What is Adoption-Competent Therapy?

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Adoption-competent therapists understand the unique developmental, emotional, and behavioral issues involved in life for everyone in the community of adoption and foster care, and provide mental health services that acknowledge the complexity of these issues without pathologizing them. They are well-versed in the different types of adoption, the losses involved for each person, the impact of trauma, the dynamics of openness,  common emotional and behavioral challenges, and difficulties of identity development, among other issues vital to nurturing emotional, psychological, and relational well-being.
​My professional background includes over 15 years of clinical as well as case management and administrative experience working with adopted individuals of all ages, as well as their biological and adoptive families. My clinical experience also extends to foster care, counseling children and adolescents in care along with their foster parents; helping support the reunification of children and their biological family whenever possible through family counseling; and facilitating training and consultation to area foster care and adoption community groups and ministries. 
Over the years, clients have taught me invaluable lessons about the journey each person walks through adoption and equipped me with a depth of compassion and respect for everyone involved that isn't developed any other way. Adoption is also part of my own family's life, further adding to my appreciation of the complex issues members of the adoption constellation face.   ​
Current services with an adoption focus that are offered at Arbor Cove Therapy include:
  • ​​Individual and family counseling for adopted individuals of all ages, birth family members, and adoptive parents focused on mental health issues, parenting, family formation, navigating open adoption relationships, and/or the search and reunion process;
  • Parent coaching based on the TBRI (R) (Trust-Based Relational Intervention) model developed by the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development; 
  • An intensive six-session adoption preparation course for couples considering adoption or foster care, or those currently in the home study process; 
  • Sessions with prospective adoptive parents wanting objective support exploring adoption options in the Atlanta area; 
  • Objective counseling for women facing an unexpected pregnancy or their partners or family members;
  • Counseling for birth parents who have made an adoption plan for a child and are struggling with grief and loss;
  • Mediation between birth and adoptive families after adoption when there are challenges related to openness;  
  • Individualized training and workshops for prospective adoptive parents; 
  • Support groups related to adoption;
  • Video conferencing-based services for adults living in areas of Georgia where access to an adoption-competent therapist is limited; and
  • Workshops/presentations to churches, child welfare, healthcare, legal, and educational organizations.
My post-graduate training has included a wide variety of courses touching on issues relevant to adoption, including grief and loss, attachment, trauma, sensory processing disorder, mood and anxiety disorders, parenting, fetal alcohol spectrum disorders, self-regulation, mindfulness, neuroscience, and adoption itself, as well as treatment approaches especially beneficial to individuals and families involved in adoption and foster care, including:​
  • Trust-Based Relational Intervention (R) (TBRI),
  • Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT),
  • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR),
  • Theraplay (R), and 
  • The Attachment, Regulation, and Competency (ARC) model developed by the Trauma Center and Justice Resource Institute.
I am also a graduate of the Training for Adoption Competency (TAC) initiative of the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.) in Maryland, one of the premier post-adoption services agencies in the United States.
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Because Arbor Cove Therapy does not facilitate adoptions and is not affiliated with any adoption agency, I am able to provide objective, clinically informed, mental health services to individuals who are adopted and to birth and adoptive families. 

To learn more about adoption-competent therapy:
Contact Arbor Cove Therapy to schedule adoption-competent services for yourself, your family, or your organization.
*There are a number of terms people prefer to use to describe individuals whose children have been placed into adoptive families. For ease of common understanding, I use the terms “birth mother,” “birth father,” and “birth family,” but respect others’ preferences and will gladly use an individual’s preference in work together. 
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