Surviving the Summer
A Support Group for Adoptive Parents in California
5 Weeks | Tuesday Evenings | 7:30–8:45 PM | June 16 to July 14, 2026
Online via Secure Telehealth | California Residents Only
Summer is supposed to be the easy part.
No school schedule to fight. No IEP meetings. No early mornings trying to get a dysregulated child out the door and onto the bus.
But if you're an adoptive parent, you already know: summer is not the easy part.
Summer is ten unstructured weeks with a child whose nervous system runs on routine. It's the loss of the school staff who know your kid, the therapist appointments that get shuffled, and the routines that kept things manageable during the school year falling apart before June is even over. It's being your child's everything — their schedule, their regulator, their safe person and their target — from the moment they wake up until the moment they finally, finally fall asleep.
And somewhere in the middle of managing all of that, you stop managing yourself.
Your shoulders are up near your ears by 9 AM. You're snapping at your partner over nothing. You're counting down the hours until bedtime, and then lying awake once it gets there. The version of you that felt mostly okay in May is hard to find by the Fourth of July.
You don't need someone to tell you to practice self-care. You need a space where someone actually understands what your summer looks like.
This is that Space.
Surviving the Summer is a small, closed support group for adoptive parents in California who want to get through the next few months without completely losing themselves in the process.
Over five Tuesday evenings, we'll meet as a group of six adoptive parents who get it — no explaining the basics, no catching anyone up on what trauma-informed parenting means, no performing "fine" for people who don't understand your life.
Each session blends two things: real support and real tools. Some of what we do will be psychoeducation — understanding what's happening in your nervous system when your child dysregulates, and why summer makes it harder. Some of it will be processing — putting language to what you're carrying, and not carrying it alone.
What We’ll Cover:
1.
Why summer hits differently when your child's nervous system runs on structure — and what's actually happening in your body when theirs falls apart.
2.
How to regulate yourself in the moment, when you're already three hours into a hard day and there's no break in sight.
3.
The grief that surfaces when the summer you imagined doesn't match the summer you're living.
4.
The guilt and shame spiral — what it is, why adoptive parents are especially vulnerable to it, and how to interrupt it
5.
Coming up for air — building a realistic plan to sustain yourself through the rest of the summer.
This group is for you if:
You're an adoptive parent living in California
Summer feels like something to survive, not enjoy
You've tried to get support before and found that most spaces don't understand the specific weight of parenting a child who comes from trauma
You want to be in a room (even a virtual one) with people who don't need an explanation
This group is not for you if:
You're looking for parenting strategies focused on your child's behavior (this group is about you)
You're in a current mental health crisis — individual therapy would be a better fit right now
You're not located in California (future groups will be offered for Idaho and Maryland residents)
The Details
Dates:
Tuesdays — June 16, June 23, June 30, July 7, and July 14, 2026
Time:
7:30–8:45 PM Pacific
Format:
Online via secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform
Investment:
$375 for the full five-week series ($75 per session), paid in full at registration
Payment & Cancellation Policy: Full payment of $375 is due upon confirmation of your spot following your consultation call. Because this is a small, closed group, your seat cannot be filled once held. Refunds are available up until two weeks before the group begins. After that date, the full registration fee is non-refundable.
HOW IT WORKS
1
Request a call
Complete the contact form to request your free 15-minute consult call
2
Connect with Summer
We'll talk briefly to make sure this group is the right fit for you
3
Secure your spot
If it's a good fit, you'll complete payment and your spot is confirmed
No pressure, no obligation. The consult call is simply a chance to connect before you commit.
Hello! I’m Summer.
I'm Summer Verhines, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (CA LCSW #68507) with nine years of experience in child welfare and adoption before I became a therapist. I am C.A.S.E. certified in adoption competency, and my entire practice is built around adoption — adoptive parents, birth parents, and adult adoptees.
I facilitate this group because I know what the research shows and what I hear from clients every week: adoptive parents are chronically under-supported. The resources that exist are almost entirely focused on your child.
This group exists for you.
You've spent all year holding things together. This summer, you don't have to do it alone. Six spots. Five weeks. One space that's finally about you.