In a world where stress, depression, and anxiety overwhelm many people from an early age.
Where healthcare systems are filled with gaps - and areas of our existential life are not included.
Especially for foster kids and adoptees, the pain in the soul of not belonging, the loss of identity, and the fear of being abandoned again can become an embodied prison and manifest as...
Anxiety Performance Anxiety Chronic Stress Hopelessness Depression
From a Sexual Health and Reproductive Rights (SRHR) perspective, these are connected. Our mental health and sexual health are always intertwined, unfortunately, often alongside sexism and racism.
Chronic stress and burnout disrupt our behavioral patterns, including how we experience arousal and intimate connections.
Anxiety can give us a constant feeling of “not being enough”, and affect how we show up in our relationships.
My approach starts with what majority of families and adults would address as the toolkit in their relationships:
Intimacy
Connection &
Love
These are the key values and areas of importance for adoptees and individuals with experience in the foster care system?
Foster kids and adoptees need support to navigate their different intersecting identities, including their sexual identity.
Feeling enough as a person and a partner may be the most important value for someone who struggles with feeling chosen and accepted.
Knowing how to build and establish intimate connections, partnerships, and friendships is crucial for feeling safe and for reducing depression and hopelessness.