Speaker | Podcast Guest | Adoptee
Melissa LaCour, LPC | Speaking & Media on Adoption, Identity, & Belonging
Clinical depth, lived experience as an adoptee, and a warm, direct voice, for conferences, podcasts, schools, and community events. Melissa speaks with adoptees, birth parents, adoptive parents, and the professionals who support them.
Speaking & Media with Melissa LaCour, LPC | Lived Experience & Clinical Training in Adoption
Not just a clinician. Someone who has lived it.
There is a difference between a speaker who has studied a topic and one who has lived inside it. Melissa LaCour is both, and that combination is what makes her talks and interviews land differently.
She is an adoptee doing adoption work. She started early: as a teenager, she sat on adoption panels through Catholic Social Services, answering questions from prospective adoptive and birth parents about loyalty, belonging, and what adoption felt like from the inside.
Her approach is warm, direct, and never generic. Audiences and listeners leave with real insight, specific language, and a framework they can actually use, not a list of platitudes they will forget by Monday.
“The most important work a person can do is the work of knowing themselves. My job is to help the people in your audience understand why, and what to do about it.”Melissa LaCour, LPC
Audiences
Who Melissa Speaks With
Adoption touches everyone in the constellation differently. Melissa adapts every talk and conversation to the people in the room, or on the other side of the microphone.
Adoptees
Teens & adults
Talks that name what adoptees often carry quietly: gratitude pressure, loyalty conflicts, identity questions, search, and reunion.
Birth Parents
Support groups & events
Honest, compassionate conversations about grief, connection, and the relationships that can grow after placement.
Adoptive Parents
Agencies & parent groups
What adoptees wish their parents knew, and how to support a child's whole story without taking it personally.
Clinicians & Child Welfare Teams
Trainings & CEU workshops
Adoption-competent care, so clients don't have to spend their sessions educating their counselor.
Schools & Community Events
Students & families
Talks for high school and college students on goals, motivation, and identity, plus community education nights.
Podcasts & Media
Interviews & panels
Thoughtful long-form conversations about adoption, attachment, identity, and belonging, for hosts who want depth.
As Heard On
Podcast & Media Appearances
Conversations about adoption, identity, and belonging. Each one links to the show or outlet that hosted it.
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The Adoption Roadmap Podcast
November 2026
PodcastListen to the EpisodeEp. #158: The Seven Core Issues of Adoption: Understanding the Emotional Impact on Adoptees and Families
What if some of the biggest challenges in adoption don't surface until years after a child joins their family? Melissa unpacks the emotional complexities that can follow adoptees throughout their lives, and why understanding them can change the way parents show up for their children. Adoption is not a one-time event with emotions that simply disappear. It can bring up new questions, grief, and identity challenges at different stages of life.
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The Resilience Project Podcast
September 2026
PodcastListen on SpotifyWhy a “Good Adoption Story” Still Needs Healing
A “good adoption story” doesn't mean there's nothing underneath it. If an adoptee's behavior doesn't make sense to you, you just don't have all the information yet about what being adopted actually looks like. Grateful and still working through something. Both can be true.
Hosting a show about adoption, family, or mental health? I'd love to talk.
Talks & Workshops
Featured Speaking Topics & Presentation Menu
Each topic can be shaped into a keynote, workshop, training, panel, or podcast conversation, in person or virtually.
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Beyond Gratitude: What Adult Adoptees Wish Clinicians & Parents Knew
Best ForAdoptive parents, adult adoptees, mental health professionals, adoption agencies, and community retreats.
For decades, the dominant cultural narrative around adoption has demanded unyielding gratitude, often leaving adoptees feeling isolated when complex emotions surface. In this presentation, Melissa LaCour unpacks the unspoken psychological reality of adult adoptees, including performative gratitude, fear of rejection, and hypervigilance. Attendees will gain a deeper understanding of how “adoption fog” lifts in adulthood and learn concrete ways to create environments where adult adoptees feel truly heard without having to minimize their truth.
Key Takeaways
- Identify how performative gratitude creates barriers to authentic emotional expression.
