Adoption Counselling in New Brunswick
Adoption is often talked about as a beautiful act of love—and it can be. But it can also come with grief, questions about identity, complicated family dynamics and big emotions that are hard to put into words.
Whether you’re an adoptee, an adoptive parent or a birth/first parent, your experience is valid. You may be grieving the family you imagined, wondering where you truly belong or struggling to support a child who is acting out in ways you don’t understand.
At Laura Gatien & Associates, our therapists offer a safe, nonjudgmental space to explore your story, make sense of your feelings and find a path forward that feels grounded and hopeful.
Adoption can bring joy and heartbreak, and you don’t have to navigate it alone. Our qualified, compassionate therapists support people with several adoption-related challenges, including:
Exploring Identity, Loss, and Belonging
Adoption can bring up questions about identity, culture, and where you fit. We help you make sense of these feelings with compassion.
Explore identity, culture, and belonging
Process feelings of abandonment, rejection, or being “different”
Make room for both love and grief without guilt
how we can help
Supporting Attachment and Relationships
Adoption can shape how we trust, connect, and relate to others. We help families strengthen bonds and navigate complex relationships.
Strengthen attachment between parents and children
Understand behaviours rooted in trauma
Improve communication within adoptive or blended families
Navigate boundaries with birth/first families
Processing Grief, Trauma, and Big Emotions
Adoption often carries layers of loss and unresolved emotions. We offer a safe space to process grief and heal from early experiences.
Acknowledge grief that others may not recognize
Work through early-life trauma and disrupted attachments
Learn tools for managing anxiety, depression, anger, or numbness
Practical Tools for Everyday Life
Support isn’t just emotional—it’s also practical. We help you build strategies that make day-to-day life feel more manageable.
Create routines to support emotional regulation
Develop self-care practices for overwhelmed parents
Prepare scripts for difficult conversations
Navigate milestones like birthdays, adoption anniversaries, or reunions
Who we work with
Adoptees (Children, Teens and Adults): You might wonder about your origins, identity or culture, feel torn between your adoptive family and your curiosity about your birth family, or struggle with trust, self-worth or feeling like you truly belong anywhere. We support you in understanding adoption-related trauma, responding to your child in attuned ways, and caring for your own mental health so you can show up as the parent you want to be.
Adoptive Parents: You might feel overwhelmed by your child’s behaviours, struggle with guilt, frustration or fear about the future, and want to honour your child’s story while also feeling unsure how much to share and when. We support you in understanding adoption-related trauma, responding to your child in attuned ways, and caring for your own mental health so you can show up as the parent you want to be.
Birth / First Parents: If you’re carrying deep grief about the child you placed for adoption, question whether you made the “right” decision or feel unsure about your place in your child’s life now, we offer a compassionate, nonjudgmental space to process your experience, honour your role, and explore what healing might look like for you.
Families Navigating Open Adoption or Reunion: We also support families working through open adoption dynamics, adoptees and birth parents preparing for or processing reunion, and extended family members trying to understand their role.
How It Works
The first step in connecting with someone who can support adoption in New Brunswick is to either fill out our intake form or book directly with one of our counsellors online. If you’re not sure who to book in with, you can take our therapist matching quiz — a quick and easy way to connect with an available therapist who’s the right fit for your journey. Alternatively, you can call our booking coordinator at 506-651-1239 Ext. 1 to get matched right over the phone. Our booking coordinator takes great care in thoughtfully matching you with a therapist who fits your needs, preferences and availability.
Sessions are flexible, available both in-person and virtually across New Brunswick and designed to meet you where you are.
How often you attend sessions is discussed collaboratively and is based on your needs and schedule.
You are always in control of your therapy, working at your own pace, and can choose the frequency and length to best suit your needs.
Sessions with a registered social worker (RSW) or licensed counselling therapist (LCT) are $150 for 50 minutes.
For specialty therapy, including Family, Couples, TRIP, EMDR, ART or Play Therapy, sessions are $160 for 50 minutes.
How much does adoption counselling cost?
Is counselling covered by insurance?
Our counselling fees are not covered by Medicare but are covered by many extended health insurance plans.
Our clinic has therapists who are either registered social workers (RSW) or Licensed Counselling Therapists (LCT).
You must check your specific plan for what you have coverage for, as coverage is different for each policy. Verify that your plan covers counselling/therapy with a MSW, RSW or LCT. Your insurance may state you have coverage for clinical counsellor or psychotherapist, which would cover LCT or social worker.
We also offer direct billing with many different insurance companies, which allows you to keep more money in your pocket. We can direct bill Blue Cross, Veterans Affairs (VAC), Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Canada Life, Claim Secure, Chamber of Commerce, Work Safe, NIHB, Department of Social Development, and more provided your plan is set up for direct billing. Your are still responsible for any co-pay amounts at the time of service.
About Laura Gatien & Associates
At Laura Gatien & Associates, we take a proactive and collaborative approach to mental health treatment, offering clients access a diverse team of professionals with various expertise and specialties who learn from and can refer to one another. We take a holistic approach to treatment and believe everything makes perfect sense in the context of your life experiences.
Quality care is very important to us as a team, and we ensure this is upheld through regular clinical meetings, ongoing professional development and training opportunities, as well as using evidence-based frameworks. This helps us provide you with the best care for your individual needs so you can make progress sooner.
Our clients benefit from shared resources that exist within a team and the peace of mind that they are not just working with an individual, but are part of a broader mental health community learning and growing together.
We prioritize accessibility and availability of services, providing limited wait times and evening appointments to accommodate diverse schedules. We will regularly ask for feedback on your experience here so we can continue to improve.
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