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Call: (516) 588-6115

Adoption Counseling

Has Adoption Impacted Your Life In Some Way?

Were you adopted as a child?

Are you struggling with feelings of grief and confusion as you navigate your identity?

Or are you the parent of an adoptee looking for support from a therapist who understands the complexities of adoption?

If you’re an adult adoptee, you may be grappling with big, existential questions about where you come from and who you are. Perhaps a recent event—such as a death or a reunion—has caused you to reconsider your relationships. Or maybe you’ve always struggled with the lingering sense that you don’t belong or are somehow unworthy of love.

As a result, you may have developed negative self-talk or a harsh inner critic. Confusion surrounding your identity may have led to an onset of anxiety or depression, which can include intense feelings of fear and hopelessness. Or maybe you consistently feel misunderstood and as though you don’t have a place in this world.

This has naturally impacted your ability to forge healthy, fulfilling connections with others. Perhaps you have a hard time maintaining intimate relationships or struggle with issues of abandonment and insecurity. You may not fully trust or feel nurtured by others because you have a hard time believing you’re worthy. And it’s possible you are aware of the attachment trauma you endured as an infant or young child.

Adoptive Parents Can Also Struggle Emotionally

On the other hand, you may be the parent of an adoptee or considering adopting a child into your family. Committed to providing the most supportive environment possible, you may need help navigating your parenting approach. Sooner or later, the time will come when your child asks you about their birth family, and you want to be prepared to nurture their curiosity in the healthiest way possible.

No matter your age or background, your sense of self is tremendously impacted by your roots. And if you’re adopted, you are likely to spend ample time and energy imagining who your birth family is and where you come from.

All you want is to make sense of your identity and your origins so that you can move forward with your life. Fortunately, we can pair you with an adoption competent therapist who will help you understand, normalize, and process your experience.

Feelings Of Isolation And Confusion Are Common Among Adopted Communities

If you’re looking for counseling and community as an adoptee, you are not alone. Even the most successful adoption stories involve emotional wounds. That’s why it’s important to find neutral, third-party support from someone who can offer healing perspective.

Adoption-Related Grief Affects Parents And Children Alike

No matter the circumstances, adoption stories are grief stories. After all, the connection to your roots has been compromised or lost altogether, and you may feel as though you’ve been in a fog all these years trying to understand what exactly you’ve been mourning. As you grow into adulthood, you are likely to grapple with many uncomfortable feelings and realizations that cause you to feel sad, angry, and isolated—all common symptoms of grief and loss.

But it’s important to remember that adoption is not just a one-time experience; it’s an experience that lasts a lifetime. And just as every parent goes on a different journey when it comes to raising children, every adoptee has a different story.

You may have grown up with adoptive parents who supported your curiosity about your family of origin, or perhaps you were raised in an adoptive family that discouraged you from asking questions about where you came from. Not to mention, the grief and trauma you experienced upon being separated from your birth parents probably took place before you could talk or name emotions, making it even harder to put your feelings into words.

Alternatively, as the parent of an adoptee, you’ve had your own grief and trauma too. You may have experienced a great deal of loss before deciding to adopt. And the long, involved process of legal adoption may not have been what you envisioned when you first set out to begin your family. Moreover, you want your child to feel loved and wanted, causing you to feel avoidant or confused about addressing issues and questions concerning their family of origin.

But there is no room for shame in the therapeutic atmosphere. By investing in counseling, you can overcome the pain you experience as you gain a deeper awareness of how adoption has shaped you and your family.

Counseling Allows You To Explore And Process Your Adoption Experience

Far beyond any cognitive awareness, the trauma felt by a newborn or infant separated from their biological parents is stored deep within the body’s cells. This trauma often manifests throughout childhood and into adulthood as depression, anxiety, and other mental health hurdles. In therapy, you can explore pre-verbal thoughts and emotions about your adoption experience to find a greater sense of peace.

Working with an adoption-competent therapist who is trained to validate your trauma and range of emotions, you can process your story without judgment or expectation. Together, we can face even the scariest truths to relieve you of pain and suffering.

Adoption Therapy At Creative Arts Therapy Source

Our approach draws from both creative and solution-focused methods to help adopted clients and parents of adoptees understand how unconscious thinking patterns and behaviors contribute to emotional distress. This element of psychoeducation will help you to understand the role of attachment injury in adoption and allow you to begin processing pre-verbal emotions.

In addition to talk therapy, we will incorporate Art Therapy into adoption counseling sessions. Because this approach is both expressive and nonverbal, it can provide you with a safe medium to explore feelings of grief, sadness, and anger. Moreover, Art Therapy promotes mindfulness and relaxation, which will ultimately help you reduce stress and reframe your outlook.

By learning more about your early experiences and identifying how adoption has impacted your life, you can better understand the thoughts, feelings, and triggers keeping you caught in a cycle of isolation and shame. And whether you’re an adoptee or the parent of an adopted child, you can use the insights you develop in therapy to live in accordance with your strengths and values.

We have therapists who come from families shaped by adoption and who have worked in this specialty for years. We know from personal and professional experience that you can establish a sense of worthiness and belonging. With the support we offer in adoption counseling, you will learn to manage your emotions and start to feel whole again.

Maybe You’re An Adoptee Or Parent In Search Of An Adoption-Competent Therapist, But You’re Not Sure If Counseling Is Right For You…

I don’t think therapy can give me what I need to feel better.

Oftentimes, the root cause of your struggle is something that may not even be a conscious memory. Therapy can help you get to the core of the issue and heal the parts that are broken as a result of adoption. Our time together won’t be spent talking in circles about your challenges but rather following a customized, often nonverbal therapeutic plan that promotes your healing and progress.

I found my biological parents/family, so I don’t need counseling that focuses on my adoption experience.

Reunion is more than just the moment you meet your birth family—it is the beginning of a new thread being weaved between two families. A lot of tension has built up to this moment, and the reunion probably challenged your expectations and emotions in some way. What’s more, the emotional hurdles you’ve had (and continue to have) are likely related to your adoption story.

Navigating any part of a reunion can have its ups and downs, and I am here to support you wherever you are on your journey.

I was adopted into a supportive, loving family and went to a therapist growing up—I don’t need counseling as an adult.

Having an open dialogue about your adoption experience from the get-go is great, but it will never negate the underlying feelings of abandonment you experienced as an infant. Even if you were adopted at birth, you spent nine months building a physical and emotional attachment to your biological mother. A sudden rupture in that relationship is deeply challenging for an infant, especially without the ability to fully understand or express emotions.

Art therapy can help you unlock the unconscious pre-verbal emotions that you may not even know you needed to express, and this process can be extremely liberating.

Explore Your Roots And Celebrate Your Story

If you are an adoptee or parent of an adoptee struggling with challenges with your identity and mental health, we have adoption-competent therapists who can help.

To find out more, please call (516) 588-6115 or schedule a free, 15-minute consultation.