Adoption and Attachment
We work with individuals and families connected to adoption, foster care, and third-party reproduction who are navigating identity, grief, belonging, and attachment challenges. Whether you're an adoptee, first parent, donor-conceived person, or adoptive family member, we create a space where your experience is valid, your questions are welcome, and your healing is honored.
Post-Adoption Support
Adoptees
Adoptees often grow up managing multiple versions of who they’re expected to be—balancing their adoptive identity, racial identity, and personal truth in environments that may not reflect their lived experience. This is especially true in transracial adoptions, where racial identity can be unsupported or misunderstood. We help adoptees and foster alumni explore their identities safely, honoring grief, confusion, anger, pride, and everything in between.
Post-Adoption Support
First Parents
First parents (also known as birth or original parents) may experience deep and long-lasting grief after separation from a child through adoption. Whether the decision was voluntary, coerced, or outside their control, this loss is real and often disenfranchised by others. We offer compassionate support to help first parents process complicated emotions, make sense of the loss, and find ways to honor their connection to their child over time.
Post-Adoption Support
Adoptive Parents
Parenting an adopted or fostered child can involve unique emotional and relational dynamics, especially when attachment has been disrupted or trauma is present. We support adoptive parents who want to understand their child’s behavior more deeply, respond without shame or control, and navigate complex family identities with more clarity and compassion. We also help parents work through their own expectations, losses, or stuck points in the process.
Post-Adoption Support
Search & Reunion
Reunion is often portrayed as a solution, but in reality, it brings up a range of emotions—hope, grief, confusion, joy, anger, and everything in between. We support adoptees, first parents, and donor-conceived individuals through the emotional complexities of searching, being found, navigating contact, or choosing not to pursue reunion. Whatever path you choose, we’re here to help you feel grounded, respected, and emotionally prepared.
Foster Care Youth/Alumni
Growing up in foster care can leave lasting questions about identity, safety, and belonging. Many people with foster care histories have experienced instability, loss, or being defined by systems that never truly saw them. We work with youth and adults who are navigating the emotional impact of foster care—including questions of who they are, where they come from, and how to trust themselves and others. Whether you're currently in care, aged out, or were adopted from foster care, we honor the lifelong nature of these experiences and provide space for your story to unfold on your terms.
Unintervened Youth/Alumni
Some young people grow up in environments that were unsafe, unstable, or harmful where no one stepped in. We work with youth and adults who live with the lasting emotional impact of having been overlooked by systems that were supposed to protect them. Many carry a quiet grief or longing for the intervention that never came, and wrestle with questions like, "Why wasn’t I helped?" or "Would I be okay now if someone had seen me then?" This can deeply affect how they experience safety, support, and self-worth in adulthood, especially when navigating independence, relationships, or comparing their path to peers who were adopted or fostered. We hold space for these stories—especially the ones that never made it into official records—and help clients explore who they are beyond what was missed.
Donor Conceived People (DCP)
People conceived through sperm, egg, or embryo donation may struggle with identity, origin stories, or feelings of disconnection. These experiences are often minimized by others, yet they can carry lifelong emotional impact—especially when transparency has been limited or boundaries are unclear. We support donor-conceived individuals in exploring their identity, making meaning from their story, and addressing questions of belonging, kinship, and truth.
Treatment Diagnoses
We diagnose and treat a range of attachment-related disorders, including:
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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
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Chronic PTSD (C-PTSD)
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Acute Stress Disorder
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Adjustment Disorders
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Prolonged Grief Disorder
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Relational Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (ROCD)
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Mild Borderline Personality Disorder
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Major Depressive Disorder
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Generalized Anxiety Disorder
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Other Treatment Issues:
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Codependency
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Limerance
We also support those navigating identity-related distress, persistent relational patterns, or complex developmental trauma. Whether or not a formal diagnosis is present, we provide affirming care for the emotional impact adoption and attachment issues can have over time.