Online Adoption Therapy in Idaho
Adoption-competent telehealth therapy for adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and birth parents
Serving Adults Throughout Idaho
Adoption-Competent Therapist for Adoptive Parents, Birth Parents, and Adult Adoptees Across Idaho
Maybe your jaw clenches every night at bedtime because you don't know if tonight is the night your child will rage or go silent. Maybe a wave of grief hit you in the grocery store last week and you sat in your truck for twenty minutes waiting for your hands to stop shaking. Maybe you've spent thirty years smiling when people call your adoption a blessing, and you're tired of pretending that's the whole story.
I spent nine years working in child welfare and adoption before becoming a therapist. I have completed home studies, facilitated placements, supported birth parents through relinquishment, and walked alongside adoptive families through the years after finalization, the stage where the hardest challenges tend to surface. I am C.A.S.E. certified in adoption competency, and I use trauma-focused modalities like EMDR, Brainspotting, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) because adoption trauma lives in your body, not just your thoughts.
These approaches work with the physical responses, the clenched jaw at bedtime, the shutdown when someone mentions your child's birth parents, the wave of grief that hits without warning, so that understanding what's happening actually starts to change how you feel and react.
I provide online therapy to Idaho residents statewide, from Boise and the Treasure Valley to Coeur d'Alene, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, and the rural communities in between where specialized therapists of any kind are hard to come by.
Adoption-Specific Therapy Services in Idaho:
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Adoption-Specific Therapy Services in Idaho: *
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Maybe your eight-year-old son calls you Mom in front of other people but calls you by your first name when you're alone, and you don't know which one is real. At night, after he's asleep, you sit in the living room and wonder if he'll ever actually feel like yours, and whether the fact that you're wondering means something is wrong with you as a parent. Or maybe everything looks fine from the outside, but you are the one falling apart. The depression that settled in during those first months hasn't lifted, and you thought it would.
I work with adoptive parents across Idaho on your own emotional and nervous system responses, not just your child's adjustment. The goal is specific: hearing your son call you by your first name without the gut-punch of rejection that ruins the next two hours, telling a friend the truth about how hard this is instead of performing the grateful-parent role that everyone seems to expect.
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Maybe you placed your child years ago and you've kept it together since, genuinely kept it together, until something breaks the surface without warning. You're in the checkout line at WinCo and the toddler in front of you has her eyes, and suddenly you can't breathe in a grocery store and you don't know why your body is doing this to you now, after all this time. You leave the cart in the aisle, sit in your truck in the parking lot, and wait for your hands to stop shaking.
Whether you placed your child through an Idaho agency, a private attorney, or a process that involved multiple states, I help you work through the specific weight of relinquishment: the hospital, the signing, the drive home without your child, the holidays that split you in two. The goal is getting to a place where a toddler in a grocery store doesn't send you to your truck for twenty minutes, where you can decide what kind of contact you want with the adoptive family based on your own needs rather than obligation or guilt.
I provide birth parent therapy to Idaho residents statewide through secure telehealth. In a state where everyone knows everyone, online therapy means you can do this work from a private space without running into your therapist at Albertsons or explaining your appointment to a coworker who goes to your church.
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Maybe your adoptive mother tells the story of the day they brought you home at every family gathering, and everyone tears up, and you sit there performing gratitude while something inside you tightens because nobody ever asks what happened before that day. Or maybe you sent a DNA test off six months ago and the results rearranged everything you thought you knew about yourself: a different ethnic background than you assumed, half-siblings in Oregon, a biological father who's been searching for you. You haven't told your adoptive parents because you don't know how.
The work changes how these moments go. You tell your adoptive parents about the DNA results, and the conversation doesn't become a crisis because you're not approaching it from guilt or defensiveness anymore.
Why Online Therapy for Adoption Works in Idaho
Online therapy means you get access to a practice built entirely around adoption, from anywhere in Idaho with an internet connection.
There are also reasons specific to adoption that make telehealth a particularly strong fit in Idaho:
Adoptive parents in smaller communities where everyone knows each other don't always want to walk into a local therapist's office and risk running into neighbors in the waiting room
Birth parents carrying a relinquishment story they haven't shared widely can take a session from a locked room in their house without anyone in their community knowing
Adult adoptees processing a DNA discovery or managing the fallout of a reunion attempt can get a session the same week something surfaces, rather than driving to Boise and back for a single appointment.
Online Adoption Therapy Across Idaho
I provide adoption therapy to Idaho residents throughout the state via secure telehealth. Whether you live in an urban area or a community hours from the nearest city, you can access adoption-competent therapy from any private space with a stable internet connection.
