Until recently, the law in the UK prohibited counsellors from working with clients where their presenting issue was adoption (whether their own or someone in their family). Now that the law has changed to allow counsellors to work with adults who want to discuss adoption, what does this mean for practitioners? Is what we already do in counselling practice enough or are there pockets of knowledge we may be missing for this client group?

In this talk, Jenny will examine some of the issues that arise in work around adoption and how these differ from work with other client groups, especially thinking about attachment trauma and how an adopted person’s early life experiences impact on their relationships throughout life.

Jenny Pillar completed her therapy training at the University of Manchester in 2012 and has practiced in a number of settings including the NHS, youth counselling, men’s counselling and running a staff support service for a global NGO. She is the Founder and Clinical Director of Counselling Carers – a social enterprise that works with carers from all walks of life. She has a particular interest in supporting adopters, foster carers and others who care for children with early life trauma and uses an approach informed primarily by Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy. Alongside her role at Counselling Carers, she is also a psychotherapist in private practice.