Young Adults

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, and surrounding areas can be served as well. Longview Washington office now open. 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 parents, 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 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.

Bethany Christian Services

206-367-4604
1800-733-4604

www.bethany.org

bcsseattle@bethany.org

12360 Lake City Way NE, Suite 301, Seattle, WA 98125

103 N State St., Suite 108, Bellingham, WA 98228

5913 SW Westgate Drive, Suite 117, Portland, OR, 97221

Child & Family Counseling Support
Bethany offers both general counseling for adoptive families and specialized trauma informed therapy. Our specially trained and licensed staff of masters level counselors offer a variety of specialized therapies specifically designed to meet the needs of adoptive children.

ADOPTS Program
With our ADOPTS program (Addressing Distress Of Post Traumatic Stress), staff will address the trauma triggers that specifically get in the way of a child connecting to their adoptive parent. Using a wrap around model, staff use group therapy, individual experiential play therapy, family therapy, and parent-child relationship centered therapy to help families in need of support.

At Bethany, our desire is to harness the inherent strengths already naturally built into the relationship adoptive parents have with their adoptive child. With these strengths identified, Bethany provides parent education as to how their adoptive child’s trauma is specifically connected to the behavior they might be seeing in the home. Then, they will be invited into the process of helping their adoptive child find healing.

Parent Groups
One of the most valuable things adoptive parents take away from our parent groups is the simple, yet comforting knowledge that “they are not alone.” After coming out of our parent groups, adoptive parents have said things like, “It was encouraging to be with other families going through the same thing.”

As an adoptive parent, our parent group offers you:
• A holistic understanding of trauma and its effects on your child
• Practical ways to develop in your child healthy expressions of emotions and thoughts
• Effective ways to increase your child’s capacity to develop healthy attachments Strategies for building on the strengths of your child

Because your adoptive child is in his/her group during the same time, he or she is learning the same material, just from a more developmentally appropriate level.

Child/Adolescent Groups
Our child & adolescent groups offer a place of safety and understanding, where your adoptive child “can come out of his/her shell.” Our staff helps your child:
• To understand why he or she might be having such a difficult time
• To imagine with your child what tools they might like to have in their “toolbox,” that will more readily help them regulate their emotions
• To grow in confidence and personal strengths

Recognizing that a child’s language is often play, our staff utilizes play therapy, art therapy, music therapy, and narrative therapy.
For info contact Cindy, cridgway@bethany.org, 206-367-4604

Amy Dutt, LMFT

License Number: LF60125333

5100 South Dawson Street, Suite 204
Seattle, WA 98118

206-604-0873

www.amydutt.com

Amy works with children, teens, and families. She specializes in working with families formed by adoption. Many of the families she sees are struggling with challenging behaviors and/or strained relationships. She has many years experience working with families in crisis and children adopted as infants, toddlers, older children, or teens.

Amy offers family and individual therapy, parent consultation and coaching, and support groups for parents who have adopted. She completed a Certification in Attachment Therapy with Deborah Gray in 2010. She works with all types of families (single, partnered, married, blended, kinship). Often she sees parents who are struggling with their own reactions and emotions brought about by the adoption and behaviors of their child.

Amy helps families manage the practical day-to-day challenges (acting out behaviors, food issues, sleep challenges, etc.), while also helping the family to understand and improve the underlying dynamics. For example, a family may seek out counseling to address their child’s tendency to horde food and then lie about it. Amy would work with the family to develop a plan to decrease the problematic behavior (hording and lying), while at the same time, assist the child and parent/s to understand the need driving the behavior. The crucial element of therapy is the collaboration with the family in creating a way for the underlying need to be met.

Families are typically seen in Amy’s office for a 50 minute session, but there are times Amy sees families in their homes and/or sees clients for extended sessions.

Suzanne Engelberg, PhD

License-WA1948

206-542-7516 x105

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 provides therapy to parents, families and children. 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 consults with parents not sure if their child’s difficulties could be helped by professional assistance or are part of “normal” child development.

Dr. Engelberg says, “Sometimes is obvious when a difficulty is related to adoption. Other times it is harder to tell. In either situation it is helpful to work with a professional with expertise in both adoption and child development.”

“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 Parent Educator/Family Coaching Services, Training/Workshop Facilitator Services and Pre-Adoption Consultation Services

Amanda Franklin, M.Ed

LH00004551

www.amandafranklin.net

psychotherapy and consultation

2021 Minor Ave. East #1
Seattle, WA 98102
(206) 854-6436


Amanda provides therapy to adults and children who have been abused. She provides individual and family therapy to people whose families are in transition, including divorcing, blending, fostering, adopting, or disrupting.

