Adoptee Therapy Across the Lifespan in Washington State
This practice was previously known as adopteefocusedtherapy.com and continues to provide specialized adoption-informed care under the broader Aurenza Therapy umbrella.
Adoption shapes identity, attachment, belonging, and emotional life in ways that are deeply personal and often misunderstood.
Whether you are navigating these questions as a child, adolescent, or adult, therapy can offer space to explore your story with curiosity, safety, and care.
At Aurenza Therapy, adoptee-focused therapy centers relational healing, identity development, and culturally responsive care across the lifespan.
Who This Work Supports
This work supports:
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Child and teen adoptees navigating identity and developmental transitions
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Adult adoptees exploring identity, belonging, and relational patterns
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Transracial and transcultural adoptees exploring race, culture, and heritage
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Adoptees navigating search and reunion experiences
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Adoptees processing grief, loss, or complex family dynamics
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Adoptees exploring relationship and attachment patterns
Understanding Adoption, Identity, and Belonging
Adoption is not a single event but an ongoing lived experience that can shape identity, attachment, and belonging across the lifespan.
Common themes adoptees may explore in therapy include:
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Identity development and self-understanding
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Attachment and relational safety
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Loss and ambiguous grief
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Cultural and racial identity
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Family dynamics across adoptive and biological systems
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Shame, secrecy, or feeling different
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Navigating life transitions as an adoptee
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Understanding how social systems and power dynamics shape adoption experiences
A Developmental View of Adoptee Awareness
Contemporary adoptee scholarship, including the Adoptee Consciousness Model (Branco, Kim, & Newton, 2024), understands adoptee awareness as an evolving, developmental process. Rather than a single moment of “waking up,” adoptee consciousness unfolds across the lifespan as individuals integrate personal history, relational dynamics, systemic context, and identity meaning.Our work together honors wherever you are in that process — whether you are just beginning to ask new questions or have long held a deeply politicized understanding of adoption.
What Working Together Can Look Like
Therapy is tailored to each individual and the relational systems they move within.
Sessions may involve:
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Exploring identity narratives
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Processing relational experiences
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Building emotional regulation skills
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Strengthening communication and relational safety
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Supporting integration of cultural and family identity
Therapy for Adoptees at Different Life Stages
Adoption can emerge differently across development.
For Youth and Adolescents
Therapy may focus on identity formation, emotional regulation, school transitions, peer relationships, and family communication.
For Adults
Therapy often explores relational patterns, belonging, attachment experiences, identity integration, and navigating search or reunion processes.
Relational and Identity-Centered Therapy
My therapeutic approach integrates:
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Attachment-informed therapy
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Trauma-informed care
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Identity-centered and culturally responsive therapy
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Relational and systemic therapy perspectives
This work is collaborative, affirming, and grounded in honoring lived experience.
Adoption does not occur in a vacuum. It exists within larger social, cultural, racial, and economic systems that shape who is separated, who adopts, and how stories are told. My work is informed by anti-oppressive, liberation-oriented, and feminist frameworks that recognize power, privilege, and systemic inequities as part of the broader adoption narrative.
This means holding space for the full range of adoptee experience — including gratitude, grief, anger, loyalty conflicts, identity exploration, and critique — without minimizing complexity or forcing a single story.
Therapy can be a space where your lived experience is honored, not simplified.
My perspective is shaped by both professional training and personal lived experience within adoption, allowing me to approach this work with a layered understanding and care.
My work is informed by evolving adoptee-centered frameworks such as the Adoptee Consciousness Model — a research-informed conceptualization that describes how adoptees grow in awareness of identity, systemic context, and relational meaning across the lifespan (Branco, Kim, & Newton, 2024).
Selected Clinical & Scholarly References
Branco, S. F., Kim, J., & Newton, G. (2024). The Adoptee Consciousness Model: Integration with family counseling theory and practice. Journal of Counseling & Development. https://doi.org/10.1177/10664807241290244
Experiences Clients Commonly Describe
Adoptees often begin therapy feeling disconnected from parts of their identity or carrying complex emotions that feel difficult to name. Through therapy, many clients describe developing a more integrated and compassionate understanding of themselves and their life story.
Clients frequently report:
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Greater clarity around identity development and belonging
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Increased ability to process grief, loss, and ambiguity related to adoption
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Reduced internalized shame and increased self-acceptance
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Improved confidence navigating relationships with adoptive, biological, and chosen family members
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Stronger emotional regulation and coping skills
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Increased empowerment when exploring cultural, racial, or biological identity
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Increased capacity to contextualize personal experiences within broader social systems
Each adoptee’s experience is unique, but many clients describe feeling more grounded and authentically connected to themselves over time.
Related Areas of Support
Adoption experiences often intersect with early attachment patterns and relational trauma. Trauma-informed therapy provides space to process emotional regulation challenges and attachment wounds.
Adoptees frequently notice identity and belonging themes emerging within romantic or relational partnerships. Relationship therapy supports partners in understanding attachment dynamics and strengthening emotional security.
For adoptees exploring intersections of sexuality, gender, culture, or racial identity, identity-focused therapy offers affirming and culturally attuned support.
If you live outside Washington State, I offer identity and relationship coaching nationwide and worldwide, providing supportive, growth-focused services that do not require therapy licensure in your state.
Diego Vitelli, LMFT provides adoptee therapy services for clients located throughout Washington State via telehealth.
$175.00 - 50 minute sessions
