DNA and Adoptee Search aired on CNN yesterday, talking with adoptees and about adoptees use of DNA tests to find family.

Adopted adults: if you are having symptoms of anxiety or depression, difficulty knowing who you are and what you want, or difficulties in relationships, you might be looking for a therapist. Maybe you are not specifically looking to address issues related to your adoption. One of the most common questions I hear from adopted adults on the search for a therapist is, “how do I know if I need an adoption specialist?”

This is the fourth of four posts that began as a paper given at the New Jersey Let’s Talk Adoption Conference on April 1, 2017 to a group of adoptive parents, adoptees, adoption social workers and others interested in adoption who had gathered as part of a day-long conference.

This is the third of four posts that began as a paper given at the New Jersey Let’s Talk Adoption Conference on April 1, 2017 (to read the whole series start here). I spoke to adoptive parents, adoptees and social workers interested in adoption who gathered at a day-long conference. The organizers wanted a presentation on loss and how it figures into the experience of adoptees. This post outlines the results of an adoptee survey I gave to a number of adult adoptees for the presentation.

This post began as a paper given at the New Jersey Let’s Talk Adoption Conference on April 1, 2017 to a group of adoptive parents, adoptees, adoption social workers and others interested in adoption who had gathered as part of a day-long conference. As I explained in my first post in this series (and you are encouraged to take a look at part one if you haven’t already), the organizers were interested in a presentation on loss and how it figures into the experience of adoptees and this had become a deep interest of mine.

Dear adoptee: are you, or is someone you know, struggling with a loss that you don’t think you can get over? Have you had the experience of having your life grind to a halt because someone left, or died, or something you were counting on fell through?

I want to share this lovely piece by a birth mother on first contact, especially timely in light of records being opened in NJ.

I’m happy to announce that I’ll be presenting a workshop at the 2016 APC (Adoptive Parents Committee) conference in Brooklyn on November 20, 2016. I’ll be posting more later, including a short video talking about my workshop, but the presenters also invited us to create a short video on “Why I love the APC.”

I stumbled across an excellent site today with a curated list of 205 books related to adoption written by or recommended by adoptees. Several are already in my library and several more are in my to read pile, but this is really an embarrassment of riches.

Arthur C. Brooks, in his opinion piece this weekend for the New York Times entitled Narcissism is increasing. So you’re not so special writes:

From the mundane to the profound, problems in and with relationships can point to where we need to grow, and be excellent reasons to consider couples therapy or individual therapy.

An interesting, brief article on the personal and much broader effects of this policy, especially on ideas about adoption in the U.S. and what a family looks like.