Adoption Support Groups
Support groups are places where people who have experienced common struggles can come together to offer mutual aid. Adopting a child can be extremely rewarding; however, it can also lead to exhaustion and frustration for both parents and children. For people going through the process of adoption, support groups can be an important place to gain understanding. They can offer encouragement as well as important skills and invaluable insight into becoming an adoptive parent.
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Adoptees
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Support groups can be helpful for both children and adult adoptees. These are places where they can come together and discuss their feelings about having been adopted. They can share similar experiences and offer support. Adoptees may have to cope with feelings of loss or grief related to having lost a parent or having been given up for adoption. For adults considering trying to find their birth parents, support groups can help them with this decision. Group participants can share their stories about finding their birth parents and offer each other resources and support.
Inter-Racial Adoption
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Inter-racial and international adoptions can be a challenging adjustment for children as well as parents. Support groups and counseling can help these families come together to offer each other support and learn skills to deal with this adjustment. These groups encourage parents to support the child's ethnic heritage, even if the adopted family does not share it. They can help kids to feel good about their race, culture and identity. Support groups can encourage identity development and help increase the self-esteem of children who are adopted internationally.
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Birth Parents
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Support groups can also be helpful for parents who have given their child up for adoption. This can be particularly helpful for those who have given away their child but have an open adoption, or one where they are still involved in the child's life. Support groups let birth parents and grandparents share their experiences. The process of giving up a child can be emotionally difficult, and support groups help to cope with these feelings.
Triad Groups
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One form of adoption support group is called a triad groups. Triad groups allow all of the individuals involved in the adoption to come together. This includes the birth parent, adoptive parent and adopted child. Triad groups can be important both for people who are in an open adoption as well as for times when adopted children are reestablishing contact with their birth parents. First time birth parents may get a chance to connect with other birth parents. Triad groups also allow adoptees to talk with fellow adoptees. They also allow for a dialogue that can help all the parties to understand each other and offer mutual aid.
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