Parent Educators & Family Coaches

In search of adoption counseling, family counseling or individual counseling? Read the "profiles" on these experts and after you speak to two or three, choose one that you feel best fits your needs!

Professionals are listed alphabetically by last name.

Adoption Counseling & Educational Services (ACES)

info@adoptioncounselingservices.com

Individual therapists numbers can be found at

http://www.adoptioncounselingservices.com/locations.html

Washington Office (Longview) 503-680-8064

www.adoptioncounselingservices.com

In addition to our counselors' academic credentials and training, each therapist affiliated with ACES, has earned a one year post-graduate certificate in Adoption Therapy.  

Areas served in Oregon include Portland, Beaverton, Dundee and Gresham. Vancouver, Washington can be served as well. This group of clinicians has the ability to provide in home services.

Services provided include counseling and workshops. Therapists work with children adopted internationally as well as children who spent time in state care. Services provided for birth mothers, adults who were adopted and adoptive parents

Philosophy: Adoption can be a wonderful way to build a family.  It can also be challenging.  Adoption Counseling & Educational Services (ACES) is an affiliation of mental health practitioners united in the goal of providing quality services for adoptive families.

ACES' adoption therapists respect and acknowledge that each family is unique.  We
encourage parents to draw on their strengths and abilities, at the same time we help
children explore grief, loss, attachment and identity issues.  Our philosophy is one of
helping families to move from coping with life, to living life joyously as a fully
integrated family.  

Free parent support groups provided.

Suzanne Engelberg, PhD

License-WA1948

206-542-7516 ext.105

Drengelberg@gmail.com

18532 Firlands Way N, Suite A Shoreline, WA 98133

Dr. Engelberg is a Licensed Clinical Child Psychologist with nearly 20 years experience working with adopted children and their families. Her specialty is addressing childhood and family difficulties impacted by adoption. She has additional expertise with multi-cultural families and families with lesbian or gay parents.

Dr. Engelberg is a past Senior Clinician for the Adoption Resource Center of Children’s Home Society of Washington, and past Coordinator of the Jewish Adoption Consultation, Information and Referral Service of Jewish Family Service. She is a former school counselor and school psychologist, as well as a popular workshop leader on topics of child development, parenting and school difficulties. Dr. Engelberg’s advice has been quoted in national teen magazines.

Dr. Engelberg offers Education and Coaching to parents seeking information and guidance on their child’s or family’s situation. She also offers short-term consultations to parents with questions about adoption-related issues such as relationships with birth family, identity, adoption issues at school, etc. In addition, Dr. Engelberg provides therapy to parents, families and children.

Dr. Engelberg says, “Sometimes we know that our old way of doing things is not working, but we don’t yet know a better way. My role is to help you learn a more effective way to be the parent you want to be. I do this by helping you better understand your child and your situation, and then use this new understanding to create a solution tailored to your family.”

“My therapy style is very collaborative. You are an equal partner in our work together. I will listen non-judgmentally to your concerns and ideas. Together we will develop a plan to reach your goals.”

Dr. Engelberg also provides Therapy Services, Training/Workshop Facilitator Services and Pre-Adoption Consultation Services.

Katie Stallman, LICSW, CGE

LW 00005340

Seattle, WA
206-240-4185

katiestallman@yahoo.com

Katie has been a practicing clinician for nearly 12 years and a passionate advocate for children and families impacted by adoption and foster care for the past 20 years. She received her Master of Social Work degree from Washington University in 1998 and became a licensed clinician in 2000. Since then, she has worked in both public and private child welfare settings providing case management and therapeutic services to both children and families. She has experience providing individual, group and family therapy to children and birth families in the foster care system. In that role, she also provided foster parents with extensive education and support. She also worked at an open adoption agency for nearly eight years providing education, and both pre and post placement support services to birth and adoptive parents. She counseled birth and adoptive families on issues related to parenting, transitions, grief, loss, attachment, conflict-management, and communication. She expects to complete the Certificate Program in Foster Care and Adoption Therapy in March of 2011 and will be available to provide more therapeutic services at that time.

Currently, Katie is a facilitator of the Bringing Baby Home Workshop ™. When Katie became a parent two years ago, she participated in this workshop which was developed and based upon the 30 + years of marital research by Drs. John and Julie Gottman. Amazed by the skills she and her partner learned, she became certified to teach it and added some additional curriculum to make the workshop more salient for adoptive parents. For more information about the workshop please go to http://bbhonline.org/.

This workshop is a two-day workshop generally occurring on consecutive Saturdays or Sundays. Adoptive and foster families parenting or expecting to parent children up to the age of two are welcome to attend, though some materials are more specific to those parenting children under the age of one. Workshops can be scheduled upon request and are currently scheduled for February 12th and 19th and May 7th and 14th.

Workshop participants can expect to learn how to:
Increase friendship in their relationship
Deal effectively with conflict
Allow each partner to be involved in parenting
Improve the quality of parent/child interaction
Recognize the psychological and emotional needs of their child

Workshop participants will also discuss issues related to attachment, post-adoption depression, and how to more effectively manage the additional stressors inherent in the process of adoption.

To register or for additional information, please contact Katie at katiestallman@yahoo.com

Madeleine “Mayda” F. Taney, MA, LMHC, ATR-BC

LH00010 651
Inner Well Counseling & Art Therapy
info@innerwellcounseling.com
206-304-1954

824 S. 309th Pl.
Federal Way, WA 98003

Mayda offers support and education by teaching parents to provide more structure and routine and have consistent and realistic expectations while gaining a solid understanding of their child’s developmental needs and diagnosis.

Mayda possesses a unique combination of expertise with 14 years as a special education teacher and her clinical degree and experience. Because of this expertise, she is extraordinarily equipped to consult with and coach parents in navigating and negotiating the educational system on behalf of their children. She can educate and assist parents with Individualized Educational Plans (IEP’s); 504 plans; educational testing and the results and advocacy in behalf of children.

In her work as an educator, Mayda has worked with children and families brought together by domestic and international adoption as well as kinship adoption. She has had the opportunity to work with families of many cultures and configurations.

Mayda also provides Counseling/Therapy services and Educational Consulting services.