Kathleen Whitten

Kathleen L. Whitten, Ph.D., is an award-winning poet and developmental psychologist. Dr. Whitten is the author of Labor of the Heart: A Parent’s Guide to the Decisions and Emotions in Adoption, (2008, Taylor Trade). She was named the S.C. poetry fellow in 1995-96. Her poems and short stories have appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Yellow Silk, Negative Capability, the anthology Twenty, and other publications. A former lecturer in psychology at the University of Virginia, she was also a research faculty member at the Child-Parent Attachment Clinic, Department of Psychiatric Medicine, University of Virginia. She has taught psychology courses at Georgia State University in Atlanta, and serves as a Distinguished Fellow in Developmental Psychology at the National Council for Adoption in Washington, D.C. She has published articles on adoption in Parenthood in America (ABC-CLIO), The Encyclopedia of Primary Prevention (Kluwer), The New Book of Knowledge (Grolier/Scholastic) and the Virginia Journal of Social Policy and Law. Her work has been covered by CNN, the Associated Press, WVIR-TV (NBC affiliate).

Works

2008

Labor of the Heart: A Parents' Guide to the Decisions and Emotions in Adoption

Adoptive parents often experience the double trial of emotional responses to infertility and to the process of adoption itself, called "excruciating labor with no end in sight," by one adoptive mother. Would-be adoptive parents can cycle through grief, anger, fear, anxiety, frustration, and guilt. All of these emotions cloud decision-making, at exactly the time that adoptive parents are making life-altering, irrevocable decisions: whether to adopt at all, to adopt an older child or an infant, or to parent a child with developmental delays, as well as other pressing questions.

New empirical research by Dr. Whitten, a developmental psychologist and adoptive mother, and other experts contradicts many myths presented to parents. Dr. Whitten separates fact from fiction and leads parents by the hand through the many emotional issues the process involves. Written in a reassuring, conversational tone, the author tells parents when they should listen to their hearts—and when practical considerations are too important to ignore. Each chapter features a workbook section with thought-provoking exercises and questions.