Where do we find the courage to step up? Listen in as birth father Andy shares where he found the courage to share his story to inspire others. Powerful. Be ready to be up-lifted.

Connect with Andy:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-coppenhall-2a92b4156/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Sometimes it feels like we are going to drown in our tears. And that's really scary. So we stuff our feelings for fear of being overwhelmed by them. Or we deny them. Or numb them. What if there was another way? What if our trauma didn't bother us? Listen in as transracial and international adoptee Josie shares her liberating take on trauma. Profound lessons. Listen in with big ears.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Thriving is about who we are as well as how we feel. Listen in as Sherrie and I go deep into identity and healing. Sherrie is a christian - and I'm not  - so there's some different views and mutual respect. A particularly powerful episode.

For well over two decades, Sherrie Eldridge has offered her unique voice within the adoption community, as an established author and international speaker. An adoptee herself, Eldridge has the ability to see life through the eyes of an adopted child. In her seven published titles, she has shared her passion for validating adoptees’ life experiences and her desire to help adoptive parents better understand and meet their adopted children’s emotional needs. Her best-selling work, Twenty Things Adopted Kids Wish Their Adoptive Parents Knew, is considered required reading by many US adoption agencies. In 2010, she was named Indiana’s Congressional Angel of Adoption by the Honorable Dan Burton, Indiana Congressional Representative. Eldridge is widely recognized and respected as a compassionate advocate for adoptees, cultivating understanding about adoption’s challenges and opportunities for all those whose lives have been touched by it.

https//:Sherrieeldridgeadoption.blog

https://www.facebook.com/AdoptionAuthor.SherrieEldridge

https://x.com/sherrieeldridge

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

So many of us have felt wounded so long. So what would it feel like to be whole? Listen in as we explore experiencing wholeness and what get in its way. Profound and enlightening. Just how we like our conversations on Thriving Adoptees.

Find out more about Dawn here:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/dawn-tracz-37700516/

Read about her research here:

https://scholars.wlu.ca/etd/2462/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Many of us - myself included have sought to fix our trauma only to find it exhausting and ineffective. So what we do instead? Listen in as adoptee and therapist Joyce shares 55 years of experience on creating a new relationship with trauma to bring us peace.

Here's the link to Joyce's previous interview https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/theres-nothing-wrong-with-us-with-joyce-maguire-pavao

Here's the link to the interview with Leon https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/with-leon-clowes

Dr. Pavao has done extensive training, both nationally and internationally.  She is a lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, and she has consulted to various public and private child welfare agencies, adoption agencies, schools, and community groups, as well as probate and family court judges, lawyers, and clergy.  Additionally, she has worked closely with individuals and families touched by adoption, foster care, and other complex blended family constructions.

She has developed models for treatment and for training using her systemic, intergenerational, and developmental framework, The Normative Crises in the Development of the Adoptive Family, and her book, The Family of Adoption (Beacon Press), has received high acclaim.

Dr. Pavao has received many awards and honors, including the Children’s Bureau/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption Excellence Award for Family Contribution (2003) and the Congressional Coalition on Adoption award for Angels in Adoption (2000).

http://www.pavaoconsulting.com/

https://www.facebook.com/Dr.JoyceMaguirePavao

https://twitter.com/GetKinnected

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinnect/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

We can't talk ourselves out of our pre-verbal trauma. Our intellect can't heal pre-intellectual trauma. So what on earth do we do? Listen in as we dive into healing as an experience with adoptee and therapist Nicolle.

Find out more about her at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolle-a-tremitiere-lcsw-79199a25/

https://www.facebook.com/TtraumaR/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

How does our pain become resilience? Filmmaker and transracial adoptee Glenn has, with his wife, interviewed 100 Korean adoptees for their Side by Side project. Having compartmentalized his own pain, he was surprised about the amount of pain he heard. What he's learned from his fellow adoptees has, and continues to be, vital on his journey to resilience. Listen in as we dive into the profound learnings on that journey.

Glenn and Julie Morey are a husband/wife filmmaking team. Glenn (AKA Kim Kang) was born in Seoul, South Korea, in 1960. He was abandoned days after birth, taken to Seoul City Hall, then to a Holt orphanage, and adopted at the age of six months to the US. He has a long career as a commercial and documentary filmmaker. Julie Morey is an artist and filmmaker, and her work has been recognized in film festivals across the country. They live in Denver as empty-nesters, but with adopted cats.

https://sidebysideproject.com/

https://www.facebook.com/glennmorey

https://www.facebook.com/SidebySideDocumentary

https://twitter.com/sidebysideproj

https://www.instagram.com/glennfmorey/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/glenn-morey-b297174/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What helps you heal? Other people's perspectives continues to be a huge catalyst on my healing journey. Whether it's validating our feelings or showing us something new, we heal. Their truths can shift our truth. Insights from others in the adoption constellation can be particularly potent. This episode brings you not one, but three perspectives so listen in and let their healing insights and highlights from their new book, heal you.

Adoption Unfiltered is presented by adoptee Sara Easterly, birth parent Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and adoptive parent Lori Holden. Collectively, we bring 75 years of lived experience relating to adoption, and we span the Millennial, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generations. We understand the history, challenges, and trends experienced by people living in adoption and the broader adoption constellation, and we are recognized throughout the adoption community as thought leaders, influencers, and bridge-builders.

Sara Easterly is an award-winning author of books and essays. Her memoir, Searching for Mom, won a gold medal in the Illumination Book Awards, among several other honors. Her adoption-focused articles, essays, and book reviews have been published by Psychology Today, Dear Adoption, Severance Magazine, Feminine Collective, Godspace, Her View from Home, and Englewood Review of Books, to name a few.

Sara is founder of Adoptee Voices and previously led one of the largest chapters of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, where she was recognized as SCBWI Member of the Year. She is on staff with the Neufeld Institute, where she supports the Adoption & Foster Care cohort of the Reaching Troubled Kids course, spearheads the Kid-Lit Book Club, and oversees the Neufeld Institute Children’s Book List. Additionally, Sara brings 20+ years of experience as a publicist and event planner orchestrating book tours, launch campaigns, and large-scale events.

Link Instagram Facebook Twitter

Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard spent several years working in the adoption field, most notably working on public policy issues impacting all adoption-triad members. Kelsey has played a part in the success of state legislation and has tirelessly advocated for current federal legislation. She’s a birth mother who is passionate about raising the standards in adoption to better serve the children, mothers, and families affected by family separation.

Adoption has been a monumental part of her entire life: Kelsey is the daughter and granddaughter of adoptees. She can often be found fervently and frequently demanding, “How do we fix this?” She is also a co-host of the first-ever birth-mom podcast,Twisted Sisterhood.

