Unearthing Adoption: Normalizing Positive Perspectives

Jeanette has been an adoption therapist and foster care therapist in Los Angeles for over 20 years. She has worked also as a keynote speaker, training developer, associate therapist supervisor, foster care social worker, and is the clinical director of Yoffe Therapy Inc. She has trained social workers and therapists in trauma-informed practice for the Los Angeles County Child and Family Services and the Los Angeles Department of Mental Health. She also holds training for parents, social workers, and therapists on topics related to adoption and foster care challenges, parenting, the impact of pre-adoption trauma, grief/loss, open adoption, open foster care, attachment challenges and provides support to adult adoptees and foster youth searching for long lost family members, as well as assists in reunion and family reunification. View her trainings on her YouTube Channel @Jeanette-ically Speaking About Adoption, Foster Care & Mental Health. She is also the founder of Celia Center, a non-profit organization supporting all members in the adoption constellation via support groups, adoptee arts festivals, foster youth arts festivals, wolf healings, sailing and fishing and mental health conferences. https://yoffetherapy.com/jeanette-yoffe/

There really isn't much Rich Uhrlaub can't or won't do for the adoption community. He is truly dedicated to the adoptee community - politically, socially, musically, poetically, and spiritually. You can find Rich: Here (For the Records): https://www.ftrmusical.com Here (Adoption Search Resource Collection): https://www.asrconline.org/board-bios

There really isn't much Rich Uhrlaub can't or won't do for the adoption community. He is truly dedicated to the adoptee community - politically, socially, musically, poetically, and spiritually. You can find Rich: Here (For the Records): https://www.ftrmusical.com Here (Adoption Search Resource Collection): https://www.asrconline.org/board-bios

Join us as Joy Conway shares her adoption story. Joy emphasized the importance of being confident in your journey, the importance of setting boundaries, and the healing that can come from creative processes. You can find Joy on YouTube Follow us on Instagram @unearthingadoption E-mail us! [email protected]

Nadya Ierna hopped on the podcast to talk to us today about her adoption story and her senior project and presentation.

Lauren and Glenna discuss our last two episodes, and, what is to come! Find us on IG @unearthingadoption E-mail us! [email protected]

"Ferera Swan is a recording artist, songwriter, composer, pianist, violinist, and GRAMMY voting member of The Recording Academy. Today, the Austin, Texas-based cinematic-pop artist is boldly emerging from a transformative time of reclamation. Classically trained with the Suzuki Method, Ferera began piano lessons at age 3, violin at age 6, and began writing pieces for piano by age 10. By age 16, she composed her first cinematic score titled “Serenity”, which was premiered by four high school orchestras and piano after winning a district festival composition contest her senior year. Working out of her home studio in Austin, Texas to date, Ferera has released two albums under previous artist names and has written, co-produced, co-engineered, and arranged music for other artists in a wide variety of genres ranging from pop R&B, country, rock, and folk, as well as having worked as a vocalist, pianist and/or violinist session musician. Her vocals and voice-over work has been featured in various commercial jingles including a national advertisement for Old Navy, while also performing her original music live on radio and television in the Austin, Texas region. Her instrumental piece, “Lighthouse” was featured in the film documentary ‘Swim For The Reef’ that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in France. Sharing her personal story through music as an artist and adoptee, Ferera is passionate about raising awareness around adoption in support of family preservation and evolving society's mainstream adoption narrative. Her music is a vulnerable, unfiltered, and honest expression of the ongoing healing journey relevant to many, reaching the hearts of all listeners. Currently, Ferera is actively working on upcoming projects and over the past year, has helped launch Women In Music’s very first Austin Chapter as Vice Co-Chair of Membership. Bridging music and activism for adoptee rights, social change, and collective healing, Ferera has channeled her trauma into a creative and personal rebirth. “Some of our greatest gifts can be found in our deepest pain. Explore what hurts, and find yourself."' https://www.fereraswan.com

