I am a qualified Psychotherapist & Supervisor and currently work in private practice in Dublin City-Centre.
I provide adoption support, Counselling and Psychotherapy for birth mothers, adopted adults and adoptive parents.
I worked as a volunteer counsellor for Barnardos Post Adoption Service seeing adopted adults for individual counselling sessions. I also assisted the project leader in parent training and support groups for adult adoptees. More recently I completed my MSc dissertation on adoption: Developing a sense of self as an adopted person. In addition, my work in primary schools includes engaging with adoptive and foster families around school and family issues. Overall, I have extensive experience in working with questions related to adoption, domestic adoption and inter-country adoption.
Common themes adopted adults talk about in therapy are:
• Questions about birth family members.
• Feelings of not belonging or feeling different - unlike everyone else they know.
• Questions about identity / feelings of confusion about identity.
• Feelings of shame about disclosing feelings about being adopted.
• Some adopted people have a desire to search for and have contact with your birth family.
• Many adopted people feel guilt based on a belief that their need to search for birth family conflicts with their connection with their adoptive family.
• Questions, hopes and fears about reunion.
• Conflicting feelings about making contact with birth family members.
• Fear of rejection by birth family members after contact was made.
• How do I tell my family that I have made contact with birth relatives? How do I tell my children about it.
• Adoptees born abroad (inter-country adoption, inter-racial adoption) may have questions about their cultural background, ethnic identity, racial identity, or racism.
Counselling & Psychothearpy can help you to start talking about general concerns, confusing emotions or anxieties related to the adoption, tracing and reunion.
