Online Adoption Therapy in Maryland
Adoption-competent telehealth therapy for adoptive parents, adult adoptees, and birth parents throughout Maryland
Serving Adults Throughout Maryland
Adoption-Competent Therapist for Adoptive Parents, Birth Parents, and Adult Adoptees Across Maryland
Maybe you've had a therapist recommend a sticker chart for behavior that's rooted in early trauma. Maybe you've mentioned your adoption and watched your therapist nod and then move on to treating your anxiety like it has nothing to do with being adopted. Maybe you've tried to explain relinquishment grief and gotten a worksheet about the stages of loss. If any of that sounds familiar, you already know what it feels like to work with a therapist who doesn't understand adoption.
Most therapists receive zero coursework on adoption in graduate school, and that gap shows up fast. Adoption affects how you see yourself, how you connect with people, how you grieve, and how you trust, and treating those effects requires a therapist who has actually worked inside the adoption world.
I spent nine years 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 when the hardest parts often begin. 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 the body, not just in your thoughts. These approaches work with the physical responses, the racing heart during a meltdown, the shutdown when someone mentions your child's birth family, the chest tightness every time a birthday approaches, so that understanding what's happening actually starts to change how you feel and react.
I provide online therapy to Maryland residents statewide, from the DC suburbs of Montgomery County to Baltimore, Annapolis to Frederick, and the smaller communities across the state where adoption-competent therapists are nearly impossible to find.
Adoption Specific Therapy in Maryland
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Adoption Specific Therapy in Maryland *
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Maybe your five-year-old daughter has been home for two years and still hoards food in her bedroom, hiding granola bars in her pillowcase and crackers under the mattress. You've told her a hundred times that the food will always be there, but her body doesn't believe you yet because her body remembers a time before you. And every time you find another stash, you feel a wave of helplessness so heavy it pins you to the hallway floor. Or maybe the challenge is between you and your partner: one of you wants firmer boundaries while the other wants more softness, and every conversation about your child turns into an argument about each other.
I work with adoptive parents across Maryland on what's happening inside you, not just what's happening with your child. The goal is concrete: noticing the food stash and sitting with her calmly instead of spiraling into panic about what it means, having the conversation with your partner about discipline without it escalating into a fight about your marriage.
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Maybe you've been fine for years, genuinely fine, and then your placed child's birthday rolls around and you spend the evening doing math you can't stop: she's twelve now, probably in sixth grade. You drive past a middle school on your way home from work in Columbia and catch yourself scanning the faces of kids being picked up, looking for features you'd recognize. Then you get home, cook dinner, answer emails, and nobody knows that you spent twenty minutes in a school parking lot watching strangers' children through your windshield.
Whether you placed your child through a Maryland agency, an attorney in the DC metro area, or a process that crossed state lines, I help you work through the specific layers of relinquishment: the hospital, the signing, the silence from the adoptive family, the holidays that feel like they belong to someone else now. The goal is driving past a school without pulling over, hearing a friend talk about her daughter's soccer game without going numb for the rest of the evening, deciding whether to reach out to the adoptive family based on what you actually want instead of what guilt is demanding.
I provide birth parent therapy to Maryland residents statewide through secure telehealth, which means you can do this work from a private space without explaining to anyone where you're going or why.
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Maybe you recently found your biological mother through a DNA test, and she lives in Baltimore County, forty minutes from the house you grew up in. She wants to meet. You want to meet. But every time you sit down to write back to her, your hands go still and you close the laptop, because you're terrified that meeting her will either change everything or change nothing at all.
Maryland's adoption records have been sealed since 1947 for most adoptees, and accessing your original birth certificate still requires a court order or a confidential intermediary for adoptions finalized before 2000. DNA testing has upended those barriers, delivering answers the state system was designed to withhold, sometimes with no preparation and no support.
The work changes how these moments actually go. You sit down to write that email and you can think clearly about what you want the relationship to look like, instead of freezing for an hour. You mention your search to your adoptive parents without the automatic apology, because wanting to know where you come from and loving the family that raised you have stopped feeling like a contradiction.