Link Instagram Spotify

Lori Holden, a veteran parent of two newly-minted young adults, writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcast Adoption: The Long View. She’s the author of the acclaimed book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole (recommended by People magazine in 2021), written with her daughter’s birth mom. Her book is featured on adoption-agency required-reading lists across the country. She has keynoted and presented at adoption conferences around the US, and her work has appeared in magazines such as Parenting and Adoptive Families. In 2018, she was honored as an Angel in Adoption® by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), nominated by Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Link Instagram Facebook Twitter Spotify

https://adoptionunfiltered.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

I've been getting in my own way!!! 

As I reflected on David's words it struck me that I've TOTALLY over-estimated my openness to change. It's time for me to really open up. I'd encourage you to listen to this episode. It might reveals new insights to help you on your healing journey.

Here's a link to David's previous interview https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/who-am-i-with-david-enker

Here's a bit about David and his book

David Enker (Amsterdam, 1970) is a Dutch writer and artist. He was unofficially adopted as a baby, using the experience to explore the world from that unique perspective.

An unusual adoption, a gruesome family discovery, a lonesome journey, a brush with death in the London Underground and a life-altering diagnosis are just some of the ingredients in this collection of short stories.

This book will lead you on a sometimes heart-breaking, sometimes humorous journey of self-discovery that inspires hope and renewed appreciation for the blessings in life.

https://www.davidenker.com/

https://twitter.com/david_enker

https://www.facebook.com/davidenkerart/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidenker/

https://www.instagram.com/davidje/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Mindset is rarely talked about in adoptee circles, it's trauma all the way. And yet it's a big part of what helps us heal according to Damon who's interviewed over 200 adoptees for his podcast. Listen in as he shares what he's learned through his own experience and listening to all those other fellow adoptees.

Here's the link to Damon's previous episode:

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/with-damon-davis

Here's a link to the Adoptee Therapist Directory:

https://growbeyondwords.com/adoptee-therapist-directory/

A Little About Damon Davis

"I had the good fortune to be reunited with my biological mother in 2009 in a heart warming story of coincidental history, a mutual desire to be reunified, and the pure luck to be able to surprise my biological mother, Ann, for our reunion on her birthday! I always enjoy hearing and sharing the real stories of our lives that makes each of us who we are.

I’m devoting this program to helping people placed into adoption or who grew up in foster care to explore their own emotions, desires, and questions about reuniting with their biological family by asking others to share their true stories."

Listen to his podcast and find out more at:

https://www.whoamireallypodcast.com/

https://twitter.com/waireally

https://www.facebook.com/WAIReally

https://www.instagram.com/waireally/

https://www.facebook.com/damon.l.davis

https://www.linkedin.com/in/damonldavis/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you feel at home? Like you belong? With a complete sense of your identity? Therapist Jo and I go deep on healing. We explore barriers on that journey to speed you on your way home.

Here is Jo's first interview:

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/securing-our-sense-of-self-with-jo-north

Here's a bit about Jo from her website:

I have been a practicing psychotherapist for thirty years with a focus on mental health and wellbeing and supporting adoptive families and adults affected by adoption.   I am a Senior Accredited Member of the British Association of Counselling and Psychotherapy.

Adopted adults have a unique identity and broader perspective and understanding on what it means to be parented and belong in a family. But even the best adoption can leave an adopted person with questions about their life that they need answered. Often these answers can be found in birth records, and we are now running a Birth Records Retrieval Service, we also offer you time to think and reflect with others in our Adults Affected by Adoption Listening Group and to participate in our Blog by sending us news and articles on adoption (please contact us if you would like to contribute).

https://joannanorthadoption.co.uk/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you happy with your healing? If not it may be because there are still some parts of you yet to heal. Listen in as Danielle explores where we heal and what hinders our healing. Here are Danielle's previous interviews on Thriving Adoptees:

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/upping-our-empathy-game

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/seeing-our-untarnished-soul

Here's a bit about Danielle from her website:

My name is Danielle and I am an Earth Citizen 🙂 .

What I mean when I say that, is I have a sincere desire to see a healthier, happier and more peaceful world, and I believe it starts with me.

I have dedicated my life to growing my own light by helping others to grow their light also.  For this, I currently work as a Regional Manager of Body & Brain Centers in Seattle, WA., giving lectures and leading training and coaching sessions.

My journey with this work and this path began over 20 years ago – when I started to seek healing for my own body, mind and spirit.  I have created Healing Tree – the blog, and now the book – in order to share my stories and inspirations family, friends, my students, and anyone else who may be interested in the healing journey.

It is a journey – and a long one at that!  Sometimes it’s nice to know you have companions along the way, traveling down similar roads as you.  It is my hope that the words you discover here become comforting friends for you, finding their way to your heart.  Who knows, they may even turn on a small light in there 🙂 When my light, your light, and our lights shine bright together, what a beautiful world it will be! 

“Our adopted angel” – that’s what Danielle’s adoptive parents called her. She grew up adored, doted on, and unconditionally loved. It wasn’t until she was in college that she first felt a gnawing curiosity about her roots. From time to time, she would wonder: Where did this face come from? Where did this body come from? Where did this blood come from?  Her search to find her biological parents had begun – one full of surprises and revelations.

After reuniting with her birth mother – and uncovering the primal wound that lay deep within her – Danielle embarks on a twenty-year healing journey of self-discovery, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

At once a heartfelt memoir and a guide to self-awareness, Healing Tree offers a compassionate exploration of self, family, and what it means to be whole. Rooted in her twenty-year practice in Body & Brain holistic mind/body techniques, Danielle offers an approachable eight-step method for anyone wishing to heal from emotional or psychological wounds. This method invites readers to cultivate a loving relationship with their authentic selves and charts a pathway to inner peace.

For anyone who feels stuck, hurt, or rudderless in the sea of life, for anyone interested in doing the deep work of self-healing, becoming liberated, and realizing the potential to heal beyond themselves, Healing Tree is a source of direction, inspiration, and hope.

Find out more at:

https://www.daniellegaudette.com/

https://www.facebook.com/danielle.gaudette.33

https://www.facebook.com/DGhealingtree

https://www.instagram.com/danielle.gaudette/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you confused about who you are? Identity has many layers is inextricably linked with healing. Transracial Adoptee Corissa suffered in the deep darkness of depression and addiction. Listen in as she shines clarity on who we are and how we heal.

Here's a link to her first interview https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/how-we-find-ourselves-with-corissa-saint-laurent

Here's more about Corissa from her website:

WHO AM I?

I’ve been asking myself this question my entire life. I’m a Korean-born, adopted, American, mother, wife, entrepreneur, energy worker, storyteller, teacher, mystic, marketer, connector, curator, manifesting generator, ENFP, nature worshipper, and spiritual explorer.

When my mother was pregnant with me, she awoke from a dream of a giant shooting star falling to earth, and named me Byul Nim, the honorific form of the word ‘star’.

