Resources and Support
Supporting Every Child, Every Family, Every Step of the Way
Our involvement with those we serve does not end when parents and children become a family. At Adoptions Together, we are committed to providing the guidance and education needed to help you create and maintain a healthy, happy family. Adoption is a lifelong process which affects us in different ways as we move through stages in our lives. Families whose lives have been touched by adoption or foster care may want or need additional support, education, and other services as their children grow.
Adoptions Together offers a comprehensive range of services to help individuals and families enhance their awareness and understanding of themselves and others, develop their strengths, create more fulfilling relationships, and deal with their stresses and life challenges more effectively.
Many adoptees experience loss, grief, and anger at some point. These feelings may be exhibited in different ways during a child's development, but trust and attachment challenges are often a causal factor. Some children who have been placed from foster care or children with histories of abuse, neglect, or institutionalization prior to joining their adoptive families may have attachment challenges that make it difficult to trust their loving parents. Specific treatment strategies have been found to be especially helpful, and Adoptions Together has the expertise to help you put these strategies into practice.
Post-adoption services may be needed at any point, and sometimes not until years after an adoption has been finalized. Post-adoption services help families effectively navigate a wide range of challenges such as explaining adoption to the child, helping with adoption-related developmental concerns, and addressing identity issues in adolescence and young adulthood. Identity issues are faced by every child, but sometimes they are even more troublesome for adopted children, especially transracial and transcultural adoptees.
Family Counseling and Support Groups
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Counseling - Our master’s-level mental health professionals provide adoption-competent counseling services to individuals, couples, and families. With expertise in child development, family dynamics, attachment, and trauma, our therapists employ a tailored approach that emphasizes wellness and connectedness to others. Services are available at locations throughout Baltimore, the Washington DC metropolitan area, and Northern Virginia.
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Phone Coaching - Sometimes all it takes is a phone call. Phone coaching is for all parents, whether you are a parent by birth, adoption, or kinship. If you are a busy parent who doesn't have time to spend in a therapist's office, our parenting coach is available by phone for support, guidance, and advice.
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Support Groups - Our counselors offer group counseling and support group sessions to work with families after adoption. Facilitated by licensed social workers in a comfortable environment, groups help parents refuel and recharge while sharing parenting information, strategies, and resources.
Family Services in DC for Adoptive, Kinship, and Guardianship Families
Services are provided free of charge to all families caring for children from the District of Columbia foster care system through the Post Permanency Family Center. Services are focused on keeping families healthy and resilient. The Post Permanency Family Center’s services include:
- Crisis intervention
- Family and Individual counseling
- Support groups for youth and families
- Training for parents and professionals
- Case management and advocacy
- General information and referral services
Respite Care
Adoptions Together offers therapeutic full-day Saturday respite programs to help ensure that families stay strong as they face the challenges that come with parenting a child with differing challenges. Our programs help children to build positive relationships with peers, improving their self-esteem, confidence, and social skills. Our respite programs also provide parents with the opportunity to examine their own emotional health, and gain strategies to navigate arising challenges.
Reunification Mentoring
The Adoptions Together Parent Advocate Program provides intensive, in-home, one-on-one mentoring support and guidance to parents whose children have been removed from the home and placed in the foster care system. Each advocate is a parent who has successfully achieved reunification after having a child placed in foster care. Our advocates work with parents to establish collaborative relationships with community resources to obtain services that will expedite reunification with their children.