Once Upon A Time...In Adopteeland

Lisa K Bouler is a returning guest.

She was born and adopted in Chicago. From an early age her adoptive parents shared her adoption story and encouraged her to search for her biological family. With their support, she eventually found out she was not only a big sister to her parent’s biological child, but a big sister to her own four biological siblings. Lisa is the mother of two phenomenal young adults aged 22 and 25. She has been in education for 34 years. In her spare time, she runs marathons, crochets, and tends to her vegetable gardens. 

StoryCorps: https://storycorps.org/stories/adopted-woman-finds-siblings-learns-family-secret/

Music by Corey Quinn

Dr. Stephen Rowley became a psychotherapist after a rich and varied career in K-12 and higher education. He earned his B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a major in English and Psychology. He also earned a Ph.D. in Administration and Policy Analysis from the Graduate School of Education of Stanford University and an M.A. in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. Dr. Rowley holds a license as a Mental Health Counselor (LMHC, #LH61080171) in Washington State and is formally trained in Mindfulness Meditation. Additionally, he has completed Advanced Training in Somatic Transformation™, Certification Level l of Dream Tending, and a yearlong course from the Centre for Psychological Astrology in London, U.K. My recent training includes “Ethics in the Context of Cultural Diversity,” taught by Samuel Kimbles, Ph.D.

Dr. Rowley is available for a brief, no-cost phone consultation to answer your questions about his practice and him.

Website: https://stephenrowley108.com/

Music by Corey Quinn

Rebecca Autumn is a returning guest to the podcast.

Rebecca Autumn Sansom is a documentary filmmaker, event planner, and non-profit director. Her films, including Reckoning with the Primal Wound (2023) and Trainsforming America (2012), have screened at film festivals and public and private events throughout the United States. She is the founder and director of the non-profit, the WAVYS, that hosts a music awards show annually in New York City with generous support from the NYC Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment. As a native Nashvillian, Rebecca’s life has been steeped in the sounds of Music City, and in 2015 she won a Midsouth Regional Emmy for her work on Tout Your Town, a travel series produced by Genuine Human Productions in Nashville, TN.

Watch: Reckoning with The Primal Wound

Website: Variety Feature on The Wavys www.thewavys.org

Music by Corey Quinn

Mee Ok Icaro (pronounced “Mee Oak Ee-car-oh”), is a unique and powerful voice in the world of visionary medicine and personal growth. As a Writer, Book Doula, Sacred Medicine Advisor and Integration Specialist, Life Purpose Coach and Guide, Mee Ok is dedicated to helping individuals heal and find their path in life. Skilled in Gabor Maté’s Compassionate Inquiry approach, a method she has personally integrated for over a decade to transform her own life, she integrates many teachings from a variety of traditions, from ancient to modern.

With a passion for writing and a talent for prose, Mee Ok is an award-winning stylist and poet. Her work has appeared in notable publications like the LA Times, Boston Globe Magazine, and Michael Pollan’s Trips Worth Telling anthology. She was even featured in Gabor Maté’s New York Times bestseller The Myth of Normal and the Netflix docuseries [Un]Well. With over a decade of experience working with ayahuasca and dieting seven master plants, Mee Ok is curing a near-fatal autoimmune disease, scleroderma, and is dedicated to helping others heal and recover their birthright of authenticity and truth.

Mee Ok holds a BA in Philosophy from Boston University and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction, and has studied the history of sexuality and medicine at Harvard. She is currently in the process of being initiated in her own indigenous tradition of Korean shamanism (mudang) and as an ayahuasquera in the Shipibo lineage. With a diverse set of passions, including racial and disability equity, adoptee advocacy, social justice, film, literature, doggies, and drag, Mee Ok is a curious soul with a wealth of knowledge and experience she loves to share. To learn more about her writing and work, visit Mee-ok.com

Website: https://holdingcompassionate.space/

Music by Corey Quinn

Shelise Keum Mee Gieseke (s/hers) is the head of operations at Adoption Mosaic. She has worked in the adoption community as an editor, educator, and administrator for over 10 years, including editing and curating the blog Land of Gazillion Adoptees and the online magazine Gazillion Voices. Shelise is also an intercountry Korean, interracial adoptee who was adopted as an infant by a white family and raised on a farm in Minnesota. She has three siblings who are biological children of her adoptive parents. She has searched for but is not in reunion with her Korean family. Shelise lives in Portland, OR and is parenting two biological biracial children with her husband. 