- Understand the intersection of adoption, boundary-setting, and chronic people-pleasing in adulthood.
- Learn practical strategies for parents and clinicians to validate loss without creating division.
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5 Things No One Tells You About Being Adopted
Best ForAdoptees of any age, the people who love them, community events, and support groups.
A warm, honest talk built for adoptees themselves, not just the professionals around them. Melissa names five truths about adoption that rarely get said out loud, drawing on her own story and on what adoptees and adoptive families shared in her research. Listeners hear the feelings they may have carried alone described plainly, and leave knowing that every story is different and none of them has to be carried alone.
Key Takeaways
- Put words to adoption experiences that often go unspoken.
- Understand why gratitude and grief can exist at the same time.
- Leave with first steps for holding your full, unedited story.
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Navigating the 7 Core Issues in Adoption Across the Lifespan
Best ForChild welfare professionals, family therapists, adoption educators, and parent support groups.
Adoption is not a single past event; it is lifelong. Based on the foundational framework developed by Sharon Kaplan Roszia and Deborah N. Silverstein, this presentation explores the 7 Core Issues in Adoption: Loss, Rejection, Shame & Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, and Control. Melissa translates these struggles from abstract clinical concepts into lived realities, illustrating how each issue evolves from childhood through adulthood and shapes relational patterns later in life.
Key Takeaways
- Recognize how the 7 Core Issues show up at different developmental stages.
- Examine how early attachment disruptions affect adult romantic and family relationships.
- Learn actionable frameworks to help individuals process adoption-related grief and identity shifts.
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Building Adoption Competency for Therapists & Child Welfare Professionals
Best ForClinical training seminars, mental health agencies, university counseling programs, and CEU workshops.
Many well-intentioned therapists unwittingly misdiagnose or invalidate adoptee clients because standard graduate programs rarely teach adoption competency. This training bridges that gap. Combining adoption-competent frameworks from her C.A.S.E. (Center for Adoption Support and Education) training with insights from lived experience, Melissa teaches clinicians how to provide affirming, adoption-informed care. Participants learn to avoid common pitfalls, such as forcing resolution or missing hidden trauma, so clients don’t have to spend sessions educating their counselor.
Key Takeaways
- Differentiate between standard attachment struggles and complex adoption dynamics.
- Apply adoption-competent assessment and therapeutic approaches (CBT, Attachment-Based, Systems Theory).
- Build a culturally sensitive, trauma-informed environment for adoptees and adoptive families.
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Attachment, Identity, & the “Both/And” of Adoption
Best ForKeynote addresses, university lectures, panel discussions, and podcast conversations.
One of the most challenging parts of the adoptee experience is holding conflicting truths at the same time: loving one’s adoptive family while grieving a lost biological connection, or feeling deep appreciation while holding anger toward systemic practices. This talk explores the “Both/And.” Melissa shares how dialectical thinking allows people across the adoption constellation to release rigid perfectionism, integrate their story, and move toward genuine emotional wholeness.
Key Takeaways
- Understand how binary thinking (“good adoption vs. bad adoption”) gets in the way of healing.
- Learn tools for navigating search, reunion, and genealogical confusion without guilt.
- Foster resilience, self-compassion, and authentic identity development in adoptees.
Credentials & Experience
The expertise behind the voice.
Melissa LaCour is a Licensed Professional Counselor with over seven years of clinical experience. Her speaking and media work is grounded in the same knowledge and lived experience that define her clinical practice.
She has completed adoption competency training through The Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), and is additionally trained in Trauma-Focused CBT, Functional Family Therapy, Trust-Based Relational Intervention, and Attachment Trauma.
She also brings real stage and media experience. Melissa holds a degree in mass communication with a background in television and radio, and at 17 she spoke to an audience of more than 3,000 when she received a national scholarship.
