting children as they are
• Shifting traditional mental health perspectives in supporting foster and adoptive families
• Megan’s “HEART” framework and her approach to parent-child relationships
• Personal growth, challenging conversations, and the power of showing up for kids

Quote from the Episode:

“I, as the adult, am one of the, if not the most important intervention that they’ll ever have. It’s not about building skills…it’s about me being there, me being present, and me accepting them for who they are. Unapologetically.” — Megan Hamm

Timestamps:

• 0:00 – Welcome & Introductions
• 0:47 – Megan on Self-Care and Nature
• 2:06 – Career Background: Licensed Professional Counselor
• 2:56 – How Foster Care Entered Megan’s Life
• 6:27 – Deciding to Foster with Her Husband
• 10:43 – Living the Experience: When Professional Training Meets Real Life
• 15:10 – Trauma: Defining it in the Foster & Adoptive Context
• 18:00 – How Foster Parenting Changed Megan’s Approach to Counseling
• 26:08 – Response from Clients & Peers to Her New Approach
• 31:31 – Megan’s Private Practice, Speaking, and Her Book
• 36:37 – Final Fun Questions & Wrap-Up

Connect with Megan Hamm:

Megan’s Book: The Heart of the Matter: A Compassionate Guide to Transforming Behaviors in Fostering and Adopted Children available on Amazon and other places that you shop for books like Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/a/87491/9798990309005

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