Adoption-Related Issues
Helping young adult adoptees to overcome trauma, mental illness, and substance use disorder since 2012.
Specialists in Adoption-Related Treatment
Since our founding in 2012, PACE Recovery has successfully treated many clients who are adopted, which led us to create specialized programming that caters to their unique circumstances, needs and concerns.
The insecure, inconsistent attachment styles adopted people experienced as children can lead to a confusing battle between logic and emotion, which often manifests as anxiety, depression and unhealthy coping mechanisms such as anger and substance use.
PACE Recovery offers specialized services for those who were adopted by their family through our adoption programming. Led by Brett Furst, M.A., MFTI, the program focuses on addressing the underlying causes of mental health issues and addiction while fostering healthy, secure attachment styles in a safe, supportive environment. Furst’s highly specialized expertise in working with adopted people and their families has drawn clients from throughout the country.
Adoption-Related Issues Treated
Lingering attachments are often the biggest source of anxiety or attachment issues, as an adopted person struggles to reconcile a typically traumatic or emotionally inadequate childhood with the fact that they still feel attachment toward those who caused them pain. The clash between logic and emotion can result in a number of issues, including:
- Birth family issues
- Identity issues
- Anxiety and depression
- Emotional dysregulation
- Family communication
- Family cohesion
- Social issues, i.e., “fitting in”
- Attention seeking
- Difficulty connecting with others
- Substance abuse
Therapeutic Approaches to Overcome Attachment Issues
Adoption can perpetuate insecure attachment styles fueled by a fear of rejection, and therefore connection. It’s imperative that therapeutic approaches focus on creating safety for secure attachments and authentic expression not just in the therapy room, but within the entire treatment community.
Support, education and advocacy can show the adopted person that although vulnerability and social fear are normal parts of human interaction and connection, it doesn’t mean rejection and pain are always around the corner.
PACE Recovery’s adoption programming uses several specialized approaches to treat adopted people for the underlying issues that contributed to their substance use or mental health issues, including:
- Gestalt therapy
- Attachment-focused therapy
- Emotion-focused therapy
- Social skills training
- Specialized support groups
We’ll Give You the Tools to Help You Heal
Whether you were adopted or you are an adoptive parent, you are not alone in this. There are resources that can help you heal, like the adoption programming at PACE Recovery. Our unique adoption-specific program can facilitate healing and healthy, productive discussions around adoption, attachment styles and treatment for mental health issues or substance use.
If you’re adopted and struggling with mental health issues or substance use disorder, or if you’re an adoptive parent of a teenager or young adult who is struggling, healing is possible. Call the PACE Recovery Center team at 800-526-1851.
Listen to Our Expert on Adoption and Mental Health, Dr. Brett Furst, Psy.D, LMFT
In this episode of CalPsychiatry Podcast, Dr. Brett discusses his creation of some of the first treatment protocols specific to adult/adolescent adoptees.
Here Dr. Furst is interviewed on Quiver Full Adoptions discussing nature, nurture, addiction and the impact of adoption on the teen and adolescent years.