Northern Idaho
I serve clients in Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Sandpoint, Moscow, Lewiston, and communities throughout the Idaho Panhandle and north-central Idaho.
Southern Idaho and Central Mountains
I also serve clients in Twin Falls, Sun Valley, Ketchum, Hailey, Jerome, Burley, and the smaller communities across southern and central Idaho.
Eastern Idaho
I work with Idaho residents in Idaho Falls, Pocatello, Rexburg, Blackfoot, Ammon, and surrounding communities in eastern Idaho.
Hi! I’m Summer
I'm Summer Verhines, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in adoption therapy for adoptive parents, birth parents, and adult adoptees. I am registered to provide telehealth services to Idaho residents (telehealth #9371387).
Before becoming a therapist, I spent nine years working in child welfare and adoption. I've completed home studies, facilitated placements, supported birth parents through relinquishment, and walked alongside adoptive families through the years after finalization. I am C.A.S.E. certified in adoption competency and use EMDR, Brainspotting, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) to treat the trauma responses that adoption creates.
I provide telehealth therapy to Idaho residents statewide, with flexible scheduling including early mornings, evenings, and weekends.
Self-Schedule or Contact Me Below
For the quickest and most confidential option, you’re encouraged to book directly into my calendar by clicking the Self-Schedule Here button below. That button will take you to my HIPAA-compliant calendar where you may request an appointment. Once I confirm your appointment request (typically within 24 hours), I will email you the new client forms to digitally sign. Then, we will meet on your scheduled day.
If you have questions prior to scheduling, you can also use the contact form below, and I’ll reply within 48 business hours. If you don’t see a reply, please check your junk/spam folder.
I look forward to hearing from you!
— Summer Verhines, LCSW
Logistics
50-minute Sessions are $250.
I also offer 90-minute sessions for $375 and intensive sessions (2-4 hours) ranging from $500 to $1000 for people who want to work intensively.
I don't take insurance directly, but I can provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement if your plan covers that.
I am available early mornings, evenings, and weekends. I provide services online only.
Contact Summer
Frequently Asked Questions
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Most therapists receive no training in adoption during their graduate programs. An adoption-competent therapist understands that adoption creates lifelong effects on identity, attachment, grief, and trust that follow specific, predictable patterns. My C.A.S.E. certification and nine years inside the child welfare system mean I recognize what's actually driving the behavior or the feeling when an adoptive parent describes shutdown, or when an adoptee describes a compulsion to keep everyone happy, or when a birth parent says they feel nothing when they should feel something. These aren't random. They're trauma responses with roots in adoption, and treating them requires knowing those roots.
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Yes. All of my sessions are conducted online through secure, HIPAA-compliant video, so you can work with me from anywhere in Idaho. Many of my Idaho clients live in communities where the nearest therapist of any kind is an hour or more away, and the nearest adoption-competent therapist might as well not exist. Online therapy removes that barrier entirely. All you need is a private space and a stable internet connection.
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EMDR, Brainspotting, and ART all adapt effectively to telehealth, and research supports equivalent outcomes whether sessions happen in person or online. You'll need a private space where you won't be interrupted, a stable internet connection, and a device with a camera. All sessions are conducted through a secure, HIPAA-compliant platform.
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That depends on what you're working through. Some clients come in with a specific event, like a DNA result that changed everything or a placement that fell apart, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy can produce significant relief in a focused number of sessions. Others are working through things that have accumulated over years, like pulling away from their spouse without understanding why, or the anger that surfaces every holiday season and has nowhere to go, or a lifelong habit of keeping everyone at arm's length because getting close has never felt safe. That work typically takes several months. We'll talk through your situation in the first session and figure out what makes sense.
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The first session is about understanding your story and what's bringing you in now. I'll ask about your adoption history, what's going on in your life, and what you want to be different on a practical level. You don't need to have it all figured out before you schedule, and I won't push into trauma processing on day one. By the end, you'll know how I work, whether this feels like a good fit, and what we'd focus on first.
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Most are. I work with clients across every type of adoption: domestic infant, foster care, international, kinship, transracial, and situations involving disrupted placements or multiple moves. I also work with adoptees and birth parents whose adoptions happened decades ago. Adoption doesn't need to be recent to be affecting how you live your life, and the specifics of your situation are exactly what I'm trained for.
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Sessions are $250. I am a private-pay practice and do not accept insurance directly, though I can provide superbills for potential out-of-network reimbursement.
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I’m licensed in California, Maryland, and Idaho, and all sessions are online.