Adoption Literacy: A Practical Guide for Counselors

The community-based framework of adoption literacy (AL), outlined in this practice brief, offers organized and tangible guidance for mental health practitioners who may engage with adult adoptees in individual, couples, or family counseling. AL is an ongoing process of learning about, and effectively responding to, dynamic public health needs that surround the institutionalized practice of family separation and adoption, both domestically and transnationally. The author examines AL as a community intervention, therapeutic process, and multidisciplinary conversation. Readers are given background and applications for four core relational cues: humanize adoptee narratives, own your part in the story, promote adoptee-specific resources throughout the lifespan, and elevate adoptees into positions of influence (H.O.P.E.). Additional considerations and recommendations are provided to help practicing counselors and therapists organize their learning, resources, interventions, and outcomes as they seek to ethically and competently address the dynamic counseling needs of adult adoptees through the AL framework.