Seven Core Issues in Adoption and Permanency

This groundbreaking work offers the first comprehensive framework for understanding the psychological landscape of adoption and permanency, mapping seven universal emotional territories that affect everyone involved in these complex family structures. The model identifies Loss, Rejection, Shame/Guilt, Grief, Identity, Intimacy, and Mastery/Control as core experiences that transcend specific circumstances, creating a shared language for adoptees, birth families, and adoptive parents alike. What makes this approach particularly valuable is its expansion beyond traditional adoption to include foster care, kinship arrangements, and even donor conception scenarios. The inclusion of attachment and trauma perspectives provides crucial context for why these seven issues resonate so deeply across different permanency experiences.

What distinguishes this book is its ability to create bridges between seemingly disparate experiences while honoring the unique aspects of each permanency journey. Adoptees will find their internal struggles validated and named, while parents and professionals gain insight into the emotional undercurrents that shape behavior and relationships. The framework serves as both a diagnostic tool and a roadmap for healing, helping readers recognize patterns that might otherwise remain confusing or overwhelming. By giving language to the unspoken challenges of family formation through adoption and other permanent arrangements, this book becomes an essential resource for anyone seeking to understand the complex emotional inheritance that comes with these life stories.