"Long before I became a therapist, I was adopted. My parents had two biological sons and were unable to have a third child and wanted a girl, so they adopted me. Even before then, though, I was relinquished. I make the distinction between relinquishment and adoption, because those are two separate events, and I believe the root of many “adoption issues" lies with relinquishment and the experience of having been separated from one’s original parents, especially one’s first mom/birthmom. I was relinquished at birth, placed in foster care and then placed with my adoptive family when I was 10 weeks old. Even those of us who were relinquished at birth, before we developed conscious memory, lived through the experience, and our bodies remember, which often lead us to respond as though it is happening again—a post-traumatic response. My personal experiences led me to become a therapist who specializes in helping other adoptees, and the people close to them. I work with adult adoptees, adopted children/teens, adoptive parents, first/birth parents, prospective adoptive parents and the partners of adoptees, as well as others who have had similar experiences for other reasons." Find Kathy here: https://www.adopteetherapy.com/about-me Relinquished: https://www.relinquishedbook.com

Adoption Unfiltered is presented by adoptee Sara Easterly, birth parent Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard, and adoptive parent Lori Holden. Collectively, we bring 75 years of lived experience relating to adoption, and we span the Millennial, Gen X, and Baby Boomer generations. We understand the history, challenges, and trends experienced by people living in adoption and the broader adoption constellation, and we are recognized throughout the adoption community as thought leaders, influencers, and bridge-builders. Sara Easterly is an award-winning author of books and essays. Her memoir, Searching for Mom, won a gold medal in the Illumination Book Awards, among several other honors. Her adoption-focused articles, essays, and book reviews have been published by Psychology Today, Dear Adoption, Severance Magazine, Feminine Collective, Godspace, Her View from Home, and Englewood Review of Books, to name a few. Sara is founder of Adoptee Voices and previously led one of the largest chapters of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators, where she was recognized as SCBWI Member of the Year. She is on staff with the Neufeld Institute, where she supports the Adoption & Foster Care cohort of the Reaching Troubled Kids course, spearheads the Kid-Lit Book Club, and oversees the Neufeld Institute Children’s Book List. Additionally, Sara brings 20+ years of experience as a publicist and event planner orchestrating book tours, launch campaigns, and large-scale events. Kelsey Vander Vliet Ranyard spent several years working in the adoption field, most notably working on public policy issues impacting all adoption-triad members. Kelsey has played a part in the success of state legislation and has tirelessly advocated for current federal legislation. She’s a birth mother who is passionate about raising the standards in adoption to better serve the children, mothers, and families affected by family separation. Adoption has been a monumental part of her entire life: Kelsey is the daughter and granddaughter of adoptees. She can often be found fervently and frequently demanding, “How do we fix this?” She is also a co-host of the first-ever birth-mom podcast, Twisted Sisterhood. Lori Holden, a veteran parent of two newly-minted young adults, writes at LavenderLuz.com and hosts the podcastAdoption: The Long View. She’s the author of the acclaimed book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole (recommended by People magazine in 2021), written with her daughter’s birth mom. Her book is featured on adoption-agency required-reading lists across the country. She has keynoted and presented at adoption conferences around the US, and her work has appeared in magazines such as Parenting and Adoptive Families. In 2018, she was honored as an Angel in Adoption® by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI), nominated by Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado.

Lena (Eileen) Skahill is an adjunct professor of Sociology at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. She has been teaching courses in Adoption and Family Studies and Environmental Sociology which are available to students in the School of Social Work, Women’s and Ethnic Studies and The Humanities departments.  Lena is also adoptee (1966) and engaged in reunion with both of her first families. She has volunteered in varying capacities with adoption non-profits over the last decade and dedicated her academic career toward the pursuit of teaching and sharing the unique lived experiences of all members of the adoption constellation. Lena has conducted research in adoption studies over the course of her career. Her early research, On the Outside Looking In: Adoptee Perspectives on Reunion Relationships explored the evolution of long term reunions between adoptees and their first families with outcomes of the study shared at academic conferences across the country.  Her current qualitative/photo essay-based research study titled, Nurtured by Nature: Adoption and Foster Care Experiences and the Healing Power of Nature is meant to shine a light on the adoption and foster care journeys and the ways in which nature serves as a modality for healing, growth, and joy for all impacted by these lived experiences.  Research for the study has been completed and Lena anticipates data to be published in 2024.