Do I have to talk about my adoption, care experience and birthparents to professionals

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Maisy

Hey @Morgan007

You’re right in that it’s your own business and you get to choose who you do and don’t want to share personal details about your life. Especially since it sounds like it must be emotionally complicated for you when thinking about things that happened to you such as adoption and birth parents. You don’t have to tell people these things if you don’t feel comfortable.

That said, I noticed in the title of your question that you are referring to professionals. I’m wondering what kind of professionals are asking you to talk about your experience? Some professionals, such as teachers, don’t necessarily need to know all the details- they might just want to know how to address the people who look after you e.g. parents or caregivers, or make sure that you are being looked after properly.

But other professionals such as social workers or counsellors and therapists may want to know more detail. For these types of professionals, they might want to have more details about you so that they get to know and understand you better in order to help you more. But this should be done when you feel you trust them and feel comfortable talking to them.

Maybe you can try asking the professionals why they want to know about your experiences? Maybe you can also let them know that you don’t understand why they want to know or don’t want to talk about your past. Maybe they can then find other ways of helping you rather than talking about things you don’t want to talk about.

Hope this helps a bit!

hastings1066

@Morgan007 if your camhs worker is worth her salt she should realise that you might find your past history upsetting.