Being separated from your first parents and raised in your adoptive family affected you. You may have a good understanding of that, or you may just be starting to wonder about the impact on you of having been relinquished/removed and then adopted.

Talking with someone who understands adoption issues can be a relief. You may feel heard and understood for the first time. That’s why I’m here. As an adoptee myself, I spent years explaining adoption issues to the therapists I saw. So I decided to focus my work on helping others like me.

These are a few issues adoptees commonly experience. See if any of them sound familiar:

• I easily feel rejected or abandoned.
  
• I simultaneously want people close and push them away.
  
• I often feel as though there’s something wrong with me.
  
• I like to be in control.
  
• I often analyze conversations, second-guess what I say and worry I’ve offended someone.
  
• I often feel misunderstood, so I tend to overexplain myself—frequently thinking of one more thing I want to add.
  
• I feel different from everyone else, as though I don’t fit anywhere.
  
• I react strongly to loss.
  

As an adoptee and a therapist, I am specially qualified to help. I have an ear for what may not, at first glance, be an obvious adoption issue. I recognize the nuances of how relinquishment and adoption issues can present themselves.

If you're an adoptive parent wanting help for your child, see the Adoptive Parents page.