Adoption Counseling Services – Why It’s Necessary and Where You Can Find It

There is no denying that adoption is one of the most joyous, rewarding, and fulfilling journeys a growing family can experience. However, as any Oklahoma adoption family or birth mother knows, adoption is an incredibly convoluted, emotional, and complex process that can leave both sides feeling lost and mentally drained.

 As lonely and scary as it can be for each side of the adoption process, Deaconess Pregnancy & Adoption offers counseling services to help you solidify an aligned, peaceful, and happy future. Counseling services from an agency you trust can significantly help you cope with the realities of adoption in a way that makes sense for you and your unique situation.  

The Hidden Negative Impacts of Adoption

 Adoption may be beautiful and filled with immense love for a child, but it can also instill some deeply rooted feelings and emotions that are far too often left under the radar. Even more, when left untreated these challenges can continue to manifest larger problems down the road. Some of those hidden impacts include things such as:

• Emotional depletion
• Loneliness and isolation
• Depression and heightened anxiety
• Low self-esteem and lack of confidence
• Feelings of neglect and surfacing of past traumas
• Transitional and new life-balancing challenges
• Imposter syndrome amongst the new parents
• Sense of grief and loss for the birth mother/family
• Spouse dynamics, connection, and communication concerns

 The fact of the matter is, there are many underlying impacts and obstacles that can arise while going through the adoption process. It is not a one-size-fits-all scenario, and it is okay if you resonate with some of the impacts above and not others. This is where adoption counseling outlets and coinciding counseling services come into play, as these professionals are able to offer you fully tailorable support and evidence-based solutions to help you not only overcome your own adoption roadblocks, but ultimately thrive. 

How Deaconess Post/Pre-Adoption Counseling Services Can Help

 Deaconess Adoption counseling therapists in Oklahoma are highly diversified when it comes to offering the right solutions, guidance, and facilitation you need to feel prepared and succeed through your adoption journey. This can often entail simply being a supportive ear that allows you to vent your frustrations to more complex counseling services such as birth mother and adoptive family relationship- building to help both spearhead the 5-stages of grief and optimize closure for both parties. Post/pre-adoption counseling services can provide:

• Logistical support and adoption plan development
• Remediation with behavioral and psychological issues
• Healthy coping mechanisms to combat feelings of separation and loss
• Sustainable, actionable steps to help move you forward
• Support to help you evaluate and rectify any underlying issues at the core
• Rich connection and bonding support to accentuate the family system
• Emotional and unbiased outlet to release built-up emotional tension

In the case of adoptive families, counseling is a positive way to prepare other children in your home to welcome a new member of the family and offer tools to adjust to a new sibling.  Whatever the case may be for you, have the peace of mind knowing that adoption counseling is highly flexible and can be carefully tailored to your specific needs, situation and family goals.  This may involve solo counseling, group counseling, family counseling or a mixture of all three using an array of vetted cognitive approaches and practices. 

The more commonly used approaches involve (but are not limited to) interpersonal counseling, mindfulness-based, rational emotive therapy, CBT, and psychodynamic counseling.

Summary – Getting The Adoption Counseling Support You Deserve

 Overall, it is perfectly natural to encounter waves of emotional and wellness turbulence when it comes to adoption. After all, your world completely changes regardless of the adoption side you’re on, which can certainly provoke mixed emotions that are hard to manage internally. Whether you’re an adoptive family trying to find balance in your new life or a birth mother consumed by grief/sense of loss, you never have to navigate these feelings and realities on your own.

Designed on a foundation of integrity and love, Deaconess Pregnancy & Adoption is a renowned Oklahoma adoption agency that has supported thousands of families and birth mothers in overcoming the emotional, mental, and physical challenges of adoption. From counseling services ranging from support groups, one-on-one adoption counseling to alternative therapy methods, you can gain all the fundamental support and tailored guidance necessary to help you thrive now and in the future. In the end, be patient with yourself, remind yourself that seeking help is not a sign of weakness, and above all, always remember that you never have to venture the adoption journey alone.