It’s my destiny to shine light in this world.

HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?

Being given up for adoption at 3 years old and moved to the United States to be raised by a new family who didn’t look, sound, or act anything like what I knew created a deep sense of abandonment and uncertainty about my identity.

I adapted. I had to. And in the process locked all of my needs, hurts, and traumas away where they wouldn’t interfere with the success of my life. Other childhood traumas piled upon the already shaky foundation....

More at:

https://corissasaintlaurent.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/corissasaintlaurent/

https://www.youtube.com/@corissasaintlaurent

https://www.instagram.com/theeverydaymystic/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Has being adopted boxed you in? Do you want to feel free-er? Free? Listen in as Fiona shares her insights on what she's learning about freedom, seeing through imposter syndrome, shaking inadequacy off and more.

Find out more about Fiona and her advocacy at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-wells-patch-9064071a5/?originalSubdomain=uk

https://www.ourpatch.org.uk/

https://x.com/PATCH_AdoptCris

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

So many of have been fighting our feelings for so long that war is all we know. Pamela's whole life typified that. So how do we find peace? Listen in as she shares key moments, insights and much more on her hard fought journey to peace.

Here's Pamela's interview from earlier this year https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/finding-happiness-within-with-pamela-karanova

Here's the adoptee therapist directory https://growbeyondwords.com/adoptee-therapist-directory/

Pamela Karanova, an adult adoptee, living in Lexington, Kentucky, was born in Waterloo, Iowa, in 1974. Although Pamela’s roots are scattered all over Iowa, she considers Kentucky to be her home.

Pamela is the President of a National Nonprofit called Adoptees Connect. Adoptees Connect is focused on putting adoptee voices first, creating irreplaceable adoptee-centric spaces where adoptee voices meet. The original connect group was planted in Lexington, KY, in January 2018. In just three short years, 50 connect groups have been planted in different locations around the USA, with two being in Canada. Pamela’s vision for Adoptees Connect didn’t stop in her community. She desires all adoptees to have an adoptee community to fall back on, so these groups are growing and expanding globally. They are designed to take online relationships offline and get to know the person behind the profile. In April 2019, Pamela won the “Angel In Adoption” award on behalf of the National Association for Adoptees and Parents for her role in the adoption community. Pamela is the creator and founder of Adoptee Remembrance Day – October 30th.  Here is a Adoptees Connect, Inc. Google Earth Project she’s created that shows all the group locations scattered all over the USA, Canada and even Queensland, Australia.

Check out The Real Adoptea Moxie - adoptee-centric writings that boldly highlight the adoptee experience where motivation meets moxie at:

therealadopteamoxie.substack.com

https://www.facebook.com/pamelakaranova

https://www.instagram.com/pamelakaranova

https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamelakaranova/

https://open.spotify.com/show/2FGmPmog8cFONagMM7ILja?si=a8a26cdc659c4a4d&nd=1

https://pamelakaranova.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you feel broken? Or that bits of you are? Adoptee and psychotherapist Elliott and go deep on figuring out the broken bits including the hard to get bits we don't have words for. Empowering insights into the things stored in our implicit memory.

Elliott Driscoll (he/him) is a psychotherapist at The Resource Group, and has been practicing for more than 20 years in New York, New Jersey and Maryland. He works with clients ages 22 and older. He holds a Master’s of Science in Social Work from Columbia University and a Master’s in Business Administration from Loyola College. He specializes in treating individuals struggling with addiction, trauma, and depression. Elliott is Psychodynamically trained and uses aspects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Motivational Enhancement Therapy, and Logotherapy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/elliott-driscoll-13434a7/

https://resourcegrp.org/

https://www.facebook.com/ResourceGroupMD

https://twitter.com/ResourceGroupMD

https://www.instagram.com/resourcegroupmd/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Spontaneous gratitude from within is way different to being told to be grateful by others. Listen in as we explore Jill's expansive and powerful take on healing - loving our lives.

Jill Uchiyama (Skufakiss) was born in New York City in 1968. She grew up in Hammond, Indiana and attended Indiana University and Western Michigan University where she received a Master’s Degree in Counseling. Her passion for psychology later turned to a lifelong interest in spirituality. As a long-time meditator and seeker, Ms. Uchiyama draws upon her love of nature, philosophy, education, and life in all of her creative endeavors- including writing, playing music, and filmmaking.

Her first collection of poems, "Out of the Fog," was published in 2022. It was inspired over a lifetime of writing poetry dedicated to her family members- her adopted family and her imagined biological family.  Many of the poems touch upon the closed adoption experience. Prior to writing this first book, Ms. Uchiyama was published in many online magazines including The Huffington Post, The BBC, Apple News, Slate, and Time. She was awarded Quora Top Writer from 2013-2018. 

In 2013, Ms. Uchiyama produced her first Legacy film which appeared at the New Filmmaker's Film Festival in NYC and debuted at Boston University's Tsai Performance Center. She is for hire in order to do films and videography about the personal purpose and meaning of the lives of her Legacy subjects and crafts films that artfully express those stories. Her films have been shared and shown all over the world and are available to watch on Vimeo.

In addition, Ms. Uchiyama has had a 30 year career in human service work- beginning as a family counselor in Lowell, MA- she then became an EFL teacher in Japan from 1996-2001. In Boston, she continued to teach English as a Second Language and then became Director of several educational programs. She has taught people from over 40 countries. 

​Currently, she is a grant writer for the Manchester School District and lives in New Hampshire. Her love for walking and nature has inspired her filmmaking and writing. In 2017, she completed the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Her latest adventure is learning the sitar. 

Listen to Jill's first interview here https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/a-clearer-sense-of-self-with-jill-uchiyama

https://www.jilluchiyama.com/

https://www.facebook.com/jill.uchiyama

https://www.facebook.com/legacyfilmsbyJill

https://www.youtube.com/@jilluchiyama

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jilluchiyama/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you feel you belong? Being relinquished disrupts our attachment and reunion doesn't always fix that. Julie shares how she found the feeling of belonging and peace when reunion didn't go to plan. 

Here's the link to the article Julie mentions https://www.thebeacher.com/2023/pages/110223p.html#lg=1&slide=19

Julie Ryan McGue is an author, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. She writes extensively about finding out who you are, where you belong, and making sense of it.

Julie’s debut award winning memoir Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging (She Writes Press) came out in May 2021. It is the story of her five-year search for birth relatives. Her weekly blogs That Girl, This Life and monthly column at The Beacher focus on identity, family, and life’s quirky moments. 

Born in Chicago, Illinois, Julie received a BA from Indiana University in Psychology. She earned a MM in Marketing from the Kellogg Graduate School of Business, Northwestern University. She has served multiple terms on the Board of the Midwest Adoption Center and is an active member of the American Adoption Congress.

