Post-Placement Counseling and Birth Mother Support After Adoption
You are a birth mother who is deciding to put your child up for adoption in Colorado. This decision is a lot to take in and can affect you emotionally and physically. You may be wondering how you will be able to find the right adoptive family. There are pressures and questions to think about for this adoption journey to work in your favor. At Adoption Choices of Colorado, we help make this experience as simple and easy as possible. We provide post-placement counseling and birth mother support to help you get through this time.
If you need adoption help now, please call or text us at 303-670-4673 (HOPE) or visit us at Adoption Choices of Colorado.
Post-Placement Counseling
Lifetime Healing is a company that is working with Adoption Choices of Colorado to provide a place of healing. According to president Ashley Mitchell, post-place counseling is free and for a lifetime. It doesn’t matter if you are twenty or fifty years old. The counseling service is here for you. Women all over the state of Colorado are welcome to use our adoption counseling services.
Birth Mother Support Group
Adoption Choices of Colorado has birth mother support groups in place, these support groups happen every month. Even if you are a birth mother who hasn’t chosen adoption or even the Adoption Choices of Colorado, all women are welcome. It doesn’t matter what age you are or if you have already given birth to your child. If you want to be part of a community of birth mothers who relate to your situation, you are welcome. A birth mother support group is free in the state of Colorado and is a place of healing and getting out of isolation. Being pregnant and planning to place your baby for adoption is an emotionally draining experience. What better way to heal before and after the pregnancy than to talk openly about your adoption plan and concerns you have. A support group gives you a sense of community and talks to people going through a similar situation.
Reasons Why You Need Post-Placement Counseling and Birth Mother Support
- First Step to Healing- Sometimes, you feel that as a birth mother, you have to do it all on your own. This decision is painful to make. The truth is, you can ask for help. This is your child’s future. Once you take that first step into accepting your choice for what it is, you can start healing your heart. Deep down, it may hurt, but the decision was for your child’s future happiness and to find your own happiness too.
- Process Your Grief and Happiness- Once your child is officially part of the adopted family, you may feel various emotions, one of them being grief. You may be feeling fragments of guilt and shame for this adoption choice. However, there is no shame in doing what’s best for you. Counseling and birth mother support can help you sort out your grief and to go through it as long as you need it in a healthy way. Your happiness is in reach. With time you can center yourself and find it again.
- Improve Concentration on Adoption Process- During your adoption process, there are several things that need to get done. You have to choose the kind of adoption you want and learn about all the possible adoptive families out there. This requires your concentration, the decision is yours to make. It can get overwhelming, and having a counselor to talk to can lift that weight off your shoulders. Having an ear to listen to your concerns about the adoption and what it entails can help. This can improve better decision-making and less stress.
- Improve Physical and Emotional Health- Creating an adoption plan, processing your decisions for the child, and learning about adoptive families can be tough. You may be indecisive about your choice, grieving, or moving nonstop like a headless chicken. Being panicked or nervous about all the things the adoption plan requires is normal and common stress. However, we can help with your physical and emotional health with birth mother support and counseling. Our priority is physically assisting with financial aid for medical checkups and any other needs that can keep your baby and yourself safe. Counseling can help you center the origin of your emotions through this process. Our birth mother support group is an opportunity to learn skills of love, acceptance, and voicing your troubles to a professional who understands. What better way than having birth mothers like you to lean on who are also going through the adoption process.
Finding Birth Mother Support Through Counseling
Counseling provides a safe one-on-one discussion about the deeper unaware feelings you may have. It’s an opportunity for validating your self-worth and decisions but also helping you challenge yourself to heal. There is no proper timeline for healing. Go at your own pace, and discover what triggers you. Your grief of placing your child for a Denver adoption is something that can occur before and after pregnancy. Learning ways to cope and love yourself is through our counseling programs. We set you up with one of our adoption counselors, and you can share your concerns, worries, regrets, and fears. There is no wrong way to do this, and seeking help is not a weakness. You are a birth mother who had to make a choice, and you chose your child’s happiness. Now it is time to think about your own happiness, a way to move forward.
If you are facing an unplanned pregnancy and want to learn more about your adoption options, contact Adoption Choices of Colorado by email, phone, or text: Email Us, Text us: 720-371-1099, Call us: 303-670-4673 (HOPE). If you are hoping to adopt, please contact us here.
