Adoption & Foster Care Therapy in Milwaukee

For adoptive and foster families building connection — at placement, at birth, or years in. Milwaukee area & online across Wisconsin.

Sometimes it goes seamlessly, and it's beautiful. And sometimes forming that connection is genuinely hard — harder than anyone at the agency prepared you for, and harder than you feel allowed to say.

There's a phrase in this work: goodness of fit — how well a child's temperament fits the family they're in. Every parent hopes their child will feel familiar. In adoption and foster care, without the biological piece, a child's wiring can feel like a mystery: their behaviors aren't like yours, your approach that worked before doesn't work now, and you're exhausted in a way that starts to feel like failure. It isn't failure. And it doesn't mean you don't love them as your own — it means you're carrying something real that deserves real support.

The thing nobody says out loud

Some parents whisper it in Lauri's office: "I love my adopted child — but it's been harder to love their behaviors than my biological kids', and I don't want them to ever know I feel that way." If you've had a version of that thought, you are not a bad parent. You're an honest one, in a hard situation, and this is exactly the room where that can be said and worked with — without judgment, and without your child carrying it.

How Lauri works with adoptive and foster families

• Together, not separately. Attachment is built between people, so the work happens with parent and child in the room — from infants placed at birth to school-age kids.
• Attachment and bonding, at any stage. Placement at birth, after a NICU stay, after multiple moves through the foster system — each start writes its own story, and each can be worked with.
• The whole family system. How a placement lands on your marriage, your biological kids, your own self-worth as a parent — it's all part of the picture, and all welcome in the work.
• Play, sand tray, and sensory work for the child's side of the story — because kids' language is play, especially for what they can't put into words.
• Consistency you can actually do. Connection is built by being reliably, imperfectly present — not perfect. Lauri will help you find the version of consistency that works in your real life, including across two-home and visitation situations.

When to reach out

Early is ideal — at placement, even before challenges show up, so your family has someone who already knows you when a hard stage hits. Lauri sees it as precautionary, not crisis-only: "I think forming that therapeutic connection now can be really valuable for when the child gets older." But there's no too-late, either. If you're years in and something isn't working, that's a fine time too.

Meet Lauri

Lauri Budzynski, MA, LPC, NCC, ECMH-E®

Much of Lauri's nine years of clinical experience has been with adoption and foster care. She's endorsed in infant and early childhood mental health and works with kids under 12 and their families — always together.

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