Adoption impacts adoptees throughout their lives. Informed by her experience as an adoptee from a domestic, closed adoption, and in reunion with her birth family, Joanne uses her extensive training in trauma and relationships to help adult adoptees process grief, loss, and feelings of abandonment. Joanne can also help adoptees change life pattern issues that developed from the experience and trauma of adoption and navigate the joys, pain, and complications that are part of the reunion process.

Common Issues Adoptees Experience

Feelings of loss, rejection, abandonment, grief, and guilt
Confusion about or disconnected to one’s identity
Issues with intimacy, trust, and attachment
Low self-esteem
Guilt, confusion, and anxiety about the search process

What can you expect

Working with an adoption competent therapist means that in addition to clinical training, Joanne understands:

The impact that adoption has on an adoptee throughout the life span
How adoption affects attachment
The role that loss and grief plays in the adoptee’s life
The psychology of search and reunion
An understanding of the issues transracial, transcultural, and sexual minorities experience as adoptees
How abuse and neglect impact development
Cultural trends and perspectives of adoption and how they impact the adoptee.