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THE MEHTA FAMILY
“We have learned how to be honest and open, and learned how to prioritize our family relationship throughout our experience in Adoption Support Preservation Services.” – Mehta family
The Mehta family reached out to the Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation Program (ASAP) at Metropolitan DuPage for help working through the struggles they faced as newly adoptive parents.
| They adopted Aanya (name changed to protect the family’s privacy) from India as a way to expand their family. Since 2018, the family has worked together with their therapist, Katy Bray, LCSW, learning how to best support their daughter.
Initially, Aanya’s defiant behavior, and its effect on how the family functioned, concerned them. Now that they more clearly understand her trauma, and its roots in attachment losses due to the separation from her birth mother and the time she spent in an orphanage during her early life without one-on-one attention, they’re better equipped to move forward together. |
 Katy Bray, LCSW |
Aanya’s parents share at first it felt difficult to open up to Katy, especially given stigmas and cultural concerns they faced, related to adoption and receiving mental health services. They even took a break from the ASAP program, but when they recommitted to services, they did so with a new approach.
The Mehta family decided to work through their vulnerabilities with being honest about their challenges in the home, attachment concerns, and their parenting style. With Katy’s support and the help of a strategy called Trust-Based Relational Intervention, Aanya’s parents began to process their own struggles and build a relationship with Aanya using a connecting approach, as opposed to a discipline approach.
Katy continues to help the family use therapy as a safe place to be honest and vulnerable; even as they embrace virtual services. Individually and as a family, they’ve made progress by building attachment into their everyday routines, discussing their feelings and emotions, and parenting from a more trauma-focused place.
“There are still areas of development for the Mehta family to explore,” Katy shares, “but for the first time they’re ready to take on these challenges to better manage their family.”
ABOUT THE ADOPTION AND GUARDIANSHIP SUPPORT & PRESERVATION PROGRAM
Adoption and Guardianship Support and Preservation provides home-based intervention to families formed through adoption or subsidized guardianship. Counseling, crisis intervention and 24-hour on-call assistance help address adjustment, grief/loss resolution, attachment, educational and emotional issues. This DCFS-supported program also provides therapeutic respite services, psycho-educational and support groups, workshops, and help securing resources.