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Anna’s Story: Life-Saving Therapy

Anna was adopted at the age of one from China in the early 2000s. Like many people who were adopted, she struggled with mental health throughout her childhood and teenage years. Her mother, Abigail, was determined to find her help. She turned to The Cradle’s adoption-competent therapists — a decision that changed their lives. 

Prior to finding The Cradle, Anna was taken to various kinds of doctors to seek treatment for her mental health challenges. Abigail said many of these visits were unhelpful. “None of the pediatricians, psychologists or neuropsychologists ever considered Anna’s [adoption] history in evaluating her. As a result, she was misdiagnosed for years. She had alphabet soup in her medical chart: ADHD, ODD, RAD, etc.” 

Due to her misdiagnoses, Anna was heavily medicated. Abigail said the effects were often extreme. “She was medicated to the point of suicide. I was told she would likely develop serious mental illness and would spend her life in residential care.” Abigail was also told that Anna would likely never graduate from college. 

Abigail began to seek a different approach in treatment for Anna and brought her to The Cradle. “Six months after starting therapy with an experienced post-adoption therapist, she was medication-free and stabilized,” Abigail said. “Her performance in school improved. She became more confident, self-accepting and started to let go of the deep shame she felt about being adopted.” 

One of the most powerful moments in Anna’s therapy was a trip to The Cradle Nursery, a safe place where babies can be cared for while their parents figure out how or if they can parent their child. Anna’s counselor introduced her to a six-week-old baby, the same age she was when she was placed for adoption. “We talked about how sweet the baby was, and how there was nothing that tiny baby could have done to make his mother choose to place him for adoption. Seeing that newborn infant really helped Anna internalize that her adoption was not because she was a ‘bad baby,’” Abigail said. 

This treatment not only helped Anna, but also provided support for Abigail and the rest of their family. “I think that the guidance I received in parenting was probably as important as the work The Cradle did with Anna,” Abigail said. “[The counselors] gave me tools to parent her, acknowledge her pain and advocate for her. Because of post-adoption counseling, I was able to ask for accommodations in her school that gave her the support she needed. Since then, she has become very good at advocating for herself.” 

Today, Anna continues to thrive. “She is doing very well now. With the help of experienced post-adoption counselors, she has the skills to deal with many of the emotional challenges of adoption,” Abigail said. “Maybe the most important piece is that she recognizes that she was not placed for adoption because she was somehow not good enough. She is able to grieve the losses. It’s not easy, but post-adoption counseling laid a strong foundation.” 

In May of 2024, Anna graduated college and her story is just beginning. “It’s hard for me to articulate how important post-adoption counseling was for our family,” Abigail said. “It pulled Anna back from the brink, saved her life and gave her tools to be a confident, capable and absolutely amazing young woman.”