Credentials
- M.A. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling
- Licensed Professional Counselor, Louisiana #7708
- Telehealth privileges in Georgia, Indiana, Minnesota, & Ohio
- Adoption competency training through C.A.S.E. (Center for Adoption Support and Education)
- Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT)
- Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI)
- Specialized training in Attachment Trauma
- Personal adoptee experience
Where Melissa Has Spoken
- Adoption competency trainings for counselors and social workers at three Louisiana professional conferences
- Adoptee panels for prospective adoptive and birth parents through Catholic Social Services
- Talks for high school and college students on goals, motivation, and identity
- Podcast guest on The Adoption Roadmap Podcast and The Resilience Project Podcast
Event Types, Formats, & Partnerships
Mental Health Conferences & Clinical Education
Adoption & Foster Care Agencies & Family Organizations
Podcasts, Media Interviews, & Panel Discussions
Schools, Universities, & Community Events
Keynote
45–90 minutes
A single session designed to open or anchor your conference, summit, or event, tailored to your theme.
Workshop or Training
Half or full day
Deeper content with interactive elements. Participants leave with frameworks and tools they can use right away.
Multi-Session Series
Weeks or months
Sustained learning in adoption-informed care, attachment, or identity for organizations, groups, and clinical teams.
Podcast Guest
Audio or video
Long-form interviews on adoption, identity, attachment, and belonging, for adoptee, parenting, and mental health shows.
Panel & Moderation
Conferences & events
Available as a panelist or moderator for events in mental health, adoption, and related fields.
Virtual Delivery
All formats
Every format is available virtually, with the same warmth and engagement as an in-person session.
For Hosts & Event Planners
Media Kit & Interview Resources
Everything you need to introduce Melissa to your audience. Feel free to copy the bio below as written.
Short Bio
Melissa LaCour, LPC, is an adoptee and Licensed Professional Counselor in Lafayette, Louisiana, specializing in adoption, relationships, and life transitions. Trained in adoption competency through C.A.S.E., she brings lived experience and clinical depth to her work with adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families. Learn more at melissalacour.com.
The Full Media Kit Includes
- Headshots
- Short & long bio
- Topic one-sheet
- Social handles
- Suggested intro
Suggested Interview Questions
- What do you wish more people understood about being adopted?
- Why do so many adoptees feel they have to be grateful, and what does that cost them?
- What does “adoption competent” therapy mean, and why don't most therapists learn it?
- How can adoptive parents support their child's whole story, including birth family?
- How did your own adoption shape the work you do now?
Sharing an episode or event? Please link to melissalacour.com in your show notes or event page so your audience can find Melissa's resources after the conversation.
Found me through a podcast? Welcome.
If an interview brought you here, I'm so glad you came. The Adoptee's Permission Slip is a free resource I made for adoptees who are ready to stop editing their story and start holding all of it.
Follow Along
Find Melissa on Social
Short videos, honest reflections, and adoption conversations, a few times a week.
Frequently Asked Questions About Speaking & Media
What topics does Melissa LaCour speak about?
Melissa LaCour, LPC, speaks on adoptee mental health, the 7 Core Issues in Adoption, adoption competency for clinicians, attachment, and identity. Her talks and interviews combine her lived experience as an adoptee with clinical training in adoption competency from the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.).
Is Melissa available as a podcast guest?
Yes. Melissa loves long-form conversations about adoption, identity, attachment, and belonging, and is a good fit for adoptee, parenting, foster and adoption, and mental health shows. Email info@melissalacour.com with your show name, audience, and preferred recording dates.
Does Melissa speak directly to adoptees and families, or only to professionals?
Both. Melissa speaks directly to adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents at community events, support groups, and agency gatherings, and also trains counselors, social workers, and child welfare teams. She speaks with high school and college students, too.
Does Melissa present virtually, or only in person?
Both. Melissa is based in Lafayette, Louisiana, travels for in-person events, and is available virtually anywhere for workshops, webinars, panels, and interviews.
How do I book Melissa or request her media kit?
Use the contact form on this page or email info@melissalacour.com with your event or show details, date, and audience. Melissa will send her media kit, availability, and fees.
Book Melissa LaCour, LPC for Your Event, Conference, or Podcast
Whether you are planning a conference, a training for your team, a community event, or your next episode, I would love to talk about what is possible.
I am available for in-person engagements and virtual presentations and interviews. Every inquiry receives a personal response within two business days.
Email info@melissalacour.com