Wednesday, July 18, 2018

HOW I BECAME THE ADOPTION MAVEN

My mom is the wind beneath my wings. She always was and still is. She believed in me and what I could achieve, personally and professionally. 


She’s the one who, so many years ago, raised adoption as the path for me to fulfill my dream of motherhood. She and my dad provided emotional and financial support throughout the process. They welcomed 2 granddaughters with open arms. Their love always apparent. Their relationships with my daughters no different than with my sister’s biological sons. The cousins interacting like any others. 


My personal and professional lives merged in 1986, when I started the adoption process. Since then, I have counseled individuals, couples, expectant and birth parents in parenting and adoption options and have provided parenting advice. I conducted homestudies and post placements for domestic and international adoptions. I supervised and trained professionals and administratively ran a private adoption program for 23 years. Simultaneously, I was raising my 2 daughters. 

When my mom suggested I expand my private practice as The Adoption Maven (formerly the Short-Term Therapy Network), it seemed right.  

I love the process of helping people decide if adoption is right for them; of figuring out what type and which professionals to work with; of getting you through the process and supporting you in navigating everyday parenting. I welcome facilitating your discovery of who you are and how you view adoption and parenting; of expediting your decisions and plans; of watching you learn how parenting through adoption is different and of seeing you handle those complexities with confidence. 

It is a pleasure and privilege to work with you each and every day. To share what I know from my professional training and my own adoption journey and to pass along what I have learned from all the families I have worked with over the years. As a bonus, I get to pass along all the parenting advice my mom has passed on to me. 

A maven is someone who not only has knowledge, but shares what they know. And that's me.

Kathy Ann Brodsky, LCSW is a New York and New Jersey licensed social worker, adoptive mom and advocate for ethical adoption practice. Through her private practice and agency affiliations, she has prepared thousands of adoption homestudies, counseled expectant, birth, pre/post adoptive parents and adopted persons, as well as trained professionals to work with adoptive families. She was Director of the Ametz Adoption Program of JCCA and a member of the Advisory Board for POV’s Adoption Series and is currently a member of the Adoption Advisory Board of Path2Parenthood, Adoption Professional Advisory Council of HelpUSAdopt and active in the Adoptive Parents Committee in New York. Her blogs and written contributions can be seen throughout the Internet, including her BLOG and as Head Writer for ADOPTION.NET  She was named an “Angel in Adoption” by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption in 2001. You can reach her directly at EMAIL