Family Building: Adoption, Surrogacy and Donors
Adoption Issues and Support
As an adoptive parent and member of an extended birth family in reunion, I bring my own experiences and sensitivity to the task of providing adoptees, adoptive parents, and birth family members the support they need to tackle the complex issues inherent in adoption.
I provide support groups, individual consultations on adoption-related issues, parenting coaching, and ongoing psychotherapy.
Our work together can focus on helping the family you have to flourish, or focus on decision-making as you begin the process of growing your family through adoption or third party reproduction. Blended, alternative, traditional, and single parent families all have particular and distinct needs, so I bring an interactive, patient-led approach that supports your goals for change and growth.
Family Building Evaluations
Psychological evaluations can be an important component of the adoption, surrogacy or egg/sperm donation process. These evaluations help to ensure that everyone is mentally and emotionally prepared for the experience, and that they understand the potential emotional, psychological, and social implications of their involvement. The goal of the psychological evaluation is to ensure that everyone is mentally and emotionally prepared for the process, and that they have a strong support system in place to help them through the experience. We can help you get your evaluation’s completed in a friendly, supportive environment and in a timely manner (we know how hard the waiting can be!)
Dr. Hecht began doing family building evaluations since the adoption of her daughter in 2010 and has experience with evaluations tailored to the specific needs of adoption, surrogacy, and donor requirements. As an adoptive parent herself, she totally understands the anxiety and stress that comes with adoption, donation and or surrogacy. Dr. Hecht has experience with ever-changing legal and paperwork requirements and can ensure that your evaluation includes everything that you need.
Testing and evaluation don’t have to be stressful, in fact, most families report enjoying the interviews and find the meetings informative and helpful.
Many people who need evaluations seek out of state specialists or agencies. the Hecht Ribas Group can evaluate and test in the privacy of your own home at convenient times through a secure and completely encrypted and HIPPA compliant web platform, though you are certainly welcome to visit our Charlotte, NC office. Location and travel constraints are no issue as we can complete the evaluation and interviews from the comfort of your own home.
However you choose to build your family we know that it can feel like it takes forever – that’s why we focus on being very responsive, easy to schedule and timely in getting the evaluations done and ready for your dossier as quickly as possible. We’ve done hundreds of evaluations and will work with your agency to ensure that the evaluation report contains exactly what the request requires.
Email or call today to start the evaluation process or to get answers to any questions or concerns.
Who I Work With
I work primarily with teens and adults, who are adoptees, birth parents and those parenting adopted children, using psychodynamic and relational approaches to address issues such as:
Attachment
Family building
Trauma & loss
Open adoption
Transracial adoption
Search and reunion
Identity issues throughout the lifespan
Infertility and third party reproduction
Parenting adopted children
Making and using lifebooks to create a healthy adoption narrative
