Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive

Are you looking for insights to help you heal? Many of us feel overwhelmed by our trauma. Engulfed by it. Consumed by it. Or perhaps tainted by it. I felt that way. I sometimes still that way. So how do we separate from our trauma to find healing and peace? Listen in.

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.

There's a LOT of secrecy and shame around adoption. So it's no wonder we are confused about our identity and wrong about our self worth.  Listen in as I dive into our deepest questions: Who am I? What's wrong with me?

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.

Have you ever felt empty inside? Many of us seek to fill our aching emptiness through alcohol, drugs and other addictions. Anything to numb the pain. Adoptee Leon is in recovery and has been sober for 2 years. Listen in as he shares what he's learned on a long journey to being ok with being himself.

Find out more about leon at:

https://www.instagram.com/leonclowes/

https://vimeo.com/user11974720

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84DG4627RX9a95wZD1d_eA

https://www.leonclowes.com/

https://twitter.com/ClowesLeon

https://www.facebook.com/leon.clowes

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 you could harness your trauma to grow? You can. Listen in as Steve shares the silver lining of what we've been through - the past that sometimes feel so painful.  A truly transformational episode with conversation and poetry to help us tap into who we truly are underneath our trauma.

Steve reads two poems from his book The Clear Light. And the transformation through turmoil material and his examples are from his book Extraordinary Awakenings. 

Steve Taylor is a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Beckett University, and the author of several best-selling books on psychology and spirituality. He is a past chair of the Transpersonal Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society. His new book is Extraordinary Awakenings: When Trauma Leads to Transformation, and his other books include The Clear Light,  Out of the Darkness, Back to Sanity, The Calm Center, The Leap and Spiritual Science. His books have been published in 20 languages, while his articles and essays have been published in over 100 academic journals, magazines and newspapers. He regularly appears in the media in the UK, and has been recently featured on Radio 4’s The Moral Maze, BBC Breakfast,  Radio FiveLive and TalkRadio. He writes blog articles for Scientific American and for Psychology Today. Eckhart Tolle has described his work as ‘an important contribution to the shift in consciousness which is happening on our planet at present.’ Steve lives in Manchester, England, with his wife and three young children.

https://www.stevenmtaylor.com/

https://www.facebook.com/stevetaylorauthor

https://www.facebook.com/stevetaylorauthor

https://www.youtube.com/user/stevetaylorauthor/

https://www.pinterest.com/stevetaylor1420/steve-taylor/

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.

Self worth seems like a nice idea. Something we are working on. Something that we might have some day. What if that day is today? Listen in as transracial adoptee and therapist Sally gets right to heart of feeling our value for ourselves.

Sally is a licensed clinical social worker, who enjoys working with adults who need support during a variety of life stressors. She understands how challenging it can be to trust someone new, so she does her best to earn your trust by being honest, consistent, following through, and prioritizing what you want to get out of therapy. Once that trust is earned, she enjoys the privilege of joining you in exploring your values, identity, habits that work and ones that don’t, skills to manage stressful situations, and responses that help you live a more manageable and enjoyable life. Clients say she is calming, honest, respectful, supportive, and encouraging. She helps people with adjustment to changes in life, anxiety, depression, stress, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, relinquishment and adoption issues, relationship difficulties, and grief. She values discovering the “Why” and shifting the focus to the questions of “How”, “When”, and “What” to help people move toward what is important to them.

Working with individuals who are adopted is especially close to Sally’s heart because she was adopted at age 5 from Seoul, Korea. She presented on panels and individually at Bethany Christian Services, Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network (KAAN), China Culture Club, Families for International Children (FFIC), Calvin Theological Seminary, Pine Rest’s CPE classes for pastors, Adoption Family Support Network (AFSN), and church groups to help educate and walk alongside adoptees, adoption workers, adoptive parents, pastors, foster parents, friends, and family as they learn to understand and work through the 7 Core Issues of Adoption (Deborah N. Silverstein and Sharon Kaplan, 1982). Since she is transracailly adopted, she also understands the challenges of being racially Asian and culturally white, so enjoys helping other transracial adoptees sort through the layers of their identities and belonging.

She graduated with her Master’s in Social Work from Western Michigan University. Her clinical background includes working with adults at Pine Rest in various areas, such as Spruce Lodge, Mother Baby and Adult Partial Programs, and at the Pine Rest Northeast Clinic as an outpatient therapist for individuals and groups. She was also Executive Director of Ramoth House, an emergency shelter for abused women and children.

Email her at [email protected]

Find out more at:

https://www.instagram.com/sallyvjo/?hl=en

https://www.linkedin.com/in/sally-verstraete-lmsw-2b7394b4/

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 want to get clear on who you really are? Identity confuses the heck out of us adoptees. Until it doesn't. Listen in as we peel back the many layers of identity. We go beyond trauma to the very essence of who we are. One of the most profound interviews in over 350 conversations on this  podcast.

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.

Do you believe you are unloveable? If so you're going to love this interview with Amy.  She shares how she's deconstructed her beliefs. An incredibly vulnerable and empowering episode looking back at lessons from the ups and downs of a 25 year reunion that's now going strong. 

Find out more at https://www.instagram.com/amynicrn/

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 more balance? Is a negativity bias getting in the way of you enjoying your life? Listen as adoptee and psychotherapist explores balance (and balancing).

Find out more about Kate:

https://katemurphytherapy.com/

https://www.instagram.com/katemurphylcsw/

https://www.facebook.com/katemurphy.therapy

https://www.linkedin.com/in/katemurphy1/

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 smoother relationships with others? And yourself? Grace makes relationships easier. Listen in as Melissa shares how she is finding grace for her adoptive mother and herself. The conversation was packed with insights for me and I'm sure it will bring you some lightbulb moments for you.

Find out about Melissa's work supporting adoptees who want to be writers here:

https://www.ulvencoaching.com/writingforadoptees

Find out more about Melissa here:

https://www.instagram.com/ulvencoaching/

https://www.ulvencoaching.com/

https://www.facebook.com/melissa.nelson.545

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 struggle to see your own value? Has what you've been through impacted your self worth? Emberly was raised by foster parents and her grandfather because of her mother's addiction. She was verbally, physically and sexually abused. Listen in as she shares how she overcome the odds to see her true value and thrive.

Find out more at:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/emberly-zellars/

https://www.amazon.com/My-Friend-Maddy-Emberly-Zellars/dp/1667886789

https://www.joiaboutart.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.