Julie splits her time between Northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida. She is the mother of four adult children and has three grandsons. If she’s not at her computer, she’s on the tennis court, or out exploring with her Nikon. Julie is currently working on a collection of personal essays.

https://juliemcgueauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/juliemcguewrites/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/julie-ryan-mcgue-a246b841/

https://www.instagram.com/julieryanmcgue/

https://twitter.com/juliermcgue

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

It's hard to heal pre-verbal trauma through talk therapy alone because we literally can't put words to it. So what do we do? Adoptee and adoptee coach dives into a holistic approach to healing. I hope it sets off as many lightbulb moments for you as it did for me.

Here's a bit about Claire from her website:

"I was born in South Korea and was adopted from Star of the Sea Orphanage by an American family in Wellesley, MA.  I have an older brother and a younger sister, also a KAD (Korean Adoptee).

Growing up in a predominantly white community was difficult for me and I never felt like I fit in, or belonged.  I faced racism and bullying pretty much as long as I can remember.  

For most of my life, I suffered from anxiety, depression, and I had low self esteem. I was a rebellious teenager and I developed unhealthy addictions and toxic relationships.  But the worst relationship was with myself.  I knew that I needed a big change in my life but I didn't know how to start.

Over the years, I went through lots of therapy, coaching, and did the hard work on myself so I could change my negative patterns and learn how to transform my mindset.  This is what allowed me to evolve into who I am today and become more aligned with my true authentic self. I have discovered that by following my dharma, it has led me to embrace my true purpose in life - to empower others to go within and find their own light.

As an adoptee empowerment coach, I possess a profound understanding of the unique emotional journey that adoptees face. I noticed that many adoptees were struggling with stress, anxiety, emotional regulation, people pleasing, overthinking, fear of rejection and abandonment, numbing out with unhealthy habits, somatic symptoms, and chronic illnesses. They all were in need of tools to help them navigate these challenges.

My coaching approach is centered on meeting my clients exactly where they are in their personal journeys. I firmly believe in tapping into my clients' inner wisdom to facilitate lasting transformation. I view each client as a whole, resourceful, and complete individual who doesn't need "fixing." My role is to guide and support them on their path to self-discovery.

With over a decade of experience as a health, wellness, fitness coach, and empowerment coach, I’m committed to providing invaluable support and guidance to individuals ready to make positive changes in their lives. My client-centered approach, rooted in neuroscience and nervous system regulation, empowers my clients to embrace their unique journeys, overcome challenges, and achieve lasting transformation.

As a Somatic Breathwork practitioner, I have  been trained to hold space for each client and guide them through a powerful journey using specific breathing techniques. This process allows clients to uncover blocked emotions, release stored stress and trauma in their bodies, and connect with their inner truth and power. After each session, I support my clients in integrating these insights to re-pattern their thoughts and behaviors, ultimately helping them create a more empowered and fulfilling life.

My mission is to empower my clients and partner with them while they navigate the distinctive challenges and emotional complexities that come with being an adoptee. Through my expertise, compassion, and unwavering dedication, I hope to make a profound difference in the lives of people I serve."

Listen to Claire's first interview here: https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/overcoming-struggles-with-transracial-adoptee-claire-magenheimer

Connect with her here:

https://www.facebook.com/claire.magenheimer

https://www.instagram.com/claire_magenheimer

https://www.linkedin.com/in/claire-magenheimer/

https://coachwithclaire.mykajabi.com/coach-with-claire

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Today's episode is a LOT different. Listen in as I point you towards that healing space beyond trauma.

Here's the link to a spine tingling video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEbGC1UWaLQ

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

How much compassion do have you for yourself? We give ourselves a hard time, until we don't. Listen in as adoptee and therapist Spring shares insights about giving ourselves more compassion along the healing journey. I learned a lot from this great conversation - especially about being at peace with my anger. I hope you find some healing insights too.

Here's the book I mention:

https://www.amazon.com/No-Bad-Parts-Restoring-Wholeness/dp/1683646681

Here's the interview I mention:

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/freedom-with-emma-stevens

My name is Spring Hecht and I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) with over 20 years of experience supporting individuals, children and their families.  In my former role as the Vice President of Social Services at one of the foremost foster care and adoption agencies in the country, I had the privilege of helping transform the lives of many.  I have served on the Board of Washington Adoption Reunion Movement (WARM) the Vashon Island School Board, and the Adoptee Mentoring Society.  I also enjoy additional volunteer work as co-chair of a Racial Equity & Inclusion Committee in my school district. I have presented at numerous conferences and been a guest speaker on NPR and an NBC-affiliated television station.  I am an adopted person with a unique understanding of the lifelong adoption issues that can impact all members of the adoption constellation.   

Education and Training

I attended Whitman College in Washington State and earned a B.A. in Psychology. I continued my studies at Columbia University in New York where I completed a Masters degree in Social Work in 2001. I am certified as an Attachment and Trauma Therapist through Cascadia Training, and I have post-graduate certification in Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) through TCU Institute for Child Development. I am an Emdria trained EMDR therapist and IFS trained therapist. I am a member of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW).  

Psychodynamic Approach

Psychodynamic therapy aims to address the foundation and formation of psychological processes in order to alleviate symptoms and improve people's lives. My treatment approach is client-centered and tailored to fit your individual or family's needs, in a safe and supportive environment.  Together we will consider emotions, thoughts, early-life experiences and beliefs to gain insight into your life and better understand present-day challenges, and to evaluate the patterns that have developed over time.  I will provide support, encouragement and practical strategies, and help you develop and achieve your goals and find hope and healing. 

Expertise

Adoption, trauma, grief/loss, identity issues including race/culture, depression, anxiety, ADHD, family conflict, parenting, teens, divorce, infertility, post-partum issues, life transitions, and personal growth. I welcome people of all races, ethnic groups, religions/creed, genders, and sexual orientations. 

https://healingworkstherapy.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/spring-hecht-62a3a075/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

We don't hear the word mindset a lot in adoptee circles. That's strange because healing often involves a change in what we think. Listen in as adoptee and therapist Megan shares her insights to help you heal.

Here's a bit about Megan from her website:

Megan's specialties are working with all facets of the adoption constellation and with women experiencing stress, anxiety, and burnout. She's trained in TBRI, Theraplay, Brainspotting, and Trauma Informed Care and has worked with families in the child welfare/ adoption realm for the last 18 years. She's very passionate about this work as she is an adoptee.

She has three children and my dog, Tucker, often makes appearances in my telehealth sessions from home.

Megan is licensed in Indiana.

Here's a link to the interview with Cindy of Hiraeth, Hope and Healing https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/how-we-heal-with-cindy-mcquay

https://www.facebook.com/meganstrouptic/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/megan-stroup-lcsw-3377901b0/

https://inadoptioncounseling.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Looking for a roadmap to healing? Listen in as adoptee and therapist Abby sets out how the stages we go through. Very succinct and clear. 

