Adoptees On

How many times have you thought, "I'm a mistake, I don't belong here"? Pamela Cordano, MFT, tells us about how she first encountered MeaningWork and how it can help us access inspiration and joy in our lives. If you've ever felt disconnected, alone, or stuck, this conversation will inspire you to take a look at your life with a different lens. Pam teaches us about Viktor Frankl's work and how it c...

Genetic Sexual Attraction (GSA) can be a controversial and uncomfortable subject to broach, but we are exploring the topic today. Today Jane shares her personal experience of a GSA relationship with a sibling and Leslie Pate Mackinnon, LCSW brings her professional expertise to the topic. Some estimates are up to half of all adoptees in reunion feel some sort of attraction to a genetic family membe...

What do you do when you get triggered? Pamela Cordano, MFT gives us a few simple, yet powerful tools to stock in our triggered triage kit. This is a must-listen for anyone who has experienced the intensity of a triggering moment and felt helpless and stuck in overwhelm.  Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Pamela Cordano, MFT: www.pamelacordanomft.com | Twitter | Instagram | Facebook | Email pcor...

Doug Umberger has spent hours and hours interviewing adoptees to find out how digital media has impacted their search and eventually their relationships with biological families. He shares his personal journey of searching for his birthmother through digital media channels, and how ultimately what convinced him to press pause on his search for now. Doug recounts a few of his participants' experien...

Paige Adams Strickland shares with us about the complexity of building relationships in the workplace as an adopted person. Many years into her career, Paige has a unique vantage point to give us an overview of what it was like thirty years ago if you even broached the subject of adoption reunion with a colleague - all the way to present day and what it's like for her now. We talk jobs, the diffic...

I want to invite you into a discussion about relationships with ourselves, through the lens of identity and race. April Dinwoodie shares her journey of growing up brown in a white family, navigating relationships with her adoptive family and how she has come to claim her own identity. We also touch on the recent closure of the Donaldson Adoption Institute and what April sees as the way forward in...

Caitríona Palmer's bestselling memoir, "An Affair with My Mother" captivated my heart immediately. It's an honour to bring her story to you. Caitríona shares what building a relationship with her mother was like, the heartbreak of being kept a secret and the high cost she's paid for sharing her story publicly. Listen in and find out how you can join our book club with Caitríona! { Caitríona Palmer...

I interview my husband Nick about what it's like to be married to an adopted person. He shares quite candidly about what it was like for him to walk through reunion with me TWICE! We also talk about what's been the most helpful in building our relationship as we navigate adoptee triggers and coming out of the fog together. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Fac...

Jeanette Yoffe, MFT shares about what inspired her to begin a support group for adoptees. We cover how to start your own group and best practices for peer-facilitated groups. If starting or joining a support group feels too intimidating, don't worry! Jeanette has a great idea for free support: find a listening partner.   Full show notes here   Connect With Us Jeanette Yoffe, MFT: Twitter | Groundb...

Jeanette Yoffe, MFT addresses the psychological and emotional impacts of growing up in foster care, including multiple placements and the layers these can add to adoption trauma. She helps us understand complex trauma and gives us a variety of practical healing exercises. This episode is educational and full of tools you can start implementing today to move forward on your healing journey. Full Sh...

Can we actually *heal* from adoption trauma or are we just building up a huge toolbox of coping strategies? My guests Pamela Cordano, MFT and Anne Heffron discuss creativity, why so many adoptees gravitate towards creative pursuits and why healing in community means magnified healing. Full Show Notes   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram | F...

Nicole Rademacher is a multicultural adoptee and a professional contemporary artist. She tells us about her reunion with her biological parents and her two brothers, and how it has informed her creative practice. Nicole and I chat about some of her projects, including one that is still in the works, and I am still in awe of the brilliance of it. Nicole is passionate about connecting with other ado...

