What is adoption therapy?
Adoption is the legal procedure that allows a child without biological parents or legal guardians to acquire legal parents and become part of a new family. Thus, it means for many parents to form a family with a non-biological child and to fulfill their desire to be parents or to extend the family, as well as to give a home to a child who does not have one.
When a child is adopted, he or she undergoes major and sudden changes that will rapidly change his or her life. For this reason, some children require specialists who know how to guide this stage of psychological growth to make it as normalized as possible.
Adoption allows many people to fulfill their desire to form a family and give a home to children who do not have one.
Why is it done?
Adoption is a process full of changes for the child and parents, as well as being one of the most important contexts of their lives. Many parents have questions about how to talk to their children about adoption, while children face a number of challenges: coping with the idea of adoption and developing attachments to a new family can trigger identity issues and personality disorders.
Children may also feel lost in a new environment and feel different from their peers, which can also influence their social relationships.
Emotional health in childhood and adolescence is fundamental, as these are the stages of personal growth and development, in which the child forms his or her personality and values for the future. Therefore, it is important to provide psychological support to children, so that they can grow and develop with good mental health.
What does it consist of?
Psychological work in adoption settings may take the form of family therapy, or focus solely on the child or adolescent. In general, consultations and therapies in psychology in relation to adoption usually respond to three types of conflict:
- Educational guidelines: help to parents of adoptive children in relation to their education and personal growth, in the same way as would be done with a biological child, to prevent problems that may arise.
- Family problems: family counseling when more serious problems arise, such as behavioral or disciplinary problems, or when possible mental health disorders are detected in the child, such as addictions or phobias, among others.
- Search for origins: finally, they also support children and adolescents who present identity problems, who face the uncertainty of having an unknown family or those who are searching for their biological origins.