Adoption Therapy for Adolescents, Children & Families
The issues that adoptive families face are unique and often challenging, and are frequently misunderstood or minimized by traditional healthcare professionals. The formation of a family through adoption is a complex event involving joy and hope, as well as grief, loss, and trauma. Adoption-related trauma often arises from abandonment, orphanage or foster home stays, abuse, neglect, medical procedures, and/or the transition to new caregivers. This combination of traumas can result in serious behavioral and attachment disorders in adoptees of any age.
Understandably, families living with the preceding set of circumstances are often stressed to their limits. The benefits of working with a professional who has the knowledge, skills and personal experience of adoption and attachment trauma to help them navigate these issues and teach them “graduate level” parenting skills - skills above and beyond those learned from books, grandparents and peers.
A therapist who specializes in adoption and attachment trauma will be able to understand and explore adoptee-specific issues with compassion and attunement.
Young adoptees have a need to ask and explore these typical questions about their adoptions:
Why did my birthmother give me away?
If my birthmother didn't love me, how will anyone love me?
Can I be loyal to my birthmother and love my adoptive family at the same time?
Was I given up for adoption because I did something bad or because I'm a bad person?
Do I need to be perfect in order for my adoptive family to keep me?
How do I grieve the loss of my birth mother so that I can accept the love of my adoptive family?