Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

Mike's sense of self crumbled on finding out he was adopted at 9. It took him decades to become secure in himself. How did he? What can we learn to unleash our own greatness? How can we be more of who we truly are? Listen in with big ears. Our greatest learnings often come from the toughest times.  Here's a bit about Mike from his website: "When I was nine, my parents told me I was adopted, and it...

Kelly thought that her experience raising 3 bio kids, her knowledge of trauma and qualifications in children and infant mental health would make raising her adopted child straightforward. It was anything but. Listen as we take a deep dive into what she learned and continues to learn. We explore helping kids adjust to new environments, building trust, vulnerability and more. Kelly's gift to listene...

Here's the link to the other podcast episode on unpacking our own baggage as adoptive parents that I mention in the interview  https://thriving-adoptees.simplecast.com/episodes/unpacking-our-own-baggage-as-adoptive-parents-with-hollyann-petree-mom-executive-director Marcy and her husband adopted a biological sibling pair. While remote schooling my children during the pandemic, she began to see a g...

Connect with me at   www.simonbenn.co.uk  email simon@thrivingadoptees.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.

Here's a bit about Meg and the Trust she works for. As the Director of Home Visiting Training and Professional Development, Meg oversees all initial and ongoing professional development for home visiting staff across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. During her tenure with the Children’s Trust, Meg has developed partnerships to strengthen and advance home visiting at the state and national levels...

Genevieve is the Executive Director of A Family in Bloom Adoption and also one of the Placement Supervisors. She holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Pennsylvania and received her Master’s Degree from the University of California Santa Barbara in Counseling Psychology in 1990 with a focus in Marriage, Family, and Children. Her 30 years of experience in the field encompasses work in chi...

For more than 30 years, Rita Soronen has worked on behalf of abused, neglected and vulnerable children, providing leadership for local, state and national efforts, working to improve the juvenile justice and child welfare systems while striving to assure safe and permanent homes for North America’s children. Leading the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, a national nonprofit public charity, sinc...

An adoptive mother of two now-adult children and a former foster parent, Gayle H. Swift is also a certified coach, co-founder of  GIFT  ( G rowing  I ntentional  F amilies  T ogether). GIFT provides family coaching before, during and after adoption, a former teacher, and former newsletter editor. As a staunch adoptee-rights activist, Gayle has presented at the North American Council on Adoptable C...

Check out www.simonbenn.co.uk to book me as a speaker 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.

Imani Z. Seunarine is Vice President of Behavioral Health and Outpatient Services at The Home for Little Wanderers   https://www.linkedin.com/in/imani-seunarine-lmhc-1b870630/ Here's some more from their website:   Here's a bit about The Home from their website: As the oldest child welfare agency in America, we have maintained our commitment to children since before the Civil War. Because every ch...

Joy Alessi is Policy Director of the Adoptee Rights Campaign, a diverse group of intercountry Adoptees and allies striving to educate, organize and advocate for U.S. citizenship. https://adopteerightscampaign.org/ https://www.facebook.com/citizenshipforalladoptees https://twitter.com/ARC_citizenship https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMgFx4PefOA0zwce09yRnjA https://www.instagram.com/adoptee_rights_c...

Check me out and get in touch at www.simonbenn.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.

Alex is a single mother through adoption and a nonprofit professional with over 20 years of experience. In 2011, Alex started her journey to become a mother through adoption and finds herself, 10 years after the birth of her daughter, happily sharing her daughter's life with her birth family. Alex believes strongly in the importance of belonging and that radical inclusion is critical to spark soci...

Trisha and Rich work at Lifesong which  seeks to mobilize the Church to care for the orphan, where each member can provide a unique and special service: some to adopt, some to care, some to give. With caring people like you and church partnerships, we support children through global orphan care ministries, Christian adoptive families, and foster care initiatives. https://lifesong.org https://www.f...

Check out www.simonbenn.co.uk for more on my work and to book me as a speaker. 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.

You can email Jane at jigsaw_51@yahoo.co.uk - please use Simon's Podcast in the subject line 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.

Grace Retreat Foster Care and Adoption Services is a licensing agency contracted by the State of Arizona. Grace Retreat is committed to support families through the process of becoming licensed and providing a home for children. We believe that by supporting the families, they are able to better support the children in their home. We are able to serve Pima, Cochise, and Pinal counties.  Find out m...

Check out www.simonbenn.co.uk for more on my work and to book me as a speaker. 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.

Debbie B. Riley, LCMFT is the CEO and co-founder of the Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.), a nonprofit meeting the mental health needs of adoptive, foster and kinship families. A nationally recognized adoption expert and dynamic public speaker, Ms. Riley is a licensed marriage and family therapist with  40 years of professional experience, including extensive health care managem...

Jim Daly is president of Focus on the Family and host of its daily radio broadcast, heard by more than 6 million listeners a week on nearly 2,000 radio stations across the U.S. The show has been honored as Program of the Year by the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). In March 2022, he celebrated his 33rd anniversary with the ministry. Daly’s personal journey from orphan to head of an internati...

Laurie is Executive Director of Heart Gallery NYC. Heart Gallery NYC , a non profit organization founded in 2006, utilizes photography to raise awareness of, and recruit permanent, loving adoptive families for children in foster care in New York City. In collaboration with the NYC Administration for Children’s Services and the foster provider agencies, Heart Gallery NYC collaborates with notable p...

Too Black to be White, and too White to be Black. Billy Williams was raised in Los Angeles, California in a loving home. His Teamster father and stay-at-home mother did their best to give Billy the charmed life that every child dreams about. Karate classes taught by Chuck Norris, designer clothes, and access to the upper echelon of Black society, Billy seemed to have it all. But, sometimes, what y...

As an adoptive mom, Terri knows how fortunate she is to have her daughter, and also how very rare her story is. Not quite ten years into raising her daughter, she did some research and found that less than one percent of girls facing unplanned pregnancy choose adoption for their babies. Digging into the reasons why that is so, Terri conducted several focus groups in her home and discovered that mo...

Katie is the founder of OrphanWise, an alumna of Lee University and has a Master’s Degree in Holistic Child Development. She worked as a preschool teacher for six years and served a term as an AmeriCorps VISTA with Habitat for Humanity. She moved to Paraguay in 2015 and spent three years working in a children’s home, where she served as director of the home and house mother. She also taught Englis...

Here's a bit about Peter from his website. Qualified as a Chartered Certified Accountant in 1999. I qualified as an NLP Practitioner in 2012. In 2017, I qualified as a Personal Performance coach with The Coaching Academy, obtaining a distinction (the highest grade available with Europe’s leading coach trainers). I have studied many self development teachers including Stephen Covey. I have also stu...