Adoption Therapy for Children, Teens, & Families in Lafayette, LA & Online
In-Person in Lafayette, LA | Online in Louisiana, Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, & Ohio
Building strong attachments, navigating hard conversations, and supporting your child with confidence.
Children and teens process adoption dynamics differently than adults. When hard feelings surface, they often show up through behavioral shifts, sudden emotional outbursts, school struggles, or relational withdrawal. You don’t have to figure out how to support them on your own.
What Brings Families to Adoption Therapy?
Big emotions and behavioral shifts: Your child or teen is experiencing anxiety, anger, hypervigilance, or intense emotional shifts, and standard parenting strategies aren't getting to the root cause.
Unsure how to navigate hard conversations: You want to have honest, age-appropriate conversations about adoption narratives, birth family, or origins, but you're afraid of saying the wrong thing or triggering distress.
Complex questions about identity or race: Your child is asking direct questions about their origins, identity, or racial/cultural differences within transracial family dynamics.
Push-pull relational patterns: You notice your teen pulling away, testing boundaries, or struggling with attachment as they step into independence.
Wanting an open, supportive home environment: You want to build an environment where your child feels safe to express the full spectrum of their feelings—including curiosity, confusion, grief, or anger—without feeling guilty.
A Safe Space for Both Parent & Child
As adoptive parents, you care deeply about your child's well-being. Wanting help navigating hard adoption conversations or emotional shifts isn't a failure—it’s a powerful step toward deepening trust and security in your family.
Adoption Competency Rooted in Lived Experience & Clinical Expertise
Children and teens deserve a therapist who understands adoption from the inside out—not someone who views their natural developmental responses as pathologized behavior.
As an adult adoptee, an aunt to a nephew placed for adoption, and an LPC working with the adoption community since 2018, I work collaboratively with children, teens, and parents. My approach focuses on honoring both the child’s emotional reality and the parent’s pivotal role in providing safety and attachment.
In our work together, we address key adoption dynamics across developmental stages, focusing on the 7 Core Struggles in Adoption:
Loss & Attachment: Strengthening felt safety and emotional security within the family.
Rejection & Fear of Abandonment: Helping youth regulate anxiety and hypervigilance in family and peer dynamics.
Grief & Expression: Giving kids and teens healthy outlets to process loss, birth family curiosity, and changing family structures.
Guilt & Shame: Easing the fear of betraying adoptive parents by expressing natural curiosity about biological origins.
Identity & Belonging: Supporting youth as they form a grounded sense of self during critical childhood and teenage transitions.
Intimacy & Connection: Helping parents build deep, lasting trust and attunement with their child or teen.
Control & Autonomy: Helping children and teens develop a healthy sense of agency and choices as they grow.
Areas of Focus for Youth & Adoptive Families
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Helping young people express big feelings, process identity, and build coping strategies tailored to their developmental level.
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Providing parents with practical tools, attunement strategies, and adoption-competent insights to support their child's emotional security.
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Guiding families through telling age-appropriate adoption stories, addressing direct questions, and navigating birth family contact or open adoptions.
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Helping parents foster racial identity, cultural connection, and a strong sense of belonging for transracially adopted children and teens.
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Support during key developmental transitions, school projects (such as family trees or baby photos), peer relationships, and puberty.
Guided Reflection Tools for Growing Adoptees
Introducing the upcoming Belonging Series for Youth. These are age-appropriate guided journals designed to help children and teens process their story, explore their emotions, and build a strong sense of identity at every developmental stage:
Belonging: My Story (Ages 5–8) — An engaging, play-filled workbook helping young children understand their adoption story, identify big emotions, and feel grounded in their family.
Belonging: My Journey (Ages 8–12) — A guided journal supporting tweens as they navigate complex questions about identity, birth family curiosity, and belonging.
Belonging: My Truth (Ages 13–18) — A thoughtful, empowering space for teens to explore independence, transracial identity, complex feelings, and their authentic self.
Coming Soon! Join the waitlist or ask about using these resources in our work together.
Frequently Asked Questions About Adoption Therapy
Are parents involved in therapy sessions?
Yes! Parent involvement is a core part of effective youth adoption therapy. Depending on your child's age and needs, sessions may include parent-child attunement work, individual time with your youth, and dedicated parent consultation sessions to give you actionable strategies at home.
Can we do therapy online if we live outside of Louisiana?
Yes. In addition to in-person sessions at my Lafayette, Louisiana office, I am licensed to provide virtual adoption therapy via telehealth to clients residing in Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, and Ohio. (Virtual therapy for children and teens is evaluated on an individual basis to ensure it fits their developmental needs.)
What if my child refuses to talk about adoption?
That is completely normal. Children and teens often communicate through play, behavior, or indirect expression rather than direct conversation. We meet your child where they are, focusing on building safety and self-regulation first without forcing discussions before they are ready.
Ready to support your child and strengthen your family's bond?
Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to discuss in-person or telehealth options for your family.