Adoption is a truly beautiful way to make a family.  And, it can be complicated by unfulfilled expectations, identity confusion, racial issues, and loss.  The experience of being an adoptive parent or child—even a grown-up child—can be immensely challenging in a way that’s difficult for many to understand.  If you are a parent or an adoptive child looking for someone to understand your unique experiences, you need to find a therapist who has competency and experience with adoptive families.  I have worked with dozens of adoptive families, each time growing more deeply touched by both the love and difficulty of what it means to be in an adoptive family.  I can provide individual and family therapy that addresses adoption-related concerns.

Adoption-Related Concerns

Individual therapy can help process difficult emotions and experiences related to the nature of adoption, and family therapy can promote a less stressful family environment by helping family members change communication and relationship patterns.

Adoptees

• Transracial adoption
• Challenging thoughts and feelings about being adopted
• Overwhelming feelings of having been separated from your birth family
• Relationship or intimacy issues
• A sense of "otherness" or of being an "imposter"​

Families

• Communication or relationship problems
• Being a multiracial or multicultural family
• Needing help with the "claiming" process

• Difficulty talking openly about adoption

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Parents

• How to talk about adoption with your child
• Parenting an adopted child
• Managing your child's difficult behaviors
• Grief and loss
• Trauma-informed parenting
• Infertility grief

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