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Adoptee Voices Adoption Birth family

Why do we pathologise grief?

Will you believe that I have grief for the mother I loved before I was born, the mother I lost with my birth?

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Adoptee Voices

Adoption industry

The selection of ‘adoption journey’ as a theme for this year’s National Adoption Week shows just how profoundly disconnected the adoption industry is from the experience of actual adoptees.

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Adoptee Voices

Adoption journey

The theme of this year’s National Adoption Week in England (21st – 27th October) is “adoption journey.” National Adoption Week is an annual adopter recruitment campaign by Adoption England under the #YouCanAdopt brand, funded by the Department for Education. Their marketing campaign utilises celebrity supporters, news stories fed to national publications such as The Big […]

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Adoptee Voices Lifelong Impact Personal reflection

“Did you have a good adoption?”

Last night, on meeting an adoptee for the first time, a friend and I were asked “Did you have a good adoption?” In a split second, I had to decide whether to let it go or to challenge this language with a complete stranger. [laughing] “I could give you a rant about why I don’t […]

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Adoptee Voices Lifelong Impact Mental health Transracial adoption

NHS therapy for adoptees

Is it a battle worth fighting? Today I start a round of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), a therapy recommended for treating the effects of complex trauma, under the NHS. It’s taken me four long years to get here, with frustration and disappointments along the way. With all the hurdles I faced, there were […]

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Adoptee Voices Adoption Lifelong Impact

Adoptee Voices 2023

I had a ‘good’ adoption but I hate adoption. I hate the sense of not belonging of always being outside/other. I resent the way non adoptees usually view adoption. I wish that I’d had support from someone with insight to work through my issues instead of finding the primal wound in my forties and realising that no not everybody feels or thinks that way about things. It totally screws with your head and relationships, definitely your relationships!