Counseling

Are you looking for someone who truly understands the adoptee experience?

As an adoptee, I know how life-changing it can be for you to work with a therapist who recognizes this unique journey, who can make space to honor your story, and help you navigate complex emotions and nuanced circumstances with clarity and confidence.

Schedule a Free Consultation

The adoption journey can feel isolating, confusing, and exhausting at times.

It’s not uncommon for an adoptee to struggle with questions about identity, belonging, grief, family, and general mental health barriers that others don’t understand.

You might feel:

Misunderstood when expressing complex feelings about your adoption experience
Frustrated when told you should just feel “grateful” or “lucky”
Uncertain about how to navigate relationships with multiple family systems (birth, foster, adoptive, partner, etc.)
Tension about cultural and racial-ethnic identities, especially in transracial and international adoption
Unsure how to process ambiguous losses and traumas and that can be associated with the adoption experience

These feelings aren’t wrong – they’re a natural part of the adoptee journey that needs warm, thoughtful recognition and support.

You Don’t Have to Navigate This Road Alone

I’ve dedicated my career to supporting adoptees through:

Creating my framework of Adoption Literacy to address the unique needs of adoptees
Writing The Adoptee’s Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowerment
Training other professionals through the Permanency & Adoption Competency Certificate program
Speaking at TEDx Minneapolis and being featured on CBS Minnesota about adoption experiences

I believe you are worth being heard, honored, and empowered for a life of meaning and satisfaction.

Your Path to Healing and Empowerment

Here’s how we’ll work together:

Connect: Schedule a free 15-minute consultation to see if we’re a good fit
Explore: Share your story in a safe, judgment-free space where all feelings are welcome
Process: Work through questions, grief, trauma, transitions, personal and vocational goals, interpersonal skills-building, significant relationships, general mental health, etc.
Practice: Develop personalized tools and strategies to navigate adoption-related challenges with clarity and confidence
Flourish: Cultivate a life where your lived experience with and through adoption can become a source of strength and new possibilities

In our sessions, you’ll gain practical tools for navigating adoption-related challenges while developing a deeper understanding of your unique story and those around you.

Take the First Step on Your Journey

The path to healing begins with being truly seen and heard.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

Or call now to schedule your appointment: 952-333-4688

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Subscribe to Cam’s monthly newsletter here – stay up to date with resources, info about events, and exclusive content related to adoption and mental health.

***Visit FAQ below for rates and other details***

or email Cam – therapyredeemed@gmail.com

Can you imagine a world where we as adoptees can…

Feel confident in the personal and social identities we hold as adoptees
Speak truth about our adoption stories with clarity and confidence
Navigate relationships within and beyond our family systems with boundaries and grace
Draw near to our cultural heritage in ways that feel alive and authentic
Transform our adoptee experiences into a source of wisdom and strength

After our work together, many of my clients report feeling a sense of relief in being able to finally “say something out loud for once” and share their stories “without having to always explain myself.” There’s mutual understanding along with nourishment and growth. An empowerment to navigate the realities that we face from season to season.

“Working with Cam was the first time I felt someone truly understood the nuances of my story without making me feel judged for feeling the way I do.” -Former Client

The Cost of Staying Silent

I wrote about this more in-depth at Rewriting Adoption.

Without appropriate support, adoptees may continue to struggle with:

Unaddressed grief and ambiguous loss that can have an impact on relationships and self-worth
Layers of confusion around identity that may contribute to anxieties and depressive symptoms
Difficulty with attachment-related dynamics in relationships, personally and professionally
Cultural disconnections and challenges with racial-ethnic realities
The burden of navigating adoptee-related microaggressions alone

The good news is that these challenges don’t have to define your future!

With the right support, there’s a way forward that leads to healing, health, and hope-driven transformation – individually and collectively.

Adoption Literacy is a community promise to connect every adoptee on the planet with the support they need.

That includes equipping adoptees, parents, and allies with relevant, adoptee-informed resources, at any age and stage in their journey.

INTAKE SESSION

You’re navigating the adoption process, you feel exhausted, or maybe just curious. Either way, you believe the best is on its way and it’s worth it to walk there with someone who understands.

As an adoptee, you want to explore and settle into your identity. You’re looking for gentle yet honest guidance through your turbulence. You want peace. You want clarity. And perhaps for those who are parents, you’re desperate to connect with and support those needs. You’re hungry for practical ways to care for the ones you love. You need encouragement, guidance, affirmation, maybe even a moment just for yourself.

Cam Lee Small, author, clinician in private practice, and dynamic advocate for mental health and Adoption Literacy, brings lived experience and professional expertise to the forefront of his mission. His work has been featured by TEDx Minneapolis, CBS Minnesota, National Council for Adoption, Christianity Today, University of Minnesota School of Social Work, and Center for Adoption Support and Education. Cam’s services are positioned so that for the first or hundredth time (both are therapeutic), you’d sit back or rise up in the relief of knowing you’re not alone.

Life is busy in the 21st century, practical adoptee-sensitive help is also more accessible now than ever before.

This is designed to be as simple as possible for you!

Choose from online individual, family, and group support options. We do our best work when we co-create the counseling experience according to your unique and local needs, goals, strengths, and availabilities.

Take your first step and schedule your intake session.

INDIVIDUALIZED ADOPTION SUPPORT PLANS

General Adoption Support: How long, wide, deep and high is the need for support in an individual’s adoption experience? Work together with Cam to decide what you need most during this specific season of your journey. This is informed by Cam’s clinical background as well as his personal expertise as an adult transracial adoptee.

Teen Mentorship: This is a guided curriculum based on Cam’s book This is Why I Was Adopted. It allows for exploration on topics related to adoption as well as topics/issues that go far beyond adoption-specific needs. Work with Cam to draft and walk through a personalized plan for your family.

Parent Guidance: Receive one-on-one guidance as you seek to learn about and implement adoption-informed practices in your unique/specific family situation (this is for grown-ups only). Themes include race/ethnicity, attachment, birth family, transracial family dynamics, academic concerns, emotional/behavioral needs, identity development and independent living skills.

Trauma & Recovery: Receive education and guided support through a trauma-informed lens. You’ll explore past and current knowledge regarding “trauma” as described in clinical literature, with Cam you’ll also co-create a process for making meaning in your own story as you master and integrate important pieces of your narrative.

Depression/Anxiety: Feeling down and worried is normal. It’s a normal response to past, present, and future threat(s). Let’s sit with that and explore what you need in order to feel more in control of these very essential and human experiences.

Schedule Your Intake Session Here

FAQ

If you are experiencing a crisis, please contact your local crisis resource hotline or call 911. The links here are also provided as secondary information to support you as immediate needs arise.

Fees: Cam’s individual online video-based services are $150-$250 per week (45-minute session over a secure, online, HIPPA compliant software). These sessions are private/self pay (we hesitate to work with insurance as they typically require us to diagnose, a process that we see as potentially helpful but in the long-run we prefer to pass as diagnostic labels of “disorder” can often feel pathologizing for individuals and to those around them).

Referrals: We understand this particular arrangement can be a challenge for some; if needed we are more than happy to work together with families to find suitable/comparable services in their area.

Community Support: It’s also common for families that we work with to enlist the financial support of other family members, church partnerships, or other means of raising funds to support their mental health and healing process.

MN License #cc02017 | WI License #7543-125 | NPI #127006215