Here's a bit about Abby from her website:

"I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist that specializes in Complex Trauma, Dissociative Disorders, and Attachment. (I know, it's a mouthful)! I have a passion for finding innovative solutions to complex problems. I work from a systems model, meaning that I look at how different parts of a dynamic interact as a whole. Therefore, I tend to see issues from a variety of unique perspectives that allow for creative solution making that it not typically considered while helping clients learn to tap into their strengths within. I believe that every individual and family has the innate ability to heal. In turn, I spent over a decade’s worth of education and clinical experience learning how to tap into a person's natural ability to heal. As a clinician, my energy in the therapy room is warm, compassionate, and transparent while also knowing the importance of adding some comic relief, creative expression, and play throughout the therapeutic process. 

How My Passion Became My Profession

My path towards becoming a clinical counselor started with an interest in Biology. Biology? Yeah, I know, nerdy. Please bear with me. I always had a fascination for how nature seemed to always find a way to maintain balance (or what is called "homeostasis" in the scientific world). It was fascinating to see that when nature became imbalanced, it could self-correct on it's own with the right support--that the destruction of wildfires could led to the growth of new life, that a broken bone could repair itself, and so on. Then a personal mentor showed me the world of psychology and I fell in love with the matters of the mind. In college, I struggled to know what path to take. Pursue a hard science or soft science career?

Fortunately, in my last semester of college, I took a Marriage and Family Psychology course where I learned about systems theory and how biological concepts of homeostasis were applied to human relationships. From there, I pursued my Master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. I learned how to help individuals, couples, and families tap into their ability to renew balance just by making subtle shifts in how each member interacted with each other.

But once I started working in a community with a high number of families experiencing chronic trauma and attachment difficulties, I was struggling to tap into these natural healing processes. I noticed that it was common for many facing these complex issues to express feeling lost or defeated--even with the best of efforts. Clients started to believe “it was all in their heads” and that they should “just get over it.” But I knew their pain and experience was valid and I still strongly believed that with the right support, every person and family has the innate ability to heal. So I knew I was missing something. In turn, my strong belief in the human spirit led me to spend the next several years learning how complex trauma survivors can access their natural ability to find balance within and to heal throughout.

In that, I discovered that by nature, trauma presents a paradox which contradicted some of the traditional ways I was taught to renew balance in a system. I found science that proved that "it's not all in your head" and that one can't "just get over it." In fact, it is actually the body that carries the trauma and humans heal attachment injuries through safe relationships. I also realized that despite these issues being quite common, very few clinicians were trained in complex issues around trauma, dissociation, and attachment. In turn, this fueled my desire to specialize in complex trauma so every client could have the opportunity to heal, renew balance, and find strength in their story."

https://www.linkedin.com/in/abby-derr-moore-lpc-lmft-9b347295/

https://www.renewedbalancetherapy.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you long to belong? Could belonging help you heal? Listen in as transcultural adoptee Nicole shares her profound insights to help you along your healing curve.

Here's a bit about Nicole from her website:

"I was born to one set of parents and adopted by another set. I grew up always knowing that I was adopted, yet I knew very little about my roots. Consequently I lived in the fantasies that only children can invent––as an adoptee from a closed adoption, those fantasies were always a plausible reality.

The influence of my adoption and reunion (with my biological family) feature prominently in my studio practice where I explore concepts of intimacy, identity, and belonging through visual work as well as in community-based works.

In 2021, I received my MA from Loyola Marymount University in Marital & Family Therapy with a Specialization in Clinical Art Therapy. I came to that program as I began more decidedly to do work with the community, specifically my community of the adoption constellation.

Proudly, I was awarded an Adoptees for Awareness Grant, Individual Artist Fellowship (California Arts Council), and a Creative Corps Grant (Arts Council for Long Beach/California Arts Council) in 2023, received an Artistic Community Engagement Grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation in 2016, and I have collaborated and shown work internationally in Europe, Africa, Australia, Asia, South America, and North America (specifically the US, Canada, Mexico and Cuba).

I currently live and work in Los Angeles."

Photo credit:  Jeff Forney @jefforney on Insta https://www.instagram.com/jeffforney/

We Are Not Our Cruxes:https://bit.ly/wearenotourcruxes

RSVP for first event of We Are Not Our Cruxes:https://bit.ly/cruxes-session-one

Artist website: nicolerademacher.com

Therapist website: nicrrad.com

https://www.instagram.com/nicrrad

https://twitter.com/nicrrad

https://www.facebook.com/nicrrad/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

How clear are you on who you are? Identity can confuse the hell out of us. Listen in as Samantha dives deep into finding herself. It may help you on your journey to finding your trues self or living from authenticity.

https://www.drsamanthabrooks.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-b-4763a94a/

https://x.com/DrSjBrooks

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Has psychology - the most common path in the western world -  failed to make you feel whole?  Are you looking for something more healing? A spiritual exploration can help us heal as part of a holistic approach. Listen in as Christelle brings her unique experience to support us along the path to wholeness.

Here's a bit about Christelle from her website:

"I was born in Madagascar, raised in South of France, lived in the UK for over 20 years and I now living in Portugal.

I was adopted in South of France at the age of 10 and my lived experience as an transracial adoptee as led me to do work with adoptees and adoption agencies.

Embraced early in a world of fashion and design, I grew up surrounded by dress makers. At the age of eight, following the death of my mother, I was placed with a Catholic missionary school for girls to learn to sew and to knit. At the school, I designed and created my first dress and learnt how to knit. Since then creativity has been an important part of my life and I have always been fascinated by beautiful design and fashion which later extended to my love of makeup, hair design and costume.

It’s this passion that led me to study makeup artistry at the Academy of Freelance Makeup in London. My work experience covers advertising campaigns, films, music videos, TV shows, London and Paris Fashion Week, products launches as well as lifestyle, fashion look books, magazine and beauty shoots. I later expanded my skills into producing fashion events. 

My background also includes working in the education sector for over 15 years undertaking programme/project management roles with an international focus. I also led a non-profit organisation and co-led a community theatre company.

I was shortlisted in the 2018 Bristol BME Powerlist, which showcases the city’s 100 most inspiring, successful and influential black and minority ethnic people. I was shortlisted in the top 100 West Women of the year 2019 and nominated to be part of the Black Hall of Fame at the University of the West of England.

I am a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, fellow of the School of Social Enterprise Creative Leadership programme and a fellow of National Arts Strategy (USA-based) Creative Community Fellowship programme.