Website Resources: https://adoptionmosaic.com/ https://gazillionvoices.com/

Music by Corey Quinn

Becca Flatt is a Mixed Race, Black and white, closed, domestic infant, interracial adoptee. Becca’s biological family and adoptive family mirror each other; however, Becca, being mixed race, does not share the racial identity of either set of her parents. Becca Graduated from The University of Southern California with her Master’s in social work and a concentration in mental health in 2014. Becca provides mental health treatment to transracial, interracial, and same-race adoptees of color in Oregon. 

Websites: https://www.mendedheart.org/ https://adoptionmosaic.com/

Instagram: @mending_the_adopted_heart

Adoptee Consciousness Model: https://intercountryadopteevoices.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/adoptee-consciousness-model.pdf

https://redthreadbroken.com/2022/06/23/out-of-the-fog-and-into-consciousness-a-model-of-adoptee-awareness/

Music by Corey Quinn

Rebecca Wellington currently teaches in the School of Education at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington.  She holds a doctorate in education history from the University of Washington.  Rebecca’s career in education started 26 years ago on the ocean, sailing around the world on a traditionally rigged tall ship. Through this two-year global circumnavigation Rebecca trained for a US Coast guard captain’s license and went on to work in outdoor education, which sparked her love of teaching.  Rebecca was driven to write a history of adoption from the perspective of an adoptee and to honor the memory of her holder sister and the truth of brave women everywhere.  Her proudest accomplishment is mothering her two daughters, Maria and Victoria.  She and her husband and daughters live in Seattle, Washington.

Website: https://www.rebeccawellington.com/

ADOPTEE REMEMBRANCE DAY IS OCTOBER 30th

Music by Corey Quinn

Louise Browne is a baby scoop-era adoptee from the United States living in California. She Co-Hosts a podcast, Adoption: The Making of Me, that helps to get adoptees' stories out in the world to help change the narrative around adoption. 

Hosting Adoption: the Making of Me has brought questions and past feelings to the surface about why she had always felt the way she did. Sharing this journey of discovery with the adopted community has proven to be a life-changing experience.

Louise enjoys spending time with her grown son, her husband, family, and friends, hikes, enjoys nature, and is working on writing her first novel and getting a children’s book published. 

Website: https://www.adoptionthemakingofme.com/

Music by Corey Quinn

Jennifer Poole was adopted as an infant in a closed adoption. She holds a Masters Degree in Interfaith Pastoral Counseling, where she wrote her thesis on “Openness in Adoption as an Opportunity for Spiritual Growth”. It was during this time, in 2001, that she initiated her reunion with her birth mother and later with her birth father. 

Passionate about supporting families, she is certified in Hand in Hand Parenting, Redirecting Children’s Behavior, the Enneagram, and Whole Person Design Life Coaching. Drawing from a large tool box which includes continuing education in Mindfulness, High Conflict Diversion, ADHD, ACES, Attachment Theory and Trauma Informed Care, Jennifer provides counseling and coaching to help families move from conflict to the connection they seek. 

She also works with Adoption Mosaic as a co-teacher and parenting consultant. As their adoptee outreach coordinator, she interviews adoptees to help find panelists for their “We the Experts” series. 

She currently lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband. Together they have 4 grown children.

Websites: https://www.feelmorelove.net/

https://adoptionmosaic.com/

Music by Corey Quinn

Edward Di Gangi is a returning guest.

Adopted at birth, Edward Di Gangi was born and raised in New York City. Although he knew for most of his life that he was adopted, it wasn’t until he approached his 70th birthday that he began to search for the identity of his birth mother. His journey and the many surprising discoveries he made as he searched are recounted in his memoir, The Gift Best Given. Edward and his wife now live in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He is a popular book club presenter and podcast guest. The Gift Best Given is his first full-length book.

In this episode,  Edward shares the research he continues to do in preparation for his next book, how he has come to better understand the birth mother’s experience, the month of May and how some things have not changed since 1948, the year he was born.

Website: https://www.digangiauthor.com/

Music by Corey Quinn