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Adoption After Infertility
Ambiguous Loss and Birth of the Family
Approximately 80 percent of all couples who become adoptive parents have struggled with infertility. Infertility can feel like a betrayal of the body. Disappointment, loss, and shame are common experiences for those experiencing infertility. Infertility is a loss and one that needs to be adequately grieved. Adoption is often born out of a loss but it is also a birth - birth of a family. This lecture will address ambiguous loss and its impact on the patient. And grief, if experienced and properly processed with the therapist, can empower our clients to become stronger individuals. In therapy, examined grief can further character development and integration. This growth can enhance self-acceptance and one’s ability to embrace the vulnerable self. Stronger individuals and wiser parents naturally arise from this work.
Learning Objectives:
As a result of participation in this event, participants should be able to:
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Highlight treatment considerations when working with couples and individuals going through the adoption process, specifically cases where there has been infertility.
- Explore how the clinician’s own losses, if sufficiently processed, can help empower the patient to see their losses as a strength.
- Expand our definition of family and reimagine adoption as a story of rebirth.
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