I am also a presenter on Imperial Voice Radio, with a show called Fashion Rendez-vous."

https://www.christellepellecuer.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christellepellecuer

https://www.instagram.com/mschristellerosette

https://twitter.com/mschristellep

https://www.facebook.com/christelle.pellecuer

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Would you like to bust the belief that there's something wrong with you? It's a belief born out of us being relinquished. One that's shared by so many of us. A belief that shapes our lives. Candi shares a 5 step process to bust the belief. Empowering. Inspirational. Healing.

Here's a bit about Candi and her book:

A raw, often wry, memoir of mothers, mysteries, and miracles. 

Surrendered at birth in a closed adoption, Candi Byrne’s biology and ethnicity is a secret. The impending arrival of her first grandchild ignites an urgency to identify potential genetic time bombs and confirm her ancestry. Due to arcane privacy laws, Candi is repeatedly denied access to the one person who could provide that information—her biological mother.

After years of failed attempts, she resigns herself to never learning the truth about her roots; that is, until her ninety-year-old Aunt Delores has a vision and insists Candi resume efforts to find her birth family. Candi is gobsmacked when an internet search she’s performed thousands of times before suddenly reveals her birth mother’s identity. Within hours, she ends up on the doorstep of her birth mother—a place she’s sworn never to visit.

After a series of guilt-driven interactions with “Those People,” as she refers to her maternal birth family, Candi terminates contact. Although the reunion proves disastrous, it opens her eyes to truths about her relationship with her adoptive mother, Delphine. Though their relationship was difficult and contentious during Delphine’s life, a series of miraculous experiences after her death guides Candi home to herself—where, she learns, she has belonged all along.

https://www.instagram.com/candibyrne/

https://www.sweetfirecoaching.com/

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1647422795/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_0J00P6AHHVS73TT69EYB

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

If time was the greatest healer we'd all be done healing by now. So what IS the biggest healer? And what does healing even mean. Listen as we obsess on healing to help you along your journey to wholeness.

Vin runs a Facebook group where adoptees and adopters can learn from one another in a friendly and no conflict environment.

Connect with him at:

https://www.facebook.com/vinadopteejarrod

Listen to Vin on other episodes of Thriving Adoptees

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/what-stops-us-thriving-with-vin

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/vin-adoptees-emotional-rollercoaster

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you feel confused? Clarity brings peace and helps us heal. Transracial adoptee Sydney shares some of the key insights that have brought her healing clarity. Listen in for your own insights.

Here's a bit about Sydney from her website:

At the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, I received a Instagram DM from a girl claiming to be my half sister. As a transracial adoptee (biracial/half black, adopted by a white family) who has always been curious about her birth family, I knew that this text would change my life. And it did.

I was raised in a predominately – white community and experienced things such as separation anxiety, microagressions and identity crises for the majority of my life. Taking a DNA test and finding my half sister was just the beginning of my journey to finding my identity.

At the University of Tampa, I took a writing class and chose adoption as my subject for a research paper. I assumed all I would have to do is tell my story, do a little research and I’d get an automatic A right? Well, that’s not exactly what happened. As I was researching, I came across the words “transracial adoption”. Ironically, I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but when I found out, my whole world was flipped upside down.

Suddenly, all of my anxiety, confusion, and feelings about being out of place were justified. I wasn’t alone.

For me, it has been a journey of realization and self-love that got me to where I am now. My goal is to educate parents who plan to or have already transracially adopted about what it takes to raise a child of a different race. I also am very passionate about speaking to other adoptees, hearing/sharing their stories and showing them that they are not alone.

Transracial adoption is not a topic that is talked about very often and not many people even know what it is. I plan to spread awareness to the subject through social media platforms.

My life as an adoptee has not been easy, but I have also been blessed with opportunities that may have not happened if I wasn’t adopted. I hope that I can inspire others with the knowledge of transracial adoption and my passion for change.

https://sydneyparkhurst.com/

https://www.facebook.com/sydneyparkhurst6/

https://www.instagram.com/adopteesydney/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtgR6jSgFOGWSxWQAjgTZXA

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydney-parkhurst-243783184/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

June believes that she was born 'out of the fog'. She cried incessantly for her first 2 years. That preverbal trauma of relinquishment is sub-conscious for so many of us. Until it isn't. We come out of the fog to see the dense back clouds of trauma. Tears fall as the clouds burst and rain pours down. So what stops our tears? What if one of those things is taking adoption less personally? Listen in as June shares a lifetime of healing.

Here's a link to the research June mentions https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/149233054.pdf

Here's more about June from her website:

I am June, or rather, I was her for 10 days before I was adopted, and my name was changed forever. 

I chose to write my book - SECOND CHOICES - as June because she comes from a family of writers and poets and lovers of words. June is the part of me dictated by DNA. Irrevocable and undeniably a slice of who I am.

As an adoptee, the adoption issue was always close to my heart, and seeing and hearing the effect of it on the adoption community made me jump into action. My debut novel, Second Choices, was born.

Born in South Africa and now living in Scotland, I have been writing since I can remember.  At first, it was poems and articles for the school newspaper and newsletters.

I joined a writing group about fifteen years ago, thinking it was all about poetry, but it turned out it was a group for short story writers. For the first time, I realized how much I loved building characters and stories around them.

After a stint working for a local newspaper, the idea of writing a book started to become more plausible. 

On a personal note, I am a wife, a mother, a stepmom, and a grandmother.  I love nature and wildlife, photography, and connecting with people. 

More at https://junewrightauthor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100092658341567

https://www.instagram.com/junewrightauthor

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you believe that you're enough? Do you  believe you are loveable? Do you believe you are loved? Relinquishment sets in motion all sorts of beliefs about ourselves. Listen in as Carrie explores debunking beliefs to get to the truth.

Here'a a bit about Carrie from her website:

"I was adopted from Sanshui in Guangdong Province at nine years old. From surviving as a child in China and being raised in San Francisco, CA, my childhood has profoundly shaped my perspectives as an adult and visual artist. It has also deepened my visual sensitivity as a designer with compassion and empathy. My professional background ranges from print production, graphic design, and project management in both corporate and freelance settings.

Carrie is Creative Director and  a Board Member of CCI  - a community where adoptees can finally drive their own narratives and support one another's complex journeys. I envision CCI to grow into an influential platform for all adoptees to find connections, support, and be heard, and ultimately to be proud of our identity. As part of the UX Team, my objective is to design an accessible platform for all adoptees that seek camaraderie and affirmation."

www.carriedoung.com

www.instagram.com/carriedesigns628

www.chinaschildreninternational.org

www.instagram.com/cci_adoptees

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you looking to balance conflicting emotions? Or seeking peace between them? Listen is as Ujaala shares her learnings on the dichotomies of her life as an adoptee. We also explore mindset and looking forward rather than back.

