Adoption Counseling

You foster or have adopted a child recently or a while ago or you are going to adopt a child and need support with the changes in your family.

Do You feel that you have tried all the possible advices that were given to you? Are you exhausted, irritated all the time? You have made the courageous first step towards finding the right therapist to help you, your child, or your teen. This is a hard step to take and I commend you on your bravery and willingness to seek help!

If you are here, there may be a few (or a lot) of challenging things happening in you or your child’s life.

• Your foster/adopted child struggles in school, with peers, or at home?
• Is your foster/adopted child or teen behaving in ways that concern you and you don’t know how to help?
• Do you feel as if you’ve cannot really connect with your foster/Adopted child ?
• Are you feeling that you are struggling to find joy in yourself and in connection to others? Do you feel that you need support in parenting your Foster/Adopted Child?

You have come to the right place. I specialize in helping adopted children, adolescents and their family who face following challenges:

• Grief, attachment deficit, identity formation,
• Cross-Cultural issues
• Experiences of Trauma, Abuse and Neglect
• Substance Abuse or other Addictive Behaviors
• Family Members suffer from vicarious Trauma

The work we do together may involve attending to attachment, behavioral problems, emotional regulation, social skills issues, social integration and daily functional regulation (sleeping, eating, etc.).

Grief, Attachment, Identity Formation

Adopted children and adolescents may need to process grief and loss related to the loss of their birth parents and the many changes in their short lives. They may need help forming a healthy sense of identity, they often need help making sense of their own complex backgrounds and putting their life stories in a comprehensible order.

Cross-cultural integration

Adoptees may face the struggle that many transracially and transculturally adopted children face: judging themselves by the standards of a culture that is not their own. Their cultural identity often affects their self-esteem, confidence, goals, worth perception, self-respect, sense of entitlement, and expectations.

Past experiences of abuse and neglect

Adoptees may have dealt with experiences of abuse and neglect prior to their adoption. I provide therapy to help resolve their trauma and gain a better sense of their life, emotional regulation and regain their relationship with themselves.

Substance abuse or other addictive behaviors

Adoptees, particularly during their adolescence may abuse drugs or alcohol. The root causes are often to be found in their experience with attachment deficit, adjustment difficulties or depression.

Family Members suffer from Vicarious Trauma

Parenting children who have experienced a rough beginning (abuse and neglect, prenatal drug or alcohol exposure, multiple losses, foster or institutional care) can sometimes be extremely stressful, leaving parents feeling helpless, bewildered, and exhausted. I help parents developing specific skills for providing the care their adoptive children need, developing self-care strategies and connect with important resources. I help families developing more satisfying ways of being together.