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Jennifer Joy Phoenix, MSSW, LSWAIC, MHP

Adoption Savvy Therapist

Hi! My name is Jennifer Joy Phoenix, LSWAIC. I am a Licensed Social Work Associate Clinician and Mental Health Professional in the State of Washington. I specialize in working with children, teens, adults, and families impacted by adoption, foster care, trauma, attachment challenges, and grief. I am also the First Mom of a young adult daughter in an open adoption. My passion, both professionally and personally, is to bring hope and healing to the adoption community, through providing attachment-focused therapy services and parent coaching to those in the adoption constellation.

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 I currently have a telehealth focused private practice as an adoption and trauma therapist in Yakima, WA. I also offer teleconference consultation and (first/adoptive) parent coaching to those who live out of the area, as a way to help remove the barriers associated with accessing truly adoption-competent (or as we like to say, Adoption Savvy) services. I strongly believe each person has the ability to become their best self when given opportunities to move through the roadblocks that keep us stuck. I meet my clients where they are and support them as we navigate together toward overcoming. 

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I graduated from the University of Washington with my Bachelor in Social Welfare in 2014 where I spent time in Child Welfare and later as a Social Worker at an adoption agency. In 2017 I graduated with my Masters of Arts in Clinical Social Work from Columbia University and returned to the Pacific Northwest to continue to support adoptive families, birth parents, and adoptees. In 2019 I was certified in Attachment and Trauma Focused Therapy (ATFT), with Deborah Gray and I have had the honored opportunity to train other professionals alongside her as she helps other clinicians become adoption savvy. In 2022 I completed a Post-Graduate Certificate in Relationally Focused Psychodynamic Theory (RFPT) through the Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. 

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I utilize Family Systems Theory, Attachment Theory, TF-CBT, ATFT, Sand Tray, RFPT, and Filial Play Therapy, and am trained in the PATCh Program (Parenting Adopted and Traumatized Children). which includes 12-16 weeks of individual attachment and attunement therapy and 6 weeks of group therapy. I work from a strength-based, attachment and relational therapeutic approach, believing relationships are key to how we understand and move through the world. It is through breaks in relationship (attachment) where the deepest harm happens, so it is within relationship that our healing must occur.  I am passionate about helping parents learn parenting techniques that increase secure attachment with their children so they can be a safe base for their child to explore the world. Each person has strengths we can identify and use as a starting place for growth and change. I enjoy working with people from all developmental and chronological ages. 

 

Amy Barker, LMHC has been my mentor, colleague, and dear friend since 2011 when we met at the Refresh Conference (a local conference for foster and adoptive families) and decided to get coffee as we learned we share many of the same passions for those impacted by trauma, foster care, and adoption. We soon started our Seattle Area Birth Mom Club, recognizing the need for therapeutic services for the birth/first mother community in the Pacific Northwest. We co-facilitated our first annual Northwest Birth/First Mother's Retreat shortly thereafter and continue to offer annual Retreats in the Seattle area. Amy and I facilitate various events, groups, and retreats for adult adoptees, adoptive families, and birth/first mothers throughout the year. I live in Yakima WA with my special needs brother and my crazy-eyed Boston Terrier/French Bulldog mix, Abu-Doggie.

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My fee-for-service for a 55 minute session is $125 and may be partially covered by Adoption Support for those adopted from foster care. 

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To inquire my services or to request an appointment, click here.

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