Amanda says “I am a white, middle aged woman with a stepson, a daughter-in-law, a granddaughter, a birth daughter, and an adopted daughter. What I know about foster care and adoption comes from 22 years of professional experience, my own life and family, as well as volunteering for CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) with the Juvenile Court.”


Amanda also has the following specialties:
• marriage counseling / couples therapy, for people who are straight and gay, married and not married

• children and teenagers, with both individual and family therapy

• the issues and choices which typically affect young women, particularly those who are 18-30

• questions of a spiritual or religious nature – with no pressure or urging in any particular spiritual or religious direction

• In addition to adoptive and foster families, families which are divorcing, blending, or otherwise reshaping

• master’s level clinicians who need supervision towards licensure (both MHCs and MFTs), as well as licensed clinicians who want ongoing learning and support
Amanda is an approved supervisor for AAMFT, and provides consultation services for other therapists.

• people who are financially challenged to find otherwise competent, time-unlimited therapy

• clients who must have an evening appointments
Amanda sees clients between 4:00-9:00 pm, Monday-Thursday.

Amanda does not bill insurances, but is able to set fees that clients can afford over time.

Erica Goos, MA

RC00039912

2001 1st Ave. W., Suite 400
Seattle, WA 98119

206-778-7048

e_goos@hotmail.com

www.ericagoos.com

Erica works with individuals, couples and groups. She has expertise and experience working with third culture kids, bi-cultural persons, internationally adopted children and adults, couples in bi-racial marriages and professionals repatriating to the US.

Erica also works with those experiencing life transitions, grief and loss, depression, abuse and personal growth issues

As part of an emigrant family, Erica has the unique life experiences of a bi-cultural person (Korean and American cultures). She is also the mother of a bi-racial birth child and an internationally adopted child. With this distinctive combination of life experiences Erica possesses first hand understanding of complex issues. She intimately understands the process and struggles of integrating different cultures into a complete identity.

Erica says: “We all desire to be loved unconditionally, to be able to develop and maintain intimate relationships and live a dynamic life. These desires can bring great joy, but also great pain and problems. I am here to provide the support and insight needed to find practical solutions for lasting changes so that you can fully live with hope and freedom”

Erica provides a complimentary 20 minute consultation

Anna Kotelnikova, Psy.D., LMHC

Linnea C. Lauer, LMHC

LH000053105

linnealauer@comcast.net

360-697-1445

Liberty Way Counseling Services

20307 Viking Ave., #203
Poulsbo, WA. 98370

I specialize in providing mental health counseling services to children, adolescents and their families. I’ve been in private practice for 11 years, and I have additional experience working with the foster care, community mental health and educational systems. I have been a designated child mental health specialist, a school counselor, and a school teacher.

I’ve acquired expertise in the areas of attention deficit disorder, grief and trauma, Aspergers Syndrome and Pediatric Bipolar Disorder. I am seeking advanced certification in the treatment of adoption and attachment issues.

I spent 7 years living in Asia and have a working knowledge of Mandarin.

Linnea says “I am a strength based counselor. That means that my clients and I identify their strengths very early in the counseling process and use those strengths to address issues with which the client may be struggling. Strengths can be found in many areas: family, faith, personality traits, and abilities. I have tremendous admiration for the courage and tenacity exhibited by those who endure and overcome adversity.”

Christina Malecka, MA, LMHC

(Christina Malecka Counseling)

License number: LH 60123241

christina@christinamalecka.com

Securities Building
1904 Third Avenue
Suite 609
Seattle, WA 98101

206.414.8251

www.christinamalecka.com

As a Certified Adoption and Foster Care Therapist and adoptive mom, I bring both professional and personal expertise to my work with clients. My practice is focused on parents who choose to foster or adopt older children and teens, transracial adoption and LGBTQ families and youth. I can help prepare parents to foster or adopt, navigate the "system," and cope with the day-to-day challenges of raising older children with traumatic backgrounds and challenging behaviors. I offer family therapy to adoptive and foster families to address attachment and behavior issues, as well as cultural issues that emerge around transracial adoption and foster care. I also work with adopted/foster kids, teens and adults to help them resolve trauma and explore identity and cultural issues unique to those who do not grow up with their biological family.

