HEATHER GONZALES, LPC

As an adult adoptee, I am especially interested in working with non-traditional families (including fellow adoptees, kinship or fostered people, and those who may have lost a parent due to death, divorce, deportation, or other separation), as well as those looking for help parenting children and teens with unique needs. Adoptees and their families frequently fall into this unique needs category— including, but not limited to trauma, grief, adverse childhood experiences, attachment injury, relinquishment/removal, identity, relationship issues, and reunion. I am dedicated to supporting healthy family relationships and building bridges toward better communication for couples, families, and parent-child dynamics affected by these difficult experiences. I have spent the past 10 years processing my own experiences and working to specialize in serving the adoption community as a whole. I have a strong commitment to self-education, reading and studying extensively on these topics in addition to my formal training, and use this knowledge to offer adoptee counseling. This education is enhanced and guided by my personal lived experience, my own work toward healing, my active participation within the adoption community, and years of listening and supporting other adopted, fostered, and kinshipped people of all ages, as well as their families.

I individualize my sessions to draw on each client’s unique strengths to meet their personal needs, and enjoy using art-based interventions including drawing, collage, metaphor, music, literature or poetry, and various other mediums when possible. I offer an active approach to therapy and use exercises and homework outside of sessions for those who want it. Using my passion for art, education, inclusivity, and teamwork, I strive to find new ways to support the adoptive, foster, and kinship (AFK) community and all the diversity found within it. I value the worth and dignity of all people and am committed to supporting and empowering those whose voices have been marginalized or silenced . I seek to empathically engage with clients and together work toward creating an increased sense of autonomy, empowerment, self-awareness, individual identity, internal validation, personal integration, genuine presence, and peace. Regardless of where you find yourself today, I am ready to partner with anyone ready to grow and work toward change.

Heather has a bachelor’s degree in Art Therapy from Capital University, a Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling from Pennsylvania Western University, and additional training from educational workshops and conferences on trauma, attachment, adoption, dissociation, and art therapy.

Focus/Specializations:

  • Using creativity, art, and metaphor to enhance expression and processing- for interested youth and adults.

  • Adoption- Pre & post adoption

  • Trauma- developmental, complex, generational, and interpersonal

  • Attachment issues and injury

  • Grief and loss

  • Behavioral health and related issues

  • Relinquishment or removal isssues

  • Reunion -within adoption

  • Trauma informed parenting

  • Adoption specific parenting

  • Supporting adoptive parents wanting healthier relationships with their adult adoptee children

  • Transitions to a new home or a return to home after residential care

Benefits of Using Art, Images, & Sand Tray in Sessions:

  • Offers increased flexibility to create sessions around the client’s needs since “1-size-fits-all” does not apply to therapy

  • Offers way to express emotions and/or experiences that are nonverbal (implicit), or hard to verbalize due to traumatic content or age/development of client’s verbal skills

  • Is experiential and offers a source of sensory input, and/or inherent movement/ kinesthetic experience

  • Offers a way to distance self from issues and/or trauma that increases felt safety

  • Offers elements of control and independent decision making in creation

  • Includes symbolism and metaphor to increase reflection and integration

  • Offers a lasting record of therapy that can be kept or referenced by those who choose to do so

  • Encourages creative and flexible problem solving

  • Offers a container/way to contain intense emotions and experiences that feel overwhelming

  • Offers way to engage in family sessions (youth and parents) in a more inclusive or more “equal playing field” way to interact and communicate

  • More information on these and other benefits can be found in the book Expressive Therapies, Edited by Cathy Malchiodi

Consultation

Consultation offers a short term context in which to ask questions and better understand a certain problem, situation , or case

For Parents

  • For those considering at what age they should I tell their adoptee child their whole story?

  • For those considering- how should I talk about sensitive or traumatic information such as: prostitution, drug addiction, conception by rape, etc?

  • For those considering adoption - What are some important things to think through.

  • For those trying to figure out what their role, healthy boundaries etc, as their adopted child navigates reunion.

  • For those interested in learning how to communicate better with their adopted child.

For Adoptees

  • For those who want to talk to someone who has been adopted and who has experienced the hard work that processing this can be

  • For those who are trying to navigate reunion

For Agencies, Nonprofits, and. other Mental Health Organizations

  • For organizations trying to provide more thoughtful and appropriate services, programs, trainings, or presentations related to the experience of relinquishment and adoption

  • For a consult for 1 or more other therapists working with an adoptee/adoptive familiy.

  • To refer adoptee clients