Today I talk with Holly, aka Nerdy Gal, about her reunion with her first mother and some of the instigating factors that led her out of the fog. Holly also tells us how a technique called dirty pouring has helped her process her feelings.   Full show notes: https://www.adopteeson.com/listen/s3e13holly   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram |...

Brian Stanton shares his story of reuniting with his birth mother, how he decided to write a one-man-show about his experience and how sharing it with audiences with a personal connection to adoption has taught him more about himself than he ever expected. We talk about some incredibly vulnerable things in this interview, including the impact the public sharing of our personal stories have had on...

Nicole Gfeller, an art therapist shares her story with us today. She dives into some of her childhood experiences and talks about how she went from being shut down emotionally to re-integrating her body and feelings. Nicole also gives us some amazing practical ways we can start doing art therapy on our own if seeing an art therapist isn't quite in the budget. Full Show Notes     Connect With Us Ha...

Deb Sivigny, a designer and newly a playwright shares about when she started connecting the dots of the impact adoption has had on her life, and how design and writing her play, Hello, My Name Is… has helped her process her adoptee experience. Full Show Notes Here   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Monthly Newsletter Send a Not...

Lesli A. Johnson, MFT talks with us about what "coming out of the fog" means. We cover how adoptees, first parents, and adoptive parents can all experience this. Lesli and I also discuss how to move through this process, which can be incredibly challenging.   Full Show Notes   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Monthly Newsletter...

Today I welcome Julian Kelly to share her story. Julian and I talk about her search for identity, what she's done to build stronger attachments in adulthood and how her music and songwriting allow her an amazing outlet for those feelings which can otherwise build up in us. She is wise and incredibly talented.   Full Show Notes   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees...

Meet Laura Callen, the founder of the Adoption Museum Project. Laura gives the most vivid recounting of a triggering situation that only another adopted person could understand and we talk about that really simple topic of dignity and justice in adoption. With our theme of healing through creativity, Laura explains some of the different experimental ways she and her team are exploring the topic of...

Today I welcome Kristen Garaffo to share her story. Kristen discovered adoption had a deeper impact on her life than she originally realized. She shares some incredible moments of clarity she's had along the way and about the impact acting, singing and yoga have had on her healing journey. We also chat about her one-woman show, Hi My Name is Kristen.   Full Show Notes Here   Connect With Us Haley...

Meet Gareth Price, a magical realism artist from New Zealand. We talk a lot about what being an adoptee feels like and the accompanying anger that Gareth tells me he's dealt with all his life. Gareth and I chat about his art, his twin sister, and his reunion with his birth mother. Full Show Notes Here   Connect With Us Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram |...

Shannon Peck, a conceptual artist, shares her story. Adopted at 11 days old, she had an "idyllic childhood" and yet something was amiss in her life. In her forties, Shannon discovered attachment theory and began to realize the loss she had first experienced at birth. "Your Daughter is in Good Hands" is an exhibit documenting Shannon's "search for her true identity." Cover photo and title provided...

This is a special episode where I bring you some recordings I made when attending the Concerned United Birthparents Retreat in Carlsbad, CA. I talked with adoptees, first mothers, and a grandmother of loss. We discuss what they learned at the retreat, and what they wish society knew about adoption. If you'd like to hear some of my reporting directly from the event, check out the Adoptees On Facebo...

Today we discuss what happens when you search for your origins and find out you're too late. Tracy also shares some painful stories about what her childhood experience of growing up with a narcissistic mother was like. Tracy explains her inspiration and the symbolism behind the broken heart adoption pendant. We wrap up with a great discussion about fostering creativity in ourselves and how that ca...

Derek Frank tells his story about how the movie Philomena brought his desire, to know where he came from, to the surface. We talk about his reunion with his birth father and siblings and what's holding him back from connecting with his birth mother. We tackle some deep topics including feeling like "culturally cousins" instead of like siblings, grief, and the importance of art therapy. Ridghaus (f...