Connect with Ujaala here:

https://www.facebook.com/ujaala.chaudhuri.1

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ujaala-chaudhuri-8784461bb/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you sick of the liar in your head saying that there's something wrong with you? Are you trying to silence that inner critic? All too often this prolongs the war. Listen in as we explore finding truth. And peace.

Here's a bit about Andy from his website:

I’m Andy Wallis, I live in Grantham, in the UK and was adopted at just a few months old in 1973.

I have struggled throughout my life with my mental health and this year (2023) I decided to start a blog to explore my inner workings. I soon came to realise that most of what I’ve dealt with has its origins in my adoption. I was shocked.

Adoption trauma manifests itself in lots of ways it would seem. From the obvious emotional stuff like anxiety, depression and closing down emotionally, to the less obvious social quirks like refusing to do something fun because it wasn't the adoptee's idea. Weird as it might seem, I can recall lots of moments in my past where I've just flatly refused an activity or outing for fear of losing the element of sovereignty. 

This often leads to a ‘Brian’ (the negative Nancy in my head) driven anxiety attack. I'd get so worked up before the event that I'd lose it and then panic about the loss of control, which in turn would create its own loss of control. Finally topped off with a nice big dollop of shame to boot. ‘Dollop’ great word that!

From the blog, the book was born and writing has helped me so much. To try and gain a wider picture I studied to gain a qualification in Mental Health, and I’m now also a mental health first aider.

I’m passionate about raising awareness of adoption trauma and mental health generally.

Find out more at:

https://www.instagram.com/whos_wally_blog/

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094487566931

https://twitter.com/whosthatwallis

https://www.linkedin.com/in/andy-wallis-865ab6195/

https://open.spotify.com/show/2m1wAiBmAf4Qt1OvWL1qdo

Here are the links I mention in the show:

https://chrisniebauerphd.com/

https://www.drjilltaylor.com/

https://rupertspira.libsyn.com/episode-41-bernardo-kastrup

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are there parts of you that you try to push away? I've definitely rejected the part of me that's scared of rejection. Denial, numbing and overriding only brings short term relief. Listen in as adoptee and therapist Joellen shares what she's learned about embracing all of herself so we can embrace all of ourselves.

Here's a bit about Joellen from her website 

I am a clinical psychologist with over twenty years of private practice experience doing individual, couples, family therapy and psychological testing.  I received a doctorate degree from The University of Texas at Austin in Clinical Psychology.  I am also trained in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy, Filial and Child-Focused Play therapies.  My work integrates attachment, psychodynamic, neurobiological and CBT theories.  Finally, I have an extensive background working with all members of the adoption triad. This includes individual therapy, leading groups, legislative advocacy, and public speaking.

https://joellenpeters.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/joellenpeters

https://www.instagram.com/joellen.peters/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you wish feeling triggered wasn't so painful? Or that you were triggered less? Listen in as transracial adoptee Carlos shares how he sees triggers differently.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlos-munez

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Who doesn't want a loving, happy and fulfilling life? Do I hear the HOW question? Listen in as Ken shares his learnings for catalyst ideas to help you along your journey.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennethdestefano/

https://www.facebook.com/ken.destefano.1

https://www.amazon.com/Will-See-You-Again-Hearts/dp/B0C63YSMWH

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

As a wise mentor once said to me, the past is a place of reference not a place of residence. Understanding birth mothers' predicaments is incredibly healing. Listen in as birth mother and therapist Delores shares her journey and profound insights along the way so you can live forward.

https://www.facebook.com/p/Delores-Sullivan-Therapy-100063634445824

https://www.linkedin.com/in/delores-sullivan-4892ab25/

https://www.deloressullivantherapy.com/

https://www.instagram.com/dssullivan1/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Would you like to feel more empowered? Listen in as transracial adoptee Julia shares her insights into empowerment and connection. She also talks about identity and being comfortable in her own skin.

Julia Small is a transracial adoptee from Hunan, China who was raised in Topsfield, Massachusetts. One of her greatest passions is fighting for equity and social justice through grassroots advocacy, public policy and education reform. She has a particular interest in minority affairs and child and elderly welfare. She aspires to bring to light the experiences and challenges faced by adopted patients in the healthcare setting.

https://twitter.com/julialsmall12

https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliasmall/

Here's a link to Julia's interview with Elaine and Ramya

https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/advocating-for-our-health-with-elaine-schulte-ramya-gruneisen-and-julia-king

Here's the link to the author I mention whose book is about the left and right brains

https://chrisniebauerphd.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

How do the emotional rollercoaster of reunion? Dawnie is right in the throes of figuring this out. She shares what she's learning as she goes and her insights on loving herself as well as putting herself first.

https://www.facebook.com/AdoptedWithTheFro

https://www.instagram.com/adoptedwiththefroblog/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you looking for answers? Because the truth sets us free right? Roxan  wasn't told that she was adopted until her adoptive mother blurted it out in an arguments when she was 15. Listen in as she shares how she went from anger to curiosity and finally peace. Powerful and empowering.

Connect with Roxan  here:

https://www.facebook.com/roxansherry

Watch my video about the diamond and the truth of who we are here:

https://www.facebook.com/simonjbenn/videos/706029451324458

Find out about Adoptees United here:

https://adopteesunited.org/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Adoption trauma often manifests in anger or a loud inner critic. Would you like more peace? Listen in as Aubrey shares her learnings and insights on how she's moving towards more peace. 

Aubrey Jackson is a former news anchor turned published travel writer and professional travel planner, specializing in luxury leisure travel.As an entrepreneur and travel professional, Aubrey has served as an on-air expert and in person for panel discussions. When she is not traveling or boldly representing her clients, she is advocating for adopted youth. As an adoptee herself, whose adoption was finalized in the state of Florida, a closed adoption state that does not allow adoptee’s acess to their original birth certificate, she is passionate about aligning herself with programs and causes that directly benefit youth in foster care and further amplify adoptee voices.

In 2021, with the help of private investigative support, Aubrey met her birth family and is thrilled to have the chance, after 10+ years of searching, to build a strong bond with her relatives. Aubrey serves on the board of Adoptees United, an organization led by
adoptees in the United States that represent the interests of all adoptees, whether domestic, intercountry, transracial, or former foster youth.

https://growbeyondwords.com/adoptee-therapist-directory/

https://www.facebook.com/ImAubreyJackson/

https://www.pinterest.com/ImAubreyJackson/

https://www.tiktok.com/@imaubreyjackson

https://www.youtube.com/aubreyonair

https://www.instagram.com/imaubreyjackson

https://imaubreyjackson.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What if what had happened to us happened for us? Adoptee and birth mother Monica shares her healing insights to help us heal and access our higher self. This has to be one of the most powerful and empowering episodes ever to air on this podcast.

Monica was born in Canada, adopted by American parents, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska. It was there where she spent the first sixteen years of her life and had many of the foundational experiences that drive her writing. Monica now lives in Northern California and began working on a memoir in Spring 2016 when her daughter urged her to document her extraordinary but painful past.

