TITLE: Non-Adoptee Therapists (nominated by an adoptee)

DESCRIPTION:

This unique panel features non-adoptee therapists who have been nominated by adoptees for their allyship, compassion, and adoption-competent practice. Panelists will share their perspectives on working with adoptees, how they have become adoption-competent and continue educating themselves on adoption related topics, and the methods by which they strive to support healing without imposing assumptions. This discussion uplifts models of allyship in therapeutic spaces.

Points to Ponder:

What does it mean to be an ally to adoptees in therapy?
What approaches signal genuine awareness and responsiveness to adoptee experiences?
What barriers exist in professional spaces that prevent adoptee-centered support, and how can they be addressed?
What role do adoptees themselves play in shaping the therapeutic approach?

PANELISTS:

Kelly DiBenedetto, LMHC (she/her)

Kelly is a Licensed Mental Health Therapist and Art Therapist whose work has centered members of the adoption constellation since 2011. In her current private practice, she supports teenagers and adults across the adoption constellation, guiding them on a path toward deeper understanding and lasting healing. Drawing on a blend of methods, including Art Therapy and Internal Family Systems, she helps clients learn to identify, explore, and build relationships with their own parts and wise self. Previously, Kelly helped to establish, run, and provide clinical therapy, supervision, and training at the nonprofit, Boston Post Adoption Resources (BPAR), in Brookline, MA. She is honored to be nominated to this panel and to highlight the ways in which a therapist, despite not having a personal tie to adoption, can care deeply and have the clinical knowledge to provide the therapeutic care all adoptees and anyone else touched by adoption deserves.

Silvia Gozzini, LMFT (she/her)

Silvia Gozzini is an ally and trusted friend to adoptees, whose presence in her life—both personal and professional—has profoundly shaped her understanding of identity, belonging, and family. Born and raised in Italy, Silvia moved to the United States at age 24. Soon after, she began volunteering with Adoption Mosaic and later joined the organization professionally. Through this work, she developed a nuanced awareness of adoption, which she further deepened in her work as a psychotherapist.

Today, Silvia is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Portland, Oregon. She supports individuals, couples and families navigating intersecting identities, with a focus on nationality, place, and belonging—areas she approaches with both personal humility and clinical integrity. She is honored by the invitation to be on this panel where she will without a doubt be more of a learner than a teacher.

Dayna L Sanders (she/they)

Dayna Sanders is a mixed race person and the adult child of an adopted person. Dayna works as a Mental Health Therapist in Portland, Oregon specializing in supporting adoptees and trans-racial or internationally adopted people. Dayna was nominated to this panel by an adoptee and is happy to expand her experience, interactions, and connections with more people engaged with this work through this panel experience.

Sheilah Mabry, LCSW-R, CPC (she/her)

Sheilah Mabry is a psychotherapist, coach, consultant, and trainer.

Grounded in curiosity, creativity, and joy, she believes in the collective resilience and resourcefulness of people to transform systems. As a Black, bisexual, cisgender woman, she centers equity, anti-oppression and anti-racism in all of her work.

Sheilah's experience of losing her mother at a young age, being raised by her maternal grandmother, and finding out that her godfather, not her Daddy, was her biological father significantly impacts her life and work as a non-adoptee.

Sheilah wants to join this panel because she has adoptee family members in both her blood and chosen family lines, has worked with adoptees in her professional life, and has made great efforts to be a grounded presence for the people she loves and works with.