About

Treatment approach:

Bridgepointe Therapy provides individual and family therapy to adoptive and foster families.  Counseling at Bridgepointe Therapy with Emily Belknap, LISW-CP is unique in that Emily understands how emotional, behavioral and relationship challenges may be connected to the adoption experience.

Children and adolescents, even when adopted at a young age, may struggle with family and peer relationships, identity and self-esteem stemming from their adoption history.  At times, children and adolescents do not express thoughts or feelings related to adoption in order to protect their parents’ feelings or because they think it is not “okay” to experience them.

Emily uses family-based, evidence-based treatment models to address trauma history (abuse, neglect, relational and developmental trauma), grief and loss, attachment, emotional or behavioral challenges, and parental bonding difficulties.  Emily is skilled in working with families of international, domestic and foster care adoption.

Training and Education:

Emily is a Licensed Independent Social Worker – Clinical Practice.  She is trained in the Center for Adoption Support and Education’s Training for Adoption Competency (TAC), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).  She uses techniques from Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI), Attachment-Focused Family Therapy, Narrative Therapy and grief counseling.

Emily has over a decade of experience working in the adoption field. Most recently, she provided individual, family and group therapy at the Center for Adoption Support and Education. Prior to this work, she conducted home studies, facilitated foster parent support groups, and served as a foster care and adoption case worker. She began her career working at the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute where she advocated for improvement to federal adoption policy and traveled internationally to visit an orphanage and foster care programs.

Emily has a Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and a Bachelor of Social Work (BSW) from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.