A resource for adult adoptees, younger adoptees, and families, with attention to trauma, international adoption, transracial adoption, and cultural identity.
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Find resources · Clinician profiles · Questions to ask · For therapists · Training
Why adoption and cultural competence matter
Adoption can shape identity, relationships, grief, and belonging throughout life. For international and transracial adoptees, support may also need to address racism, separation from language and culture, migration, incomplete records, and search and reunion across borders. An adoption-competent therapist understands these contexts; a culturally responsive therapist listens to how race, culture, and power affect the individual’s experience. Trauma training adds skills for assessment and treatment when trauma is present. These areas of competence complement one another.
Adoptee experiences vary. Care should respect the person’s account, strengths, chosen relationships, and goals, without assuming every adoptee has the same difficulties or expecting gratitude, forgiveness, or reunion. For Black German adoptees and families, questions about a provider’s understanding of anti-Black racism and transnational histories are especially relevant.
Background: Child Welfare Information Gateway on adoption competence and cultural humility; ICAV on lifelong intercountry adoption support.
Directories and starting points
Adoptee-Therapist Directory — Beyond Words
Browse the U.S. directory. Lists providers who identify as adoptees, with populations served and self-reported specialties. It can help readers look for international or transracial adoption experience alongside trauma interests. Listings are voluntarily submitted; adoptee identity and directory inclusion do not establish clinical competence.
Adoption Competence National Directory
Browse the national directory. Identifies professionals who completed C.A.S.E. TAC and/or NTI training. Filters include location and training. Training completion is documented by the directory; its own disclaimer explains that inclusion does not certify clinical skill. Ask separately about adult adoptees, international adoption, and racial trauma.
InterCountry Adoptee Voices — international support
Explore support by country or region. An international starting point for adoptee-led or adoptee-informed services, including European resources. Counselling, peer support, and search services are distinct; not every listing is a regulated mental health service. Confirm qualifications and local practice permissions.
Adoption UK — finding an adoptee-competent therapist
Read the adult adoptee guide. Guidance for adults considering therapy, including adoption-related loss, identity, and relational trauma.
Clinicians with published adoption and trauma interests
The following entries describe evidence available in public profiles. They are an initial, unranked list, primarily of U.S. practitioners. International adoption experience does not mean a practitioner can provide therapy internationally.
Chaitra Wirta-Leiker, PsyD — Beyond Words
Published focus: adoption, trauma, racial identity, and transracial adoption. Her practice biography identifies her as an international adoptee from India and a Colorado psychologist with PSYPACT authorization. Her directory entry lists adult clients and EMDR/Brainspotting interests. Confirm age range, current authorization, and modality training directly. Practice profile · Biography · Directory evidence.
Cam Lee Small, MS, LPCC — Adoption Literacy
Published focus: adoptee-centered counselling for international, transracial, and domestic adoptees, including teens aged 13+, adults, and families. His counselling page addresses grief, trauma, identity, and family relationships, identifies him as a Korean international adoptee, and lists Minnesota and Wisconsin licenses. It describes trauma-sensitive practice; confirm specific trauma-treatment training. Counselling and practice information.
Jadah Petty, PhD — Therapy to Connect
Published focus: the Adoptee-Therapist Directory identifies her as an international/transracial adoptee serving adults, with trauma/PTSD and race-based traumatic stress specialties. Her own practice describes culturally responsive work and attention to discrimination. The site lists California, Illinois, and PSYPACT telehealth access; confirm eligibility directly. Practice biography · Services · Adoption and trauma listing.
Kathryn Perkins / Katy Perkins Coveney, LCSW — FindSelf Counseling
Published focus: adoption, search/reunion, family secrets, abuse recovery, and oppression. Her directory entry specifies transracial/international post-adoption consultation and trauma-related approaches, including EMDR and Brainspotting. Her current team page gives practice locations and permissions. Ask which services are clinical therapy versus consultation. Current practice profile · Directory evidence.
Abby Hasberry, LMFT, LCMFT — Counseling at The Green House
Published focus: transracial adoption, racial identity, racial trauma, and birth/first mothers. Her biography describes training in Brainspotting, Internal Family Systems, and narrative therapy, and identifies her as a transracial adoptee and birth mother. It lists Texas, Michigan, and Maryland. International adoption specialization is not established by this profile. Practice biography and training.
Sharlene DeMartini-Guth, PsyD
Published focus: her professional profile lists adoption and trauma/PTSD among her areas of work, with adult individuals, couples, and groups. She describes integrating hypnotherapy with cognitive behavioral and psychodynamic approaches. Based in Tabernacle, New Jersey, her profile lists virtual appointments. Professional profile and contact information.
