Adult Adoptee Resources

Hi! I am Teresa, a clinical social worker who is passionate about supporting adoptees, first/birth families and adoptive families. I am an adoptive parent with extensive experience supporting my child through relational trauma, transitions, neurodevelopment differences and sensory. I also have a long professional history of supporting family reunification, birth parent rights, open permanency set ups and culturally appropriate permanency outcomes.

HELP Program Specialist with over a decade of direct work experience in Child Welfare in five Midwestern states; specifically in foster care, adoption (foster care/ international/ domestic infant), foster care licensing, crisis intervention, and school social work. 

Address:
Foster Adopt Minnesota
2446 University Ave. W
Suite 140
Minneapolis, MN 55114

My vocational calling is to support the psychological and spiritual well-being of children, adolescents, and adults within adoptive, foster, and kinship family systems. My specialties involve working with individuals navigating adoption- and foster-related transitions, grief and loss, identity development, early and complex trauma, and attachment disruptions, as well as developmental differences and relational challenges. I approach this work with an understanding of how these experiences unfold across the lifespan and within the context of family and relational systems.

I am a Korean American transracial, transcultural, and transnational adoptee, a licensed clinical social worker, and the co-owner of a group mental health practice in Minneapolis. I also serve as the co-interim Director of Training and Clinical Supervision, supporting clinical trainees and pre-licensed therapists through developmentally informed supervision, training, and mentorship. In these roles, I intentionally balance direct clinical work with leadership and systems-level work to support both ethical practice and sustainable care.

I enjoy working with all members of the adoption community. I use a cognitive behavior therapy approach to understanding the beliefs and emotions affecting the problem behaviors in the family. I also am an adoptee in reunion and enjoy working with adult adoptees interested in searching for their history.

Address:
Sharon Stein McNamara ED.D., Psychology Inc
4700 Lexington Avenue N
Suite B
Shoreview, MN 55126

Anita Smith has been counseling since 2006; working with families, children and women. She served on the Minnesota State Minnesota State Advisory Board for Permanency in Adoption from 2014 - 2018. She also works adjunct faculty at Bethany Lutheran College.

Address:
WLCFS Christian Family Counseling
421 East Hickory Street
Suite #402
Mankato, MN 56001

Cam’s personal experience as an international adoptee from Korea informs and inspires his current professional work. He formed his own private practice, Therapy Redeemed, in 2018, to raise awareness and respond to the mental health needs of adoptees and their families wherever they may be in their adoption journey. Cam is PACC certified and registered as an accredited service provider through TAC via Center for Adoption Support and Education. He is also a vetted clinician with Foster Adopt MN.

Maggie works directly with adults, couples and families. Although she is a generalist, she has a special interest in supporting parents, caregivers and families though complex family dynamics including challenging child behavior, family trauma, parenting through separation and divorce, blended families and families formed through adoption. She has advanced training working with members of the adoption and foster/kinship care triad (PACC - Permanency and Adoption Competency Certified).

Erin earned her Master’s of Social Work from the University of North Dakota in 2019, following her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Argosy University in 2006. She has been working with individuals impacted by trauma since 2006, bringing extensive experience from various settings, including residential chemical dependency treatment, community-based mental health, school-based, outpatient mental health and chemical dependency, and community social work consultation.

Nicole is a licensed psychotherapist and clinical supervisor at Mental Health Systems (MHS) in Roseville, MN. At MHS, she facilitates Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) groups and provides mindfulness-based individual therapy to adolescents (16+) and adults. Nicole has clinical, research and training, community development, and lived experience in transracial/transnational adoption, birth family search/reunion, suicide/prevention, mindfulness, trauma, identity development, and life transitions.