As she has gained access to buried memories through the process of writing about her experiences, Monica has realized just how self-preserving the human mind can be. She was astonished to discover how much she had willfully forgotten, how much pain she harbored from her early years, and how much guilt she had repressed in her adult life. Digging to the core of her memories as part of the writing process has allowed Monica to begin healing her wounds, forgive both herself and the people who wronged her, and shed the guilt she has lived with for decades. Ultimately, she hopes her writing will inspire others by proving that it’s possible to overcome difficult circumstances and succeed.

https://www.monicahall.com/

https://www.facebook.com/monicahallwrites

https://twitter.com/monicahallpens

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR6bzgbkwIySSxvZS938uHw

https://www.instagram.com/monicahallauthor/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Would you like to handle change better? Life started with a profound change for those of us adopted as infants: a new family. Later - search and reunion can bring about huge changes in beliefs we've held for our lifetime. David and I dive into navigating change when life throws us curve balls.

Here's more about David and his book

BLIND IN ONE EYE

A Story About Seeing the Possibilities

Where was my brother, the one born seven years before me but kept by my birth parents? Was it really possible that, after the lifetime I'd spent wondering about him, he was the guy a friend had just seen on the subway – the one who supposedly looked like my older twin?

Finding my brother would soon feel like a naïve goal. His secretive and frightened parents had far more to hide than I could have imagined, and they had worked hard to maintain the elaborate facade of an ordinary family. Breaching their defenses would trigger events that quickly took control of my life.

Blind in One Eye is the richly detailed story of an adoptee finding, and being absorbed into, a shockingly troubled birth family – a story about abruptly leaving behind life as an only child. But it's also the story of someone with focused and demanding expectations who learns to see other possibilities, to see that the answers he actually gets in life might be more important than the ones he thought he wanted.

The most remarkable discoveries seem to come while looking for something else – as long as you're open to the possibilities

https://www.amazon.com/Blind-One-Eye-Seeing-Possibilities/dp/0982971508

https://blindinoneeye.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidrford/

https://twitter.com/blind1eye

https://www.instagram.com/findford/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Confused about identity? Looking for clarity? Listen in as I take us through the layers of identity to the essential truth. The thing that's stationary in all that comes and goes.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Where are you on the trauma and healing journey? In today's episode I share the stages I've been through and what's helped me navigate them.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Learning to feel rather than numb feels really important for me at the moment. Here's some things I'm exploring. I hope they help you.

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Do you wish you were carrying less emotional baggage? Listen in as Craig shares the things that have helped and are helping lighten his load from meeting Nancy Verrier and Ram Dass and much, much more.

Find out more about Craig at:

https://www.facebook.com/insideoutadoption

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Is reunion confusing you? Are you caught between biological and adoptive families? Adoptee and therapist David talks about magic moments, honeymoon period and confusion in his reunion. We explore how that confusion has eased and become easier to live with over time.

Here's a bit about David from his website:

I am a counsellor and EMDR practitioner. I offer face-to-face therapy sessions, including video calls if needed.

I was adopted as a young child so I understand the issues and challenges that come with that, I now work with many adopted adults in this country and abroad.

I became a therapist after volunteering all my adult life working with children and young people and prison work. I wanted to formalise that as I enjoy making a difference to people's lives. I am friendly, empathic and offer a safe space for you to explore any difficulties, such as anxiety, depression, relationship issues, identity, family issues, post-natal depression, panic attacks, suicidal thoughts, self esteem and confidence. I take a trauma informed integrative therapeutic approach. You will have your own space to talk about whatever you come to me with; there is no rush, it's a gentle way of exploring things.

I am a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP). I achieved my Foundation degree Arts (FdA) in Counselling, after attaining levels 2 and 3 in counselling. The Foundation degree involved two years of training and over 100 hours of supervised counselling practice. I have a CPCAB diploma and certification in EMDR from the Dominic Beirne School of Clinical Hypnosis & Psychotherapy and also the flash technique and dyadic resourcing. ​Because of my interest in adoption, I also completed the Attachment Matters and 'Healing your Inner Child' training, developed by Nancy Maillie. www.nmtrauma.co.uk

More at https://www.davidbenjamintherapy.com/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

What do you believe about yourself? How do you see yourself? Trauma messes up our beliefs and identity. Listen in as Michelle dives deep into busting beliefs and getting clear on identity. All so we can heal at a deeper level.

Michelle Madrid is a powerhouse life coach and guidance mentor who is passionate about igniting the light within every adoptee and woman she coaches. She seeks soulful modalties of healing to support individuals in feeling a deeper connectedness with themselves and with others. Michelle is a former foster child from the United Kingdom and an international adoptee. She understands the nuances of this lived-experience and considers it a great honor to guide her clients back home to themselves as they embrace a deeper sense of identity and calling. 

Michelle is a Congressional Angels in Adoption® Honoree as well as an inductee to the New Mexico Women's Hall of Fame. She is a former Emmy-nominated television news journalist. Michelle is an in-demand high-impact speaker whose perspectives are renowned both domestically and internationally. Her illuminating content and coaching offerings can be found at TheMichelleMadrid.com. Michelle is a proud mother, animal lover, equestrian, and a world traveler who feels at home no matter where she is because she's found her home within.

https://themichellemadrid.com/

https://www.instagram.com/themichellemadrid

https://www.facebook.com/LetHerBeGreater

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-madrid-62b1661a/

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.

Are you stuck in a rut on your healing journey? Unsure of what's holding you back? Listen in as Linda and I dive deep into how changing feelings kickstarts healing. We also cover what stops us changing for the better. And it's not what most of us think.

Her first interview https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/freedom-with-emma-stevens

Her second interview  https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/becoming-our-own-guru-with-emma-stevens

Linda Pevac aka Emma Stevens is a U.S. domestic adoptee from birth and has survived layers of trauma that have put her on multiple journeys. She developed the inner strength and courage to surmount the many struggles she faced. Her traumas were born from being an adoptee who struggled with being forced to wear an impossible mask of playing the part of the “good adopted child.” Because being relinquished and adopted has colored her life, it’s Emma’s desire to be part of the movement that is dedicated to helping bring forth change to the way our world views the needs and support of adopted individuals. She believes strongly in adoptees finding their voice and discovering their truth to have a solid sense of self and to reclaim their identities. Through telling her story, Emma is dedicated to help redefine the narrative of adoption to include the entire complex truth.

More about Linda/Emma at:

https://linktr.ee/EmmaStevensWriter

https://www.instagram.com/EmmaStevensWriter

https://www.facebook.com/EmmaStevensWriter

https://www.tiktok.com/@EmmaStevensWriter

https://twitter.com/emmastevenswrtr

Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.