Amanda Baden, PhD
Published focus: adoption-sensitive therapy for transracial and transnational adoptees and their families, addressing adoption-related trauma, racial and cultural identity, and birth-family search. Her practice serves children, adolescents, adults, couples, and families, using a social justice and antiracist perspective. Her biography identifies her as an adoptee from Hong Kong and describes her research on adoptee identity development. Her site lists New York and New Jersey licensure and PSYPACT telepsychology authorization; confirm eligibility and current openings directly. Therapy and practice information · Biography and research background.
Questions adoptees and families can ask
What adoption-specific training and supervised experience have you completed? Do you work with adult and older adoptees, international adoptees, and late-discovery adoptees? How do you address racism, cultural loss, and identity? What trauma methods are you trained to use, and how do you assess whether they fit? How do you support search, reunion, estrangement, and uncertainty without directing the client toward a particular outcome?
Ask about confidentiality in family work, disability accommodations, language access, cost, and telehealth rules. A provider’s lived experience may matter to you; ask how it informs their work while leaving room for your different experience.
For therapists: knowledge, practice, and training to explore
The following is BGHRA’s proposed practice focus, informed by the linked adoption-competency and adoptee-led resources. Training should support listening, individualized assessment, cultural humility, and ongoing consultation—not serve as a stand-alone claim of expertise.
An adoptee-centered framework for reflection. Developed by Rosemarie Peña, Ph.D., RCTA–TRACE: Adoption, Culture, and Belonging explores how perceived racial similarity within an adoptive family can obscure crossings of culture, language, citizenship, and kinship. Grounded in Black German adoptee histories, it invites attention to transfer history, racialization, adoption disclosure and records, cultural continuity, and extended kin, with the adoptee’s own account and choices at the center. Therapists can explore it as a conceptual resource for understanding adoption experiences.
What matters in practice
Center the adoptee across the lifespan. Make space for grief, ambivalence, strengths, identity development, late discovery, aging, and relationships with first and adoptive families. Do not reduce adult adoptee work to childhood attachment or adoptive-parent concerns.
Bring race, culture, and history into the room. Explore anti-Black racism, racial isolation, cultural and language disconnection, and power within families and institutions. International adoption may involve migration, citizenship concerns, inaccessible or unreliable records, and cross-border reunion. Seek relevant consultation and distinguish clinical support from legal advice.
Assess trauma without presuming it. Develop skills in trauma assessment, safety, pacing, dissociation, and treatment planning appropriate to the client and your scope. Support autonomy and consent; do not pressure clients into retelling, reunion, forgiveness, or family reconciliation.
Remain accountable. Learn from diverse adult adoptees, use qualified interpreters when needed, seek supervision, disclose limits of competence, and refer collaboratively when those limits affect care.
Training resources to explore
C.A.S.E. National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative (NTI). A free, web-based starting point. The mental health curriculum is 30 hours; its focus includes children, youth, and families. Practitioners working with adult international adoptees should seek additional relevant training and consultation.
C.A.S.E. Training for Adoption Competency (TAC). A longer, assessment-based certificate program with a 72-hour curriculum and embedded clinical case consultation. Explore its content, eligibility, current fees, and continuing-education recognition. A certificate documents training; it does not guarantee fit or proficiency for every adoptee population.
Beyond Words professional training and consultation. Adoptee-informed topics include transracial adoption, racial/cultural identity needs, trauma responses, and first-family connections. Ask about current offerings and whether a session fits adult clinical work or child/family practice.
EMDRIA-approved EMDR training. One trauma-method training pathway for eligible clinicians to explore alongside adoption and cultural competence. Basic training and certification are different; neither establishes adoption expertise or determines whether EMDR is suitable for an individual.
Training-selection questions: Who helped design the course, and are adult adoptees meaningfully represented? Does it address international adoption, anti-Black racism, cultural humility, and ethical power relationships? Does it include supervised application or case consultation? What does its certificate actually attest to?
Resources, not recommendations. BGHRA provides these links for information and independent exploration. Inclusion does not constitute endorsement, referral, or verification of clinical quality. Descriptions reflect the linked providers’ and organizations’ published information, reviewed October 24, 2026. Confirm current professional registration, permission to practice where you are physically located, fees, insurance, accessibility, languages, and availability directly.
Related BGHRA resources: Resources · Black Community & Adoptee Organizations · Recognition and Redress