It is very common for families to need support before and after adoption. Pre and post adoption services can help families with a wide range of issues. Experience with past adoptive families has shown that all family members can benefit from receiving some type of pre and post-adoption support. Nightlight offers unlimited free counseling to birth parents who have placed for adoption with us, and for all birth parents on a sliding scale. Counseling services are available to adoptive families. To get connected with adoption related counseling, call (512) 717-4433 or email heather@nightlight.org.
Pre-Adoption Counseling:
Entering into the adoption process can be frightening, and some people feel they need a sense of balance and certainty. Counseling can help. In addition, sometimes families have issues that must be resolved before the integration of a child, who may have emotional and behavioral needs that could be challenging for even the most stable family. This counseling can help you focus on your specific needs, such as family-of-origin issues or having experienced abuse.
These needs can be met through: Educational Workshops, Support Groups, and Family Counseling Services
Post-Adoption Counseling regarding:
Loss and Grief
Trust and Attachment Related Issues
Identity Formation
Family Dynamics and Adoption Adjustment
Connection to the Birth Family
Difficulties that children who were in out-of-home care before adoption experience
Depression and Anxiety
Stress Management
Behavioral/Emotional Difficulties
Developmental/Learning Concerns
Trauma, Abuse, or Neglect
Sibling Issues and Attachment
Nutritional, Eating, and Sleep Issues
Often children who have come from foster homes or orphanages have special nutritional needs as well as issues with food. Meals are at least a three-times a day event, so the relationship your child has with food can often affect your child’s attachment with you as well as their overall physical growth and health. Many families need help with food-related issues.
Sleep is also an everyday event, and parents can often become exacerbated when their child has difficulty sleeping. We can help provide you with some practical tips as well as determine if there may be more serious issues at hand.
Other Post-Adoption Counseling
Coaching
Some families do not need counseling or therapy, but rather need coaching on how to handle the day-to-day behavioral issues of a child who may have had a harder start in life. Phone/Skype counseling and in home consultations in which suggestions and resources are provided can assist with that. Coaching can help parents with the following:
Feeding issues, sleep problems, managing behavioral problems at school and at home, and working as a team with your spouse.
Post Adoption Counseling
Nightlight offers in-person counseling at all of our 10 offices. We also offer video counseling to people living anywhere.
Fees on sliding scale from $50 to $125/hour based on income.