Stages of emotion: an adult adoptee's postreunion perspective

Increasing numbers of adoptees are searching for and finding their biological parents. This article is an attempt to alert counselors to the particular emotional state of adoptees postreunion. The theory presented is drawn from the author's personal experience and integrated with her perspective as a professional counselor. From these two vantage points, the author has concluded that there are four postreunion emotional stages: paralysis, eruption, loss and grief, and empowerment. Three factors have a direct bearing on the four stages: definition of reunion success, when reunion occurs, and the "female factor."