Meet Ashley…
Hi! My name is Ashley Toland. I am a clinical social worker, professor, passionate mental health advocate, and I’m an adoptee.
More specifically, I am a same-race, domestic, infant adoptee.
For too long, the lifespan impact of adoption trauma has been overlooked, buried under the myth that adoption is a singular event and propped up by an adoption industry that rakes in money hand over fist by promoting a fairytale. But for many people in the constellation, the truth is more complicated. Even in the most nurturing and loving families, there are often invisible wounds, identity struggles, and questions that go unanswered, leaving adoptees to build their own story.
In 2018, I reunited with my birth family. This experience reshaped everything I thought I knew about adoption. I was confronted with unexpected emotional challenges, little professional support, and almost no research that reflected my lived experience. The search for understanding, still far from over, took me to Tulane University, where I earned my doctorate and developed The Adoption Trauma Spectrum, a lifespan activation framework that addresses the impact of adoption trauma on adoptees. More than a concept, this is a call to reimagine adoption practices with honesty, compassion, dignity, and respect.
Today, I bring 20 years of experience in clinical social work, public and higher education, child welfare, and clinical supervision to this work, which has culminated in the largest single study on adult adoptees of its kind, Adoption Across the Lifespan (N=652).
While this is adoptee-led and adoptee-centered research, it is not siloed. The research team consists of 6 adoptees and 8 non-adoptees, all work is IRB approved, and all publications are peer reviewed.
As a framework, The Adoption Trauma Spectrum is rooted in these core beliefs:
Adoption trauma is real;
the child welfare system disproportionately harms families of color;
the adoption industrial complex is exploitive and harmful;
all hope is not lost.
This site is a dedicated space to share my ongoing research. Here, you will find the most recent findings, publications, and resources. In addition to my research, I currently maintain a private practice and serve as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of West Florida.
If this resonates with you, stay connected and share this space with others.
Together, we can rewrite the narrative.
Click here to learn more.
