Online Therapy for Adult Adoptees in Baltimore, MD
For adult adoptees sorting through identity, relationships, reunion, and grief. Serving Baltimore, Towson, Catonsville, Pikesville, Owings Mills, and throughout Baltimore County.
You've never had a simple answer to “where are you from?”
For most people, that question is easy. They name a neighborhood, a school, a family that goes back generations in the same area. For you, the honest answer is more complicated than anyone expects, so you've learned to give the short version and move on.
Maybe you grew up in a family that loved you and gave you a good life, and you've spent years managing a quiet dissonance between the family you belong to and the questions you carry about the family you came from. You've gotten good at changing the subject when heritage or family history comes up at gatherings, because the full story isn't something you can drop into casual conversation.
Or maybe you were adopted transracially, and the questions about race and adoption have been tangled together for as long as you can remember. Growing up not looking like your family adds a layer that's hard to explain to people who've never had to think about it, the particular isolation of navigating identity when your face doesn't match the people who raised you.
Maybe the shift happened recently. A DNA test returned results you weren't expecting, a biological relative nearby or a half-sibling whose name you've been staring at for weeks without telling anyone. Your adoptive mother's health is declining, and the questions you've been sitting on since you were a teenager feel suddenly urgent. You became a parent, and the first time you held your child, something cracked open that you can't close, a grief you didn't know was there mixed with a recognition you've never felt before.
Adoption-competent therapy for adult adoptees
You can probably already explain your own reactions better than most people in your life could. You know you pull away when someone gets close, you know you scan for signs that people are about to leave, and you know you've spent most of your life adjusting who you are to make sure you belong. Understanding all of that hasn't changed the reactions, because they started before you had language for any of it, some of them before you had memory.
The therapeutic approaches I use are designed to reach the places where those early experiences are still running the show. You won't need to narrate every painful detail or relive your worst moments to make progress, and much of this work happens with reactions and feelings that don't translate neatly into words, the kind that live in your body's responses rather than in your conscious thoughts.
What clients describe after this work isn't that the memories are gone, because the adoption is still part of your story and always will be. What changes is that the old reactions lose their grip. The memory is still there, but it stops driving your decisions. You can ask questions about your origins without the guilt telling you it means you're ungrateful for the family who raised you, you can let someone get close without your whole body bracing for the moment they leave, and you can sit with complicated feelings about your story without needing to shut them down or let them take over your entire week.
I've spent nine years inside the child welfare and adoption system and completed specialized training in adoption competency through C.A.S.E. (the Center for Adoption Support and Education) and the National Adoption Competency Mental Health Training Initiative.
That means I already understand the competing loyalties, the grief that sits right next to the gratitude, and the particular exhaustion of other people needing you to be okay with your story.
So when you walk into a session, you can go straight to the thing that's keeping you up at night.
How Therapy for Adult Adoptees Can Help
You sit down with your adoptive parents and tell them you've been searching for your birth mother. Your mother's face shifts, and instead of immediately retreating or apologizing, you stay steady. You say what you need to say, and you let the conversation be uncomfortable without rushing to fix it. You drive home and you feel tired but intact, not guilty.
You open an email from a DNA match and you read it without the old flood of adrenaline. You take a few days to decide what you actually want from the contact before you respond, and the decision comes from clarity rather than desperation or dread.
Someone at a family gathering makes a comment about your child's features, wondering aloud who she takes after, and instead of the familiar jolt, you answer however you want. The interaction doesn't follow you to the car.
You tell your partner that the offhand comment at Thanksgiving, the one about how "you'd never know you were adopted," actually stung. You explain why without minimizing it. Your partner asks questions, some clumsy, and you don't interpret the clumsiness as dismissal. An hour later you're watching something on the couch together instead of spending the evening in separate rooms.
You make a decision about reunion, whether to meet a biological relative, whether to set a boundary, whether to step back, and the decision is yours. You trust your own judgment.
Who this is for?
I work with adult adoptees in Baltimore and throughout Maryland from all adoption backgrounds: domestic infant, international, transracial, foster care, kinship, and late-discovery (people who found out they were adopted later in life or through DNA testing). You don't need to have had a difficult adoption to benefit from this work. Many of my clients had loving families and still carry unresolved questions, grief, or relationship patterns connected to adoption.
This is a good fit if you're processing DNA results, weighing a search for birth family, navigating a reunion or its aftermath, noticing adoption-related responses in your relationships or parenting, or finding that identity questions have grown more pressing with time.
This may not be the right fit if you need help locating birth family members (I can refer you to search resources), require medication management, or need immediate crisis stabilization.
About Summer
I'm Summer Verhines, Licensed Clinical Social Worker (Maryland LCSW-C #34104) with C.A.S.E. certification in adoption competency. C.A.S.E. (the Center for Adoption Support and Education) provides the leading training program for therapists working with adoptees.
I worked in child welfare and adoptions for nine years before becoming a therapist. I sat with hundreds of families navigating the adoption system: birth families, adoptive families, and the children at the center of it all. Many of those children are now adults carrying the same questions and complicated feelings you are.
If you're an adult adoptee in Baltimore or anywhere in Maryland, and you’re ready to work on any of this, you can schedule a session or reach out through the contact form below.
Online Therapy for Adult Adoptees Throughout Maryland
All sessions are through secure telehealth. You can work with me from your home in Baltimore, Towson, Columbia, Ellicott City, Pikesville, Lutherville, Catonsville, Owings Mills, Hunt Valley, or anywhere in Maryland.
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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The first session is a conversation. You tell me what's going on, what brought you here, and what you want to change. I ask questions to understand your adoption history, your current responses, and what feels most urgent. We don't jump into EMDR or Brainspotting on day one. Most clients start body-based work in sessions two or three, once we have a clear picture of what we're working on and you feel ready. The first session is also your chance to see whether working together feels like a good fit.
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Yes. Infant adoption involves separation from a biological parent during the period when your nervous system was forming its baseline understanding of safety and attachment. Even in the most loving adoptive home, that early experience can shape responses in relationships, self-worth, and identity that persist into adulthood. Having a good childhood and carrying adoption-related effects are not contradictory. Both can be true at the same time.
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Yes. Race and adoption are deeply intertwined for transracial adoptees, and separating them rarely helps. Growing up in a family that didn't share your racial background, particularly in a city like Baltimore where race is central to how communities are organized and understood, creates specific experiences around belonging and identity. I work with transracial adoptees regularly and understand how these layers interact.
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If your previous therapy was talk-based, you likely developed a strong understanding of your adoption-related responses without being able to change the underlying reactions. Body-based approaches like EMDR, Brainspotting, and ART work with the nervous system directly, which is where adoption-related responses are stored. The understanding you already have is an asset, it means we can move quickly into the deeper work rather than spending months building a foundation.
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Sessions are $250. I'm a private pay practice, which means I don't bill insurance directly. After each session, I provide a detailed receipt called a superbill that you can submit to your insurance company, and depending on your plan, they may reimburse you for a significant portion of the cost. You can call the number on the back of your insurance card and ask "do I have out-of-network mental health benefits?" to find out before we start.
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No. You need to be physically located anywhere in Maryland during our sessions because my license (LCSW-C #34104) covers the entire state.