Adoptees On

Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, author of the stunning graphic memoir called Palimpsest: Documents From a Korean Adoption is our guest. She shares some of her story with us and then we dive into a conversation about racism, coming out of the adoption fog, what activism means to Lisa, and how she found her voice. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom: Instagram | woolrim.wordpress.com |...

Cathy Caputo is our first guest of the new year and she has quite a surprising story, so I'm not going to spoil anything here. We talk about closed adoption, grief and loss, and what it's for meant for Cathy to start an in-person adoptee community. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Cathy Caputo: Instagram | Facebook Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: Twitter | Instagram |...

Today the creator of Not Your Orphan is sharing their story with us, Blake Gibbins is here! Blake and I talk about what happened three years ago to kick him out of the fog, we discuss grief and some losses Blake experienced earlier this year, and we move into a discussion about activism, cognitive dissonance and what it means to be queer and an adoptee. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Blake G...

Lilly Schmaltz is with us today, you may know her as Adoptee Lilly on YouTube. Lilly shares her story of what pulled her into adoptee advocacy and why she's so adamant about pushing back against the saviour narrative. We also get into some deeply personal topics including how her broken engagement brought up her abandonment all over again and what she does to pursue healing. Full Show Notes Here C...

The holiday season is here and some of us could really use the support. In this episode, we ask one of our favourite adoptee therapists, Lesli A. Johnson, MFT, your questions about how to navigate the holidays! We collected all your DMs, emails, and comments and I peppered Lesli with scenarios about gift-giving, family gatherings, how to create our own traditions when estranged…get ready to have s...

Stephanie Tait shares her story of being adopted from foster care, her childhood growing up in a conservative evangelical family, and navigating secondary rejection via ghosting by her birth mother. We also dive into some challenging questions surrounding the complexity of adoption and the church and how we can combat that traditional white saviour narrative. Full Show Notes Here Subscribe Apple P...

It is our honour to welcome Deanna Shrodes to the podcast. Deanna and I talk about her decades-long reunion with her biological mother and her mother's heartbreaking promise to take her birthfather's name to the grave. We hear about her lengthy DNA search and the challenging feelings that come along with more questions than answers. Deanna is a pastor and so, of course, we touch on adoption and th...

We are back with Lesli A. Johnson, MFT! In this Healing Series episode, we are examining the concept of reunion. Why did "they" pick 18 as the age for when adoptees are supposedly ready to reunite or have contact? What does navigating contact look like in a semi-open adoption as a child or teenager? As we reflect back on our own closed adoptions, what would have been more helpful for us? Lesli als...

A mashup of true crime and disenfranchised grief? Yes! We are learning about adoptee parricide from Dr. Tracy Carlis, a clinical psychologist who I've had the absolute honour of learning from in-person. In this episode, Dr. Carlis shares her personal story of search and reunion, including some exciting recent DNA search updates. Then we shift the conversation to her work in forensic psychology and...

In this episode of the podcast, Dr. Sue Green, a psychologist from Australia who was actively involved in the landmark Victorian Adoption Act of 1984 shares her personal story with us. We dig into what lead her to become an adoptee advocate, who now teaches other therapists and mental health professionals how to truly be adoptee-competent in working with our loss and trauma. We also touch on some...

Dear Adoption, is joining up with Adoptees On again today! Reshma McClintock, the founder of Dear Adoption, is back and she brought us another letter that we are sure most adopted people will relate to. We also talk about a recent trip to Washington, DC that Reshma was a part of, where for the first time adult adoptee voices were invited and represented in the adoption conversation. Full Show Note...

Mary O'Rourke shares the difficult news she received in her non-identifying information at age 21. We discuss her reunion, the added complexity of coming out twice as queer, and how she ended up finding a grief support group and an adoption-competent therapist.

Liz shares about the shift her life took in her late thirties as she started to examine her adoption more closely. We talk about how Liz believes we can reveal who we truly are through writing, and how building our own narrative instead of accepting the ones that are placed on us can bring about tremendous growth. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Liz DeBetta: www.lizdebetta.com Haley Radke: Tw...

