Marcy Axness, Ph.D., is an early development specialist, adjunct professor at Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, and parent counselor. Using as a narrative foundation her experience as an adoptee and a mother, she writes and speaks internationally on adoption, attachment, and parenting, and is a leading expert on prenatal and perinatal development. Dr. Axness has a private counseling practice in the Los Angeles area specializing in fertility, adoption, and early parenting; she also educates professionals in adoption, education and childcare on new findings in early development and their implications for practice. Her Quantum Parenting approach weaves together scientific and spiritual principles to guide clients in supporting their children's optimal development, while helping them realize their magnificent potential as parents.
About the Adoption Column
by Marci Axness
Adoption is not a single event, but a complex lifelong process. Adoption is not a simplistic happy, "everybody wins" situation, as it tends to be portrayed in our culture. Tremendous blessings can be experienced by all the participants in adoption, but we must never forget that those blessings are born of loss--the loss for the birthparents of a child they will not parent; the loss of their dreamed-of biological children that infertile adoptive parents will never have; and the loss for the adopted child of his or her biological, geneological, and possibly cultural connections.The APPPAH Adoption Column will specifically explore the pre- and perinatal aspects of adoption, including the experience of loss and trauma, the potential for intimacy and healing within the adoptive family, avenues for adult healing, and the exciting frontiers of what greater pre- and perinatal consciousness can mean for future adopted children and their parents.
Suggestions and contributions to this column are invited and can be addressed to Marcy Axness.