My Connection to Adoption

Adoption has been part of my life for more than two decades, both personally and professionally.

I placed my first daughter for adoption as a young adult. That experience profoundly shaped my life and eventually became an important part of the perspective I bring to my work as a social worker.

My personal experience as a birth mother does not mean that I assume I understand someone else’s experience. In fact, it has taught me just the opposite.

Adoption is deeply individual. It can hold love and loss, joy and grief, certainty and doubt, connection and distance—sometimes all at the same time. Those experiences can also change and take on new meaning throughout a person’s lifetime.

Because of this, I believe adoption work requires more than simply understanding the legal steps or completing the required paperwork. It requires listening carefully, respecting autonomy, acknowledging the complexities of adoption, and making sure people have the information and support they need to make informed decisions.

That philosophy has become central to the way I practice.

Professional Experience

My career in social work has included extensive work with individuals, children, and families across adoption, foster care, healthcare, and other significant life transitions.

I have worked with expectant parents considering adoption, birth parents post placement, prospective adoptive parents, adoptive families, and adoption professionals throughout the United States. My experience includes counseling and case management, independent and agency adoption services, home studies for prospective adoptive parents, relinquishment and consent processes, open adoption education, post-adoption support, and collaboration with attorneys, hospitals, and other professionals involved in adoption.

My professional background also includes work in foster care, supporting children and families as they navigate complex circumstances, changing family relationships, and important transitions.

My clinical social work experience extends into healthcare settings, where I have supported individuals and families navigating medical conditions, changes in functioning, caregiving needs, and other health-related transitions. This background informs my work providing bariatric psychosocial evaluations, where I bring a clinical social work perspective to understanding the emotional, behavioral, and social factors that can influence preparation for surgery and adjustment afterward.

I have also developed and provided education and training for social workers, clinicians, attorneys, and other professionals at both state and national levels. My presentations have addressed topics including open adoption, informed consent and expectant parent counseling, ethical adoption practice, experiences of first and birth parents, adoption-related grief and loss, legal and professional considerations in adoption, and broader systemic issues affecting adoption practice.

Across all of these roles, one principle has remained especially important to me: people deserve clear information, meaningful choices, and the opportunity to have their voices heard.

A Little More About Me

While my credentials and professional experience are important, they are only part of who I am.

I am also a wife and mom, a longtime member of the adoption community, and someone who understands personally that families can be formed, changed, and connected in many different ways.

Those experiences have shaped the kind of social worker I strive to be: someone who listens before assuming, explains rather than directs, recognizes complexity, and treats the people I work with as people—not simply as clients or cases.

It is a privilege to be invited into some of the most personal moments in a person’s story, and I don’t take that trust lightly.