You may remember Jemma's first appearance on the podcast where her biological mother adopted Jemma back. Well, things have changed quite a bit from that happy ending. Jemma felt it was crucial for adoptees to know the ups and downs that reunion can bring over the years. Full Show Notes Here Connect With Us Jemma Sullivan Twitter | Facebook Haley Radke: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook Adoptees On: T...

Revisiting a fave episode... next week we have an update from Jemma! Can you really be adopted back into your family of origin? Today I get to introduce you to Jemma Sullivan, and she shares some incredibly painful realities of having a narcissistic adoptive parent, it's not all gloom and doom though - I promise you need to wait to hear what happens at the beginning of Jemma's new chapter with her...

Revisiting another fave Healing Series episode. Adoptees often struggle in intimate-partner relationships because we had our trust broken at a very early age. In this episode of the healing series, Marta Drachenberg, LMHC, and Haley discuss some personal examples of relationship issues that seem to keep repeating themselves. Marta teaches us what to look out for, how attachment styles affect our r...

Revisiting a fave Healing Series episode today! Marta Drachenberg, LMHC, teaches us about the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model, something she feels is particularly effective for adoptees. Marta explains that our best advocate and healer is found within ourselves! IFS helps us to discover the 8 Cs that come with self-leadership: calm, creativity, compassion, curiosity, courage, clarity, connecte...

Revisiting a fave episode from 2018. Listen in to an incredibly intimate conversation between Janet Weinreich-Keall and both of her fathers, Emil Weinreich, and Gordon Keall. We discuss Emil's shock of discovering he was a father to an adult daughter, how Gordon embraced Emil with open arms, and the inspiring relationship they've all built together. We also ponder, where are all the fathers? Full...

Revisiting a favourite episode from 2018! Listen as Janet Weinreich-Keall shares how she had to rely on the media and complete strangers to help her unravel the largest known case of serial abandonment in the world. We discuss the emotional toll 21 years of searching took on her, how painful it was to make phone calls over and over that would forever change people's lives, and how one first name w...

Today Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT is back to address grief. This time she is teaching us about experiencing grief as an adult adoptee. Have you lost a loved one recently? Revisiting grief as an adult adoptee is a totally different ballgame. We also discuss what can happen to us if we stuff down our feelings instead of processing them.

Today's phenomenal guest you NEED to hear from is Mariama J. Lockington, author of For Black Girls Like Me (which releases this month on July 30, 2019). We talk about her experiences growing up as a transracial adoptee, how writing was always one of her passions, and Sweet Valley High may have come up. I can't wait for you to hear this interview. It's one of our favourites and I promise you're goi...

Today Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT teaches us all about grief. Perhaps some of the anger you've been experiencing is actually masking some deep grief. We talk about disenfranchised grief and why we think it is a critical topic for adoptees to understand. Full Show Notes Here   Connect With Us Janet Nordine, MS, LMFT: www.experiencecourage.com | Twitter | Instagram | Experience Courage on Facebook | Jan...

We are revisiting another amazing interview from 2018! One of our favourite therapists, Pam Cordano is back! This time we chat with Pam and her two adult daughters, Sarah and Lauren. Pam's daughters tell us all about what it was like for them to grow up with a mother who was adopted. We discuss how Pam chose to parent differently than her adoptive parents, what were some positive and negative thin...

Revisiting a favourite episode from 2018! It's an honour to bring you this mother/daughter duo, Fleurette and Amy, for an in-depth view of a long-term reunion. We talk about the unusual circumstances surrounding Amy's adoption, the disappointment they both felt after their first official in-person meeting, how bringing grandkids into the equation shifted their relationship, and how many years it t...

Macy Oosthuizen, LCSW shares her story with us, and I may have gasped in shock a few times! Macy also teaches us the reasons so many adopted people feel disconnected or unmoored, and what we can do to feel anchored at last. This episode is a must-listen! You'll be surprised by the twists in Macy's story as she sought after the truth, and wowed by her wisdom and insights as a therapist. Full Show N...