Adoption Support

Adoption presents many challenges.

As a member of the adoption triad, you know that family experiences like yours aren’t that common. The challenges impact relationships, family dynamics, and identity.

Connecting through DNA databases, social media, and increased access to original birth certificates is becoming the norm and presents complex challenges related to privacy, boundaries, expectations, and quality of relationships.

Birth parents have a difficult decision.

As a birth parent, you may be struggling with feelings of unresolved grief, loss, guilt, shame, fear, anxiety, or confusion. You may have experienced years of silence and worry, leading to concerns about your child’s well-being; how your open or closed adoption impacts your current life and relationships; or how to communicate effectively, prepare for reuniting with your child, and set boundaries within the adoption triad.

The adoption plan you made long ago may even be a secret, known only by you, the burden of that decision very difficult to bear. You feel very isolated.

Should you or shouldn’t you search for your birth parents?

As an adoptee, you may be coping with grief and anxiety but aren’t sure why. Connecting with your authentic self and building a clear identity, especially as a transracial adoptee, has been challenging.

As a person of color, micro and macro aggressions abound, but your white parents seem oblivious or just don’t know how to help.

You may be curious about searching for information on your first family or desire to reunite with them, but navigating the topic with your adoptive family feels daunting.

Social anxiety and building trusting relationships are hard. You may fluctuate between feeling like your adoptive parents just don’t get it while worried that you will lose them, too. All these emotions can be unexpected and overwhelming.

Too many unexpected feelings arise.

As an adoptive parent, you find yourself navigating a sea of complexities. The joy of adoption is rooted in loss and heartbreak. From lingering sadness about infertility to becoming a parent overnight, the tinge of depression can be confusing, especially when you’re over the moon about your child.

Feelings of guilt about your child’s first family keep you up at night. Adoption etiquette and boundary-setting seem like foreign languages.

Your understanding of adoption-based trauma is limited. It’s tempting to spare your child the emotional pain of adoption-related loss, and you aren’t sure how to provide a supportive environment to allow that deep emotional work to take place.

The distinction between adoption-based issues and normal child development isn’t clear. Protecting your child’s privacy while managing curiosity from family and friends feels tricky.

You may feel insecure about your child’s interest in their first family and totally inadequate in talking about racial identity and keeping your child connected to their birth culture. And the list goes on…

There’s not a lot of people who understand you.

Adoption is not a one-time event but has lifelong implications. It can lead to significant challenges, including questions about biological origins, racial and cultural identity, loss, rejection, guilt, shame, grief, intimacy, control, and trauma.

Talking about these complexities can prove challenging, especially when you struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and other emotional concerns. Facing those challenges can make you feel lonely.

You may not know anyone who shares this experience with you, and finding a therapist who understands it has been difficult.

You’re not alone.

With empathy, understanding, and support, I will provide practical tools to help you cope with adoption’s unique themes and complexities.

During our work together, you will learn how to manage adoption-based trauma and receive support as you prepare for and cope with searching for birth relatives or returning to your birth country.

You will gain the skills and perspectives to support you as you navigate life.

There is a way forward.

The supportive environment we co-create will allow you to experience the freedom that comes with insight, self-awareness, and a positive self-image.

Call me at (512) 766-5695 for your free 20-minute consultation, and let’s get started!