The Benefits of Post-Adoption Counseling

Welcoming a new child into a family changes that family irrevocably, in amazing and often unforeseen ways. It’s a big decision and likely one of the most important decisions you will ever make. By the time your adopted child is officially home, you’ve filled out countless forms, had many meetings with the adoption agency, and are more than eager to start your journey as a family, so post-adoption counseling is probably furthest from your mind.

Parenting, whether by adoption or otherwise, is a lifelong commitment with unique challenges that need to be overcome creatively. Every family’s adoption journey is unique, but finding post-adoption support can help you thrive as a family. That could be in the form of an adoption support group, as well as podcasts and other online resources that can help you with tips. Likewise, an adoptive family can make use of individual therapeutic counseling.

Post-adoption counseling: The basics

A family that’s adopted or is still considering adopting can approach a counselor with expertise and experience in family counseling services which deal particularly with adopted children. Whether your adoptive children are older or young, there are therapeutic approaches that are appropriate to different age groups, and your counselor will know how best to work with them.

Your counselor may meet with the parents alone, the child alone, or the family as a whole, depending on the circumstances. The sessions would be for around an hour, and there may be several sessions depending on what is being addressed. Counseling aims to address common issues that arise in adoptive families, including understanding how to build a cohesive family and effectively parent in a loving way.

Benefits of family post-adoption counseling

After you’ve adopted, the journey has just begun. It can be daunting to begin the day-to-day task of parenting this child you’ve hoped for and brought into your home. That’s okay. Post-adoption counseling offers significant benefits to the adoptive family as well as the birth family. Post-adoption counseling provides a safe and supportive environment to address the unique challenges and opportunities that often arise in adoption.

Further, post-adoption counseling empowers families to build strong, healthy relationships in the family, and it promotes a deeper understanding of the complexities of adoption. Some of the benefits of undertaking post-adoption include:

Receiving emotional support

You and your family may need space to process the complex emotions that adoption can stir up, as well as room to understand and adjust to new family dynamics.

Identity formation

Counseling provides opportunities for you and your child to explore their identity and cultural heritage, as well as nurture their sense of belonging. Counseling can also be a safe space to connect with your adoptive child’s cultural heritage and birth family roots.

Attachment and bonding

It can take time to form meaningful bonds within an adoptive family, and it takes creativity such as fashioning new traditions and celebrating each child uniquely to have a sense of cohesion. Counseling can help strengthen the relationships between family members, as well as identify any attachment or bonding issues that might be at play.

Processing grief and loss

While an adoption is a happy thing, it’s wise to be cognizant of its realities such as birth family separation, cultural loss, and other adoption-related losses.

Developing communication skills

Counseling can help a family to understand their communication styles and help them to develop healthy communication strategies and ways of addressing concerns constructively.

Engaging past trauma and building resilience

If your child has experienced trauma such as abuse in their previous home, that can affect them deeply. Counseling can provide parents with tools to support their child, and it can help the child to process the trauma, and develop coping strategies, as well as emotional resilience to face challenges.

Unpacking family dynamics

Counseling can help a family make sense of and navigate the complex family relationships and dynamics in which they are participating. There may be issues of resentment from the biological children, or insecurity in the adoptive children, as well as knowing how to provide safety and love for everyone in a diverse family with widely varying needs.

Among what may be broadly termed “family dynamics” is knowing how to navigate relationships and boundaries when it’s an open adoption.

Where to access counseling

Bringing a child into a family is the start of a wonderful adventure. You and your family can prepare for that adventure both before and after welcoming your child into the family by going for counseling. A counselor who is trained and experienced in helping foster and adoptive families can walk with you to work through any issues so that you can build a strong and healthy family.

Reach out to us at Rowlett Christian Counseling in Texas today and we will schedule a session with a therapist in Rowlett, Texas with specific experience in adoption issues. You never have to walk alone in your adoption journey.