Heidi Roth, MA, LMHC

Youth and Family Therapist
License # LH00011141

Email: Heidi@heidiroth.com

www.heidiroth.com

1800 Westlake Ave. North, Suite 303

Seattle, WA 98109

206-442-2007

Pre-adolescents
Adolescents
Young adults
Adopted and foster care youth ages 11 to 21
Blended Families
Co-parenting

My Primary areas of specialty are pre-teen and adolescent populations. I have 12 years of experience working with youth and their families in regard to issues such as substance abuse, foster care and relative placement, adoption issues, academic challenges, depression, child abuse and neglect, difficulties with peer relationships, ethnic and racial issues, sexual orientation, identity development, legal problems and family conflict.

I am strongly committed to working with the adolescent population and love the age—with all that it brings. I have experience working with adopted youth and believing in engaging family members in the therapy process with their child, whenever possible. Additionally, I have experience with adoption and raising transracial children

Denise Sterchi, LICSW

License # L00005687

843 N.E. 66th St.
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 276-6063

denisesterchi@nwlink.com

www.denisesterchi.com

I am a psychotherapist working with adults of all ages confronting many different types of challenges. I developed a special interest in adoption after my life was personally touched by adoption. I am interested in seeing adults who were adopted, birth parents before and after they have made their adoption plans, prospective adoptive parents recovering from the emotional trauma of infertility, and parents confronting short-term adjustment issues and long-term emotional difficulties. I also provide homestudies for domestic, step-parent and second parent adoptions.

I have studied many different approaches to psychotherapy, and I feel that my role is to understand what type of approach might help you make the changes that you desire--rather than trying to make you fit into my theories! But currently I am influenced most strongly by an approach called Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR). EMDR is a psychotherapy that has been proven effective in treating the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, other problems resulting from early experiences of neglect or abuse, or the effects of disruptions of significant attachment relationships. Fits for those of us touched by adoption, doesn’t it? During EMDR, we address all levels of a problem: the thoughts and beliefs about yourself, the feelings, and the bodily experience of painful past events--both "Big T" traumas that you experienced as life-threatening, or "little t" traumas" that result in emotional pain and self-doubt. Probably because we work holistically at all these levels (thoughts, feelings, and body), research has shown EMDR to be a powerful tool--often more powerful than traditional "talk therapy" alone--for resolving emotional difficulties.

I have completed the advanced training and extensive individualized consultation required to become a certified therapist in EMDR. I am interested in assisting teen and adult members of the adoption triad in resolving any lingering emotional pain that has not been healed by the building of a new life and family after adoption. Please don’t hesitate to call me to talk more about how therapy might help you make your dreams come true.

Denise also provides Home Studies/Pre-placement Reports/Post-placement Reports.

Laura Stone

LH00004230

174 Roy St., Suite B
Seattle, WA 98109

206-498-9895
info@laurastone.org www.laurastone.org I have over 12 years experience working as a clinician with children and families impacted by adoption. I provide psychotherapy and counseling services for children, adolescents, parents and families in my lower Queen Anne office in Seattle. Some issues that may be addressed in therapy include attachment and separation challenges, parenting struggles, family adjustment, depression and anxiety, identity formation, PTSD, grief and loss. I also have extensive (personal and professional) experience and expertise in working with trans-cultural and trans-racial families.

I work with internationally adopted children and those who have spent time in foster care, as well as those in kinship placements and guardianships. I also work with birth mothers, adults who were adopted, and those considering becoming adoptive parents.

Beginning in 2009, I will facilitate groups for parents and their newly internationally adopted infants and young children, based on the “First Year Home” groups developed and previously offered by Patty Cogan.

Sandy Swan, M. Ed., LMHC

License # 60043373

1400 Talbot Road South, Suite 106
Renton, WA 98055

253-234-4459

www.sandyswan.org

www.sandy.swan.m.ed.@gmail.com

Sandy Swan has been serving children and families in the Puget Sound region for the past 25 years. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology in 1983 and her Masters degree in Educational Psychology in 1989 both at the University of Washington.

While working as a classroom teacher, school psychologist, and school counselor, she opened her private practice in 1989. She has many hours of post graduate education and experience in the area of foster care and attachment in adoption. She has helped families deal with life stresses, anxiety management, ADHD, Autism, learning disabilities, and social skills training. She and her husband are experienced therapeutic parents, fostering and adopting children into their family.

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 Educational Consulting Services and Parent Education/Coaching Services.