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Everyone has a right to genetic continuity, this includes parents, siblings, offspring, and the entire family. Loss of genetic continuity may have mental health impacts that ripple throughout a family. Knowing your true genetic identity from birth is a basic human right and matters for medical history purposes, identity formation, familial relationships, and knowing your roots. 
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You are not alone. Find online support groups, be paired with a mentor, get help identifying your family, or take a moment to talk to someone who’s had a similar experience.

Sign up to be listed on our directory. Only professionals with experience working with people from the adoption, assisted reproduction, and NPE communities or anyone who completes our MPE Aspects 101 course are listed.

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Finding the right fit for a therapist can be challenging. Remember, this is someone who you should feel works well with your personality. Take the time to interview perspective therapists and use these questions. Here’s a link to mental health professional abbreviations.

In a peer-reviewed Right To Know survey, 39% of people with an MPE sought help from a licensed mental health professional but 57% felt their therapist did not have sufficient training to assist them. Learn more about the impacts of adoption, assisted reproduction, NPEs, and DNA surprises and how to assist people impacted by loss of genetic continuity. Receive continuing education credits from NBCC.

Questions for a Prospective Therapist
NBCC Continuing Education Credits

Having a DNA surprise, an NPE, being donor conceived, or adopted means there’s to take in. We have webinars and classes to help you through this process as well as support groups. Check out our biannual conference where you can meet others just like you.

Every child has a right to know their origin story. It is important to talk to children from birth about their unique origin story with age-appropriate language. The enables them to nurture their identity, sense of family, and trust. Use these guides to talk to children about their donor conception, adoption, and NPE.

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Talking to Children

Three Communities Impacted by Loss of Genetic Continuity & Genetic Identity Issues

Some people grow up knowing they have a different genetic parent (adoptees, donor conceived—DCP, or someone with a different dad or mom) and some people have a surprise often through a DNA test (late discovery adoptee—LDA, late discovery donor conceived—LDDCP, or someone with an NPE). Here’s a link to related terms.

  • Non-Paternal Event (NPE) – product of an extramarital affair, tryst, rape, assault, or other sexual encounter that results in hidden, undisclosed, or unknown paternity;
  • Assisted Reproduction – conceived via a gamete provider (sperm and/or egg), donor-deceived or birth via embryo donation or surrogate and raised by non genetic parent(s);
  • Adoption – raised by non genetic parent(s) either formally or informally from a newborn placement, orphaned, foster care, foundling, black-market baby, stepchild, or hidden origins.

(the above is ordered by probable frequency of occurrence)

What’s MP? (Misattributed Parentage)

Misattributed parentage is a term used by professionals for decades and is inclusive of everyone who has a DNA surprise and discovers that their perceived genealogy is incorrect from an NPE, Late Discovery Adoption (LDA), or Late Discovery Donor Conception (LDDCP).