Meet the Author: Gabrielle Maya is a recent graduate from New Jersey City University, earning her Bachelor of English Creative Writing and Minor in Women’s Gender Studies. She specializes in writing about topics regarding women, pop culture, books, and DIYs. Her blogs and articles have appeared on The Red Eye Media Group, Kiss and Tell Magazine, and Bookstr. She has also written poetry and flash fiction for New Jersey City University’s online Hype Magazine. Gabrielle also has a bookstagram where she posts daily reads. She enjoys streaming her favorite Korean Dramas, Anime. She is a bookworm to the core, reading several titles a week ranging from fantasy, poetry, fiction, and dystopian. She is social media savvy and creates visual content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram. She loves analyzing novels and having open, controversial conversations. Her writing is geared towards women because of her past insecurities with her body and voice. Gabrielle is a quick learner and open to writing any type of content.
Stephanie joined the Adoption Choices family in 2014 as the Child Placement Supervisor. Her love for adoption began in first grade when she made friends with twins adopted from Vietnam. Her heart grew strong over the years for adopted children and ultimately led her to graduate school where she continued her focus to her dream of working in the adoption field. Stephanie earned a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver in 2001. Over the past 15 years, Stephanie has worked as a pregnancy counselor and as an adoptive parent counselor for foster care, international adoption and domestic adoption, writing hundreds of home studies for families, and helping build their forever families. Stephanie is married and has three boys ages 12, 9, and 5. Together with her family she enjoys riding bike, playing games, watching her three sons compete in their various sporting and musical activities and go on vacations.
Christy Ikeler, is our Executive Director and Birth Parent Director. Christy has been with Adoption Choices Team for 18 years, since opening the doors in 2002! Christy has a true passion for what she does and her true love is working with and helping each birth parent. Whether she is up all night on the phone talking with them, taking them to doctors appointments, out for their favorite treat, providing counseling or at the hospital during labor and delivery, Christy is very involved every step of the way. She has a contagious laugh and a spunky personality that our birth moms all can bond with and relate to. As an adoptive parent herself, adoption holds a very special place in her heart and she can relate on every level with both birth parents and adoptive parents. In her free time Christy loves spending time with her daughter, gardening, baking and taking vacations with her family. Christy is an excellent leader for our team at Adoption Choices and is truly one of a kind!! As Executive Director, Christy spends time with the staff, birth parents and adoptive families in order to ensure that the agency is running smoothly. She has placed a huge emphasis on community outreach and programs for birth parents. Christy loves the opportunity to lead the agency into a brighter future.
Ms. Mackenzie has built a successful counseling career over the past 20 years, supporting mothers and families, people of all ages and genders, students, community professionals and fellow clinicians. Liv values a diverse professional focus, including the entrepreneurial life of a sole proprietor, the evaluative process of certifying foster/adoptive homes, the insightful and mindful one-on-one one work with enthusiastic clients, and serving as an advocate for underserved populations. Liv is a Licensed Professional Counselor and holds a BA in Pre-Law and Economics from American University, an MA in Counseling from Adams University and a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University. Away from work you will find Liv spending time in nature, biking to the farmer’s market and adventuring with her family.
Catherine A. Madsen, joined the Adoption Choices family as legal counsel in 2013. Catherine is responsible for providing legal guidance to the Agency, training and updating staff on developments in adoption law and legislation, and program development. Catherine
Virginia Frank is an adoption attorney accredited since 1991 with the American Academy of Adoption Attorneys. Ms. Frank is a leader in the field of private adoption and has completed over 4,000 adoptions in her career. Ms. Frank has a law degree from Oklahoma City University and a BA in both Political Science and Communications from the University of Oklahoma.
Cassidie has been with Adoption Choices since 2015, she has her bachelors in Interdisciplinary Affairs with concentrations in both Sociology and Business Management. Cassidie has additional training in Victim Advocacy, foster care and has been working in women’s services for over 10 years. Cassidie has always had a heart for adoption and it was her career dream to work in adoption. She started off doing volunteer work for advocacy programs, adoption organizations and worked in High Risk Maternal Fetal Medicine through the University of Colorado Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Colorado. Cassidie is also blessed to have personally experienced an adoption of her own in 2012, completing her family of five! Cassidie loves what she does as a case worker from initial phone calls, meetings, doctor appointments, interaction with the adoptive families to delivery and counseling. Cassidie has a passion for those in need and strives to help make a difference in the lives of the people she meets. She is a firm believer in being kind, compassionate and open minded in all situations. “Unless you’ve walked in their shoes, there’s no place for judgment. A kind word or compliment can go a long way!” The bittersweet moments in adoption reminds Cassidie each and every time, why she loves what she does!