Encompass Adoptees

05/22/2026

Taekyung Tanja Inwol discusses her second feature documentary, which premiered at CPH:DOX, the challenges of being both filmmaker and protagonist, and her unusual but memorable visual choices.

05/21/2026

Adult Adoptee Book Group 📚

Join us tonight for a discussion group created to support adult adoptees through open conversation, shared experiences, and community. Discussions will center around sections of 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘢𝘭 𝘞𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 and explore topics related to adoption, relinquishment, identity, and healing.

🗓️ Thursday, May 21st, 2026
⏱️ 6:30 P.M. - 8:00 P.M.
📍 Encompass Adoptees
122 S Terrace Ave, Columbus, OH

This group is facilitated by adult adoptees and offers a welcoming space for honest discussion, questions, and connection. Feel free to bring dinner or a snack.
RSVP appreciated but not required.

To find more information, please visit https://www.encompassadoptees.org/events-list/adultadopteebookgroup1.

ABOUT : This is a 5-part casual discussion group meant to support adult adoptees. Conversations will revolve around a section of the book. We use books to help us cover a larger variety of topics related to adoption, to increase our knowledge and awareness of the information that is out there, and

05/20/2026

Have you registered yet?
Please join us May 21st for a special online event with Dr. Liz DeBetta!!
8-9:30 pm Eastern (7 central/5 pacific--please note the time zone)
Open to everyone.
Free for AKA Members/ $12 for non-members
(scholarships are always available- email [email protected])
ABOUT THE EVENT: Adoption is often framed as an act of love, yet for many adoptees, that love is inextricably intertwined with loss. This session introduces un-m-othered as a way of naming the layered relational ruptures that shape the adoptee experience—between adoptees and first mothers, adoptive mothers, and within the self. Drawing on narrative, embodiment, and lived experience, this workshop explores how the absence of language sustains disconnection, and how reclaiming more honest, nuanced language can support integration, relational repair, and a shift from survival toward wholeness.

05/18/2026

Why do so many adoptees become high achievers?

Why are so many of us driven, overfunctioning, perfectionistic, workaholic, hyper-independent, or constantly trying to prove our worth?

And what if some of the very things the world applauds in adoptees are actually rooted in survival?

Tonight on Adoptee Restoration, I’m sharing a deeply personal piece about trauma, overachievement, success, pain, and the hidden emotional cost many adoptees quietly carry underneath competence.

Read the post here: https://substack.com//note/p-198078347?r=1wedez&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=notes-share-action

04/28/2026

https://apnews.com/article/adopted-children-boarding-schools-treatment-investigation-e5d8dab2e4db1f2f4c5abbfaf0d97c52

An Associated Press investigation finds that a business known for tough-love boarding schools for rebellious, rich teenagers has set its sights on a different demographic: adopted kids.

04/15/2026

Moving forward doesn't have to mean leaving everything behind.

As adoptees, we've been told to "let go" our whole lives. Let go of the questions. Let go of the anger. Let go of the loss and be grateful.

But that's not what this is about.

Real letting go doesn't erase what happened. It lets us decide what still gets a vote in our lives and what doesn't.

This month we're figuring out the difference. What needs to be released and what we're going to carry with us because it's part of our story.

Aprils topic: Letting Go and Moving Forward.
Join us Wednesday, May 14th, 7pm CST.
Every 3rd Wednesday of the month.
Register at our website or Eventbrite.

04/13/2026

Peter Thurnwald, Nicole Bilderback, and Charlie Kersh join the cast of Beat Drives Me, a new musical dramedy about the Korean adoptee experience.

04/01/2026

DNA test kits have both reunited and torn apart families. At age 53, I discovered that the Dad who raised me is not my biological father and that I am half A...

03/20/2026

https://www.encompassadoptees.org/family-picnic

Encompass Adoptees' Adoptive, Foster, and Kinship Family Picnic

01/31/2026

"A parliamentary report on adoption is calling for the creation of a national adoptee forum to shape policy and services – after most young people said society and government do not understand adoption...."

A parliamentary report on adoption is calling for the creation of a national adoptee forum to shape policy and services – after most young people said society and government do not understand adoption.