Jessica Spenceley

Hi, I'm Jessica. I’m a therapeutic social worker with over 20 years of experience helping adoptive parents navigate their parenting journeys. 

Throughout my career, I've met parents who are deeply committed to their children but feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and unsure why family life feels so hard. 

They've read the books, attended the trainings, and tried countless approaches.  Yet many are still left wondering why nothing seems to create lasting change.

Over time, I began to see what was missing.

Parents were often being given strategies, but very few were being given a way to understand how early trauma, loss, and attachment disruption can continue to shape their child's experiences and relationships — or the vital role parents themselves play within the healing process.

That realization led me to create the Nurtured Belonging™ Framework.

It brings together the elements I've seen matter most in supporting healing within adoptive families: understanding a child's story, making sense of their responses, strengthening parental capacity, staying curious, and responding with intention.

At the heart of the Framework is a belief that has shaped my work for many years:

Parents aren't simply supporting their child's healing.  They're an integral part of how healing happens.

And that changes what parents need.

They don't need another list of strategies or to try harder.  They need a deeper understanding of what's happening beneath the surface, support to recognize what their child may be communicating through their responses, and the capacity to respond in ways that create greater safety and connection over time.

Because healing isn't about finding the perfect parenting approach or getting every response right.

It's about creating the conditions where a child can experience safety, connection, and belonging within the relationships that matter most — while helping parents feel more grounded, capable, and connected along the way.

That's the work I'm committed to.

Helping adoptive parents move beyond simply managing what's happening today so they can understand what's shaping it, respond with greater intention, and build the kind of relationship in which healing and belonging can grow.