Joanne Bagshaw & Associates

11/17/2025

My recent Psychology Today blog:

"Higher rates of ADHD in adoptees are not the result of a single cause but rather the intersection of genetic predisposition, prenatal maternal stress, early life adversity, age, timing of adoption, and post-adoption environmental conditions."

Adoptees’ higher ADHD rates reflect genetic, prenatal, and social factors, highlighting the need for trauma-informed, adoption-competent care and systemic equity.

10/01/2025

When adult adoptees seek therapy, they want their therapist to understand enough about how complicated adoption is that the adoptee can feel supported and validated. In this training, we’ll review the systemic factors that impact adoptee well-being, common issues adoptees face, and the lifelong impact adoption has on identity development. Join me and learn what adult adoptees wish their therapists knew.

Use QR Code for more information and to register. Link in stories.

Baden, A. L., Kitchen, A., Mazza, J. R., Harrington, E. S., & White, E. E. (2017). Addressing adoption in counseling: A study of adult adoptees' counseling satisfaction. Families in Society, 98(3), 209–216. https://doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.2017.98.2

08/20/2025

Eligible for 2 AASECT & NBCC CEUs 
Live Online September 25, 2025 
4:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m. EDT
$60
Use QR code for more information and link in stories.

Please join Atar Stav, LCPC, NCC, who will share her expertise in blending trauma therapy with s*x and couples counseling. You’ll learn practical tools, somatic techniques, and relational frameworks to address intimacy challenges rooted in trauma, helping clients reconnect with themselves and their partners. Participants will also learn about common reactions trauma survivors may have to s*xual intimacy in couples, as well as communication tools each partner can use to foster safety and trust in their relationship. Whether you work primarily with couples, individuals, or trauma survivors, this training will give you the skills to integrate healing and intimacy work in a way that’s safe, effective, and transformative.



*xtherapy

09/19/2024

Joanne Bagshaw & Associates is looking for a fully licensed therapist or an LGPC (Maryland only) to join our established and growing group practice. This position is a hybrid position. We need someone willing and able to see clients in our Kentlands, Gaithersburg office at least one day a week.

Joanne Bagshaw & Associates is fee-for-service s*x and relationship therapy practice. We offer systemic s*x therapy for individuals and couples with a specialty in treating s*xual dysfunction and trauma. We are primarily telehealth but also have an office space on Main Street in the Kentlands, Gaithersburg.

The ideal candidate will have experience treating anxiety, depression, adjustment, and family-of-origin issues and has training in trauma therapy and any couples modality. You will be working with couples integrating s*x and couple therapy, individual clients with s*xual dysfunction, and individuals and couples who have s*xual dysfunction and complex trauma.

And, If you are a new or experienced therapist with training in reproductive mental health, such as infertility or pregnancy and postpartum, and/or training in eating disorders and are interested in also learning s*x therapy, we would love for you to join us!

We provide on-the-job training and consultation in s*x therapy and trauma therapy.

Please see link in bio for more information.

09/03/2024

My recent PT Blog on Gendered Racism in Reproductive Healthcare was marked an essential read by the editors.

Recent research reveals a hidden struggle for middle-class Black women.

08/12/2022

I’m featured in this article on the effect of abortion bans on mental health

In addition to the physical risks, experts anticipate a myriad of mental health ramifications stemming from the loss of abortion access and the associated economic and occupational repercussions.

07/10/2022

Last week I was interviewed for this article about adoption not being a solution for abortion. Generally speaking, adoptees lije myself are tired of having our experience distorted and used tonserve an anti choice rhetoric…

“Bagshaw said the argument that kids can just be put up for adoption instead of women getting abortions neglects to take into consideration the impact adoption has on the child.

"I want to add that adoptees are weary of having our experience used as part of the anti-choice rhetoric, that adoption is a solution for abortion," she said. "It's not."

She added, "It's not only inconsistent with, birth mothers, a pregnant person's experience, but it's inconsistent and minimizes the complexity of our own experience because adoption has a lifelong impact on adoptees."

Abortion opponents have argued for women to put up babies for adoption instead of terminating pregnancies. A trauma psychologist told Insider that the

05/06/2022

Low desire is the most prevalent s*xual dysfunction among women, and the most common reason women pursue s*x therapy. Low desire cases are generally complex and require a systemic lens. This program will focus on dismantling the heteronormative bias that underlies the high rates of diagnosed low desire among women. Effective interventions for individual and couples therapy will be covered.

For registration and more information see link in stories.

After attending this training, participants will be able to:

1. Define three different types of desire

2. Identify at least three variables that impact desire.

3. Identify at least two interventions that treat low desire.

This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 2 CE credits, and is considered synchronous learning if in attendance to the live webinar. These CE credits may be applied toward AASECT certification and renewal of certification through Flourish Media & Education.. Completion of this program does not ensure or guarantee AASECT Certification. For further information please contact ce@aasect.org.

02/28/2022

"You're crazy, I never said that."
"You're just not a s*xual person."
"That person isn't even my type."
"Maybe you're gay."
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Gaslighting can appear in s*x and relationship therapy when one partner manipulates another's s*xual reality. For instance, gaslighting can occur during infidelity, relationship conflicts, and reality distorting blame as to whom in the relationship has a s*xual dysfunction.
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In this training we'll explore how and why gaslighting occurs, its relation to power and gender (no matter the gender of the gaslighter), how it's different from lying, and why it's not always abusive. Plus we'll cover easy to implement interventions.
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This program meets the requirements of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT) and is approved for 1 CE credit and is considered synchronous learning if in attendance to the live webinar.
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Join me on Friday, March 4, from 12:00-1:00 EDT. Cost is $50. Link to register in comments.
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12/28/2021

Narcissistic projection is a defense mechanism of turning all the fault onto sensitive folks.

12/12/2021

Glad I could add my voice to this piece:

“Relinquishment is traumatic for adoptees, even for adoptees who had a good adoption experience,” Bagshaw said. Adoptee clients who come to her often deal with “lifelong issues of feeling abandoned,” as well as “a lifelong search for identity.”

From the dangers of pregnancy to the trauma of adoption, there’s a lot the Supreme Court didn’t acknowledge last week as Roe v. Wade hangs in the balance.

12/08/2021

“The problem is not that these companies rely on dieting to get people to meet their goals. It’s that the wellness-centric marketing that they’ve embraced can be misleading—and worse. Conason and other eating-disorder experts note that Noom has co-opted the language of eating-disorder recovery, using terms like “mindful eating” and “anti-diet.”

“That marketing sucks people in who might be looking for something different than a traditional diet,” says Christy Harrison, a dietitian, certified eating-disorder specialist, and author of Anti-Diet: Reclaim Your Time, Money, Well-Being, and Happiness Through Intuitive Eating. “People get seduced when they’re vulnerable and often don’t realize how bad it is until it’s too late.”

Dieting apps like Noom and WW are selling mindfulness as a way to shed pounds—an approach that’s misleading and could even be dangerous.