REVIEW: Rooted in Adoption: A Collection of Adoptee Reflections. Veronica Breaux and Shelby Kilgore, 2020. Rooted in Adoption is a new anthology of short pieces by adoptees reflecting on their experience as adoptees. As such, it is a wonderful addition to the growing canon of books, films and ...read more
Adult Adoptees: Why Group?
If you don't know where to start, but you have a feeling that adoption might be something you need to address in your life and you are considering therapy, group therapy can be a powerful option. What are some of the benefits of group? Know yourself better as you explore your reaction to ...read more
The Body Keeps The Score: Lessons from Trauma Treatment
The first chapter of The Body Keeps The Score looks at how van der Kolk came to be interested in the problem of trauma treatment from his work with Vietnam veterans. He discusses an early case that had a big impact on him, and led him to search for answers. He also talks about how little was ...read more
Why Join an Adoption Therapy Group (vs. Adoption Support Group) for Adoptees?
Why Join an Adoption Therapy Group (vs. Adoption Support Group) for Adoptees? The easy answer is that you want change, and you want to have powerful support and accountability along the way. In an adoption support group or adoption therapy group, most people learn that while healing is good ...read more
Adoptee Rights Legislation in Albany A5494/S3419
Historic Adoptee Rights Legislation Passes in Albany The Clean Bill of Adoptee Rights was voted on and passed in the legislature on Friday. Now it goes to the Governor’s Office for signature. I want to thank Assemblyman David Weprin and Senator Velmanette Montgomery for sponsoring this ...read more
Birth/First Mothers
I want to share this lovely piece by a birth mother on first contact, especially timely in light of records being opened in NJ. ...read more
Why I love the APC – 2016 Conference coming up!
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 ...read more
As China’s one child policy comes to an end…
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. Read the whole article here. I was most struck by this line: The adoption of (mainly) girls from China -- again, along with other ...read more
Transracial adoption and making sense of microaggressions
I attended the Adoptive Parents' Committee conference in Brooklyn yesterday, and heard several exciting presentations. It was fabulous to hear all the stories, from attendees and presenters, and get a sense of where parents are on their paths to adoption. One of the most interesting workshops I ...read more