Adoption by definition includes elements of loss and emotional pain for all members of the adoption triad, and necessarily creates a variety of lifelong challenges. Adoptees of all ages often benefit from therapeutic support in their journey through adoption-related issues such as loss, rejection, shame, grief, identity, intimacy, and control. Many adoptees also experience trauma symptoms related to their experiences in their first family, foster care, or orphanages, as well as joining families of a different race or culture than their own. We offer research-informed therapy to help adoptive parents be the very best parents they can be, recognizing the complications that adoption adds to the already-daunting responsibility of parenting. For mothers who have placed a child for adoption, therapy can provide a supportive place to grieve and/or navigate an ongoing relationship with their child in his or her adoptive family.
Adoption-related reading we recommend can be found on our Resources page.
Dr. Rivas provides pre-adoption psychological evaluations for prospective adoptive parents whose agencies require this element.
