Therapy for Adoptive/Foster Parents

• Are you feeling so burned out coping with your child's behavior that you've lost your curiosity and sympathy for the meaning behind it? 

• Are you feeling shut down and angry? Do you feel ashamed for feeling this way?

• Are you feeling isolated and alone - irritable with family and friends that just don't "get it"?

• Are you and your partner fighting more and agreeing less?

 

You are not alone.  

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My experience is not your experience but I am an adoptive mom of many and I'd love to help you on your journey.

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As adoptive and/or foster parents we need to:

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• become experts about the effects of early trauma, loss, and grief on our child. Recent brain research has demonstrated the devastating long-term effects of early trauma and how it affects how our children learn, grow and love.

• we must learn to understand our reactions, and acknowledge our areas of vulnerability. When something triggers our own emotions, the results are not usually helpful in getting us where we want to be as a family.

• we can learn to ask ourselves questions like, “What does it mean when my child is pushing me away? What does my child really need in this moment?”  With time, insight and time for self care you will be able to identify barriers to providing what they really need.

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But BUT BUT you say - I'm already working SO HARD!

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And this is where therapy becomes a place for you to unburden yourself.  A place for you to find new directions and new understandings.

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As a therapist skilled in grief and loss I can help families negotiate the tricky paths of intersecting losses, and help them understand that anger covers pain in ourselves and in our children.  I understand because I've been there.  There is no judgement from me.

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Choose non judgmental, strengths based couple or individual sessions.  My aim is to always work collaboratively with you to foster self-exploration, insight and lasting change.

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In therapy:

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• We're going to become curious about how you came to be where you are now.  With compassion we'll find your way out.

• We're going to give you permission to take care of your needs.

• We're going to accept that parenting is hard and that you are doing the best you can with the tools you have right now. (And we'll spend time finding new insight and new tools.) 

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I offer couples or individual sessions.  I'm sorry but at this time I do not see families. I promise that the insight you gain from our work together either in couples therapy sessions or individual sessions will benefit your family as a whole.  Often, parents need the space (without the child present) where they can speak freely about their experiences and build a compassionate understanding of their child’s (and their) behaviors