As an adoptee and adoptive parent, my life has been informed by these circumstances. Through my clinical work as a licensed marriage and family therapist and adoptee advocate, I connect with all members of the adoption constellation to facilitate understanding, transparency and healing.
Adoptions are events that change families forever, creating a new narrative that provide opportunities that families can benefit from. Adoption also invariably includes loss, and many newly created adoptive families have a difficulty accepting that duality when they are finally feeling the joy of making their family through adoption. Being empathic to a child’s feelings of loss and helping them to identify those feelings contributes to a healthy adoptive family.
left, Angela Gee right, Unknown person
What if you had never seen anyone that looked like you in your life? That was the case for me, until 2012, when I saw an art installation at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles by conceptual artist, Douglas Huebler. When I saw it, my heart skipped a beat, as I felt the physical similarity between myself and the subject in the photograph. This artwork was done in the 1980s, and several of my friends who saw the show independently, contacted me to find out if I was the subject of the photograph. While I was not the subject, I pored over the image and reveled over the remarkable similarities; nose. cheeks. smile, teeth. And, I marveled at the irony of the subject’s placard. This reinforced how deeply I yearn for connectedness and belonging.
PROFESSIONAL LICENSE AND CREDENTIALS
- California Board of Behavior Sciences Marriage and Family Therapy MFC #51031
- Member, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists
- Member, Society of Adoptee Professionals in Adoption
EDUCATION
- M.A. Clinical Psychology, Antioch University Los Angeles
- B.A. University of California Santa Barbara
INTERNSHIP TRAINING
- L.A. Gay and Lesbian Center, Hollywood
- The Maple Counseling Center, Beverly Hills
- Teen Line, West Hollywood