Who this is for
Any member pursuing adoption (foster, domestic, international) or surrogacy (gestational or traditional). Members carrying complicated infertility grief paired with LCSW from day one.
What brings people here
Adoption or surrogacy decision; transition from infertility; member request.
Clinical framework
OneVillage-developed.
How the 8 weeks run
Baseline assessments, your first SMART goal, and the 1:1 that sets up everything after it.
Specialist coaches rotate in, and sessions come thickest here. One change at a time, in the domains your baseline flagged.
Re-score, refresh the care plan, and check in 1:1 on what is and is not working.
The remaining domains, at a lighter cadence, and the work of making the early weeks hold under pressure.
Final re-score, relapse prevention, and the plan for what happens next.
When your sessions fall
The program is built in four-week modules. Sessions come thickest at the start, when what you decide matters most, and step down as things settle. That is 5 sessions of 45 minutes across 8 weeks, counting the visit before week 1.
That is the schedule this pathway is being built to. The sessions you can book today are the ones in the written weeks listed below.
| Module | Weeks | Sessions | Cadence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Module 1 | Weeks 1 to 4 | 2 | every other week |
| Module 2 | Weeks 5 to 8 | 2 | every other week |
Who you will work with
Your Whole Health Coach takes your first visit and closes every module, so it is the same person from the first session to the last. The specialists below lead the weeks where their work is the focus.
Professionally, Cindy has been a clinical nurse for nearly a decade. She served in both clinical and administrative capacities throughout her career and holds a Master's degree in Nursing Leadership. As a staff nurse, nurse leader, and quality improvement specialist, she led multidisciplinary teams in academic medical settings throughout Boston, New York, and Ohio to deliver high-quality care to patients across complex diagnoses.
What we work on
| Domain | What this pathway does |
|---|---|
| Nutrition & Metabolism | Self-care during long process. Sleep + meals as foundation. |
| Movement & Mobility | Movement as mood regulation through long uncertainty. |
| Sleep & Recovery | Sleep regularity; insomnia during waiting periods. |
| Stress & Resilience | Long uncertainty is its own stressor. Daily relaxation; partner alignment. |
| Mind & Mood | PHQ-9 + GAD-7 monthly. Grief + hope co-existing. PG-13 if loss involved. |
| Relationships & Purpose | Partner alignment central. Family of origin conversations. |
How progress is measured
These are the validated tools this pathway uses: at your first visit, at the mid-program review, and at the end.
| Tool | Cadence | Owned by |
|---|---|---|
| PHQ-9 + GAD-7 | Monthly | WHC; LCSW reads |
| PG-13 (if loss involved) | Onboard, q4 weeks if PG-13>=20 | Grief Coach |
| PSS-10 | Onboard, q4 weeks | Stress Coach |
| Parenting Sense of Competence (PSOC) | Post-welcome, q4 weeks | Maternal Coach |
| Relational map / partner check-in | Onboard, q4 weeks | Relationships Coach |
| Decision-readiness inventory | Onboard | WHC + LCSW |
The research behind this pathway
Your clinician playbook was built from the guidelines and studies below. They are listed so you can read them yourself: every one is a real, published paper and the number at the end of each line is its PubMed ID.
Guidelines this pathway follows
- OneVillage-developed · OneVillage
No professional body publishes a clinical guideline for supporting adoptive and intended parents. This pathway is built from the empirical literature below and says so.
Key studies
- Foli KJ et al. (2016). J Affect DisordPost-adoption depression: Parental classes of depressive symptoms across time
Followed adoptive parents' depressive symptoms before and after placement and found five distinct trajectories. Most parents were fine, but some crossed the threshold for depression at placement and others only at six months. PMID 27155072
- Foli KJ et al. (2017). Res Nurs HealthLongitudinal analyses of adoptive parents' expectations and depressive symptoms
Followed 129 adoptive parents before and after placement. Expectations that did not match the reality predicted depressive symptoms, which is what this pathway works on before placement. PMID 29112297
- Golombok S et al. (2011). Dev PsycholFamilies created through surrogacy: mother-child relationships and children's psychological adjustment at age 7
Compared 32 surrogacy families with egg-donation and natural-conception families at age 7. No differences in children's adjustment or in maternal warmth. PMID 21895360
- Söderström-Anttila V et al. (2016). Hum Reprod UpdateSurrogacy: outcomes for surrogate mothers, children and the resulting families-a systematic review
Reviewed outcomes for surrogates, intended parents and children. Most arrangements go well and there is no evidence of harm to the children, and the authors are blunt about how limited the studies still are. PMID 26454266