Clinical Specialties

Grief and Loss

Grief and loss is prevalent in much of life. Death, divorce, abandonment, adoption; many smaller changes such as a move or switching schools can also elicit feelings of loss.  Such loss can be devastating and may interrupt healthy development and daily functioning.  

Having experienced a profound personal loss, I took it upon myself to undertake both my own individual therapy and professional growth to become grounded in my work as a therapist.  I am confident that these efforts have refined my therapeutic skills into becoming a most competent and empathetic therapist for those suffering any form of grief.

In August 2022, I became certified in Grief and Trauma Therapy through the Wendt Center for Loss and Healing in Washington, D.C.  The six-month intensive training provided a wealth of learning and increased understanding about grief and how deeply it can affect one’s life.  I learned both theoretical frameworks and basic tools that help clients to begin their healing and integrate grief into a renewed full and functioning life.

I have found that it is possible to experience joy while living with grief.  I work with my clients to acknowledge the pain and find ways to laugh and live despite terrible loss.

ADOPTION

As a very young therapist, I attended an agency-wide training that focused on the developmental stages of adopted teenagers.  Until that time, no other professional discipline had spoken to me so profoundly. I have since sought out as many classes and resources as I could to learn more about the psychological experience of adopted children and adults.

More recently, I have taken my learning to a higher level. In 2019, I completed a twenty-five hour National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative.  I later completed the accredited Training for Adoption Competency Program (TAC) in 2023; this comprehensive six-month program focused on key clinical skills to support adopted youth and their families.

Being part of an adoption kinship network can be complicated.  One may feel an extraordinary amount of love, but also suffer great loss.  Many adopted kids feel the loss, but do not understand it nor know how to articulate it.  Who am I? Why was I given up? Was it my fault?

As I developed my work with adopted youth, I witnessed the added pressures of adopted teens. They not only must negotiate the complicated adolescent years, but also navigate that path with the unique experience of having been relinquished by one’s birth family while being raised in a adoptive family.  I distinctly remember one young teen telling me that he felt like the '“chicken thigh”, his version of the part of the chicken that no one wanted.  His experience deeply moved me and I worked with him to acknowledge his feelings of loss while also helping him repair his wounded sense of self. 

An essential piece of the adoption equation is to help adoptive parents   understand their child's struggles. When a child feels sad or confused about being adopted it is not a rejection of their adopted family.  Sometimes there can be a disconnect between adoptive parents’ enthusiasm to receive their adopted child and the acknowledgement and awareness that deep loss inherently accompanies an adopted child. I work hard to help parents understand the layers of emotions that are part of the beautiful, yet complex, adoption experience.