Why Online Therapy for Adoption Works in Maryland
Maryland is a small state geographically, but finding an adoption-competent therapist locally is still a challenge. The therapists with adoption experience tend to cluster in the DC suburbs and parts of Baltimore, and even in those areas, most don't specialize exclusively in adoption work.
Online therapy means you can work with a therapist whose entire practice is built around adoption, regardless of whether you live in Montgomery County, on the Eastern Shore, or in the western part of the state near Frederick and Hagerstown.
There are also reasons specific to adoption that make telehealth a strong fit. Adoptive parents juggling their child's therapy appointments, school meetings, and their own work schedules in the DC metro commuter corridor don't need another drive on the Beltway added to their week. Birth parents who haven't told their current partner or coworkers about their adoption history can take a session from a private room without anyone asking questions. Adult adoptees processing a DNA discovery or an unexpected reunion contact can have a session within days instead of waiting weeks for a local office to have an opening.
Online Adoption Therapy Across Maryland
I provide adoption therapy to Maryland residents throughout the state via secure telehealth. Whether you live in the DC suburbs, the Baltimore metro, or a smaller community, you can access adoption-competent therapy from any private space with a stable internet connection.
Western Maryland and Beyond
I also serve clients in Frederick, Hagerstown, Westminster, Eldersburg, and communities across western and rural Maryland where adoption-competent therapists are not available locally. Online therapy means your location doesn't determine the quality of care you receive.
Adoptive parents: Frederick →
DC Metro Suburbs
I work with adoptive parents, birth parents, and adult adoptees in Bethesda, Rockville, Silver Spring, Chevy Chase, Potomac, Germantown, Gaithersburg, Bowie, Laurel, College Park, and communities throughout Montgomery County and Prince George’s County.
Adoptive parents: Bethesda →
Adult adoptees: Bethesda →
About Summer
Maryland adoption therapist
I'm Summer Verhines, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (MD LCSW-C #34104) specializing in adoption therapy for adoptive parents, birth parents, and adult adoptees.
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 Maryland residents statewide, with flexible scheduling including early mornings, evenings, and weekends.
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.
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
Contact Summer
Frequently Asked Questions
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Most therapists receive zero coursework on adoption in graduate school. An adoption-competent therapist understands that adoption creates lifelong effects on identity, attachment, grief, and relationships that follow specific patterns. My C.A.S.E. certification and nine years inside the child welfare system mean I recognize what's actually happening when an adoptive parent describes emotional numbness, or when an adoptee describes people-pleasing they can't seem to stop, or when a birth parent says they feel nothing on their child's birthday. These aren't random symptoms. They're predictable trauma responses, and treating them requires knowing where they come from
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If your previous therapist heard "I was adopted" and then moved on to treating your anxiety or your relationship problems without connecting them to adoption, they were not adoption-competent. My practice is built entirely around adoption. Every modality I use has been selected because these approaches work with the body-based trauma responses adoption creates. You will not spend sessions explaining why adoption is relevant to your struggles.
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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 video platform, and I am fully licensed to provide therapy to Maryland residents statewide.
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That depends on what you're working with. Some clients come in with something specific, like processing a reunion that went sideways or a placement disruption, and Accelerated Resolution Therapy can produce meaningful relief in a focused set of sessions. Others are working through things that have been building for years, like shutting down every time their partner tries to get close, or avoiding their child's bedtime routine because the rejection has worn them down, or realizing at forty that they've never let anyone fully know them. 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 your story and what's happening now. I'll ask about your adoption history, what brought you in, and what you want to be different in your actual day-to-day life. You don't need to have everything figured out before we start, and I won't push you into trauma processing on the first day. By the end of the session, you'll know how I work, whether this feels like the right fit, and what we'd focus on first.
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Most of them 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 shaping your life right now, and the specifics of your situation are exactly what I'm trained to work with.
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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.