10/10/2026
This session is free to attend but registration is required in advance. https://activisminadoption.org/upcoming-zoom-sessions.html
Adoption is treated like a one-time event that happens in infancy, instead of what it actually is: the catalyst for a lifelong experience woven into the lives of birthparents, adoptive parents, and adopted people. Adoption trauma starts with a birthparent’s crisis pregnancy, continues through the separation of a child from their biological mother, and extends into an adopted child’s growing awareness of that separation, while their adoptive parents bear witness to how typical childhood milestones can trigger unexpected grief, anger, and confusion in the children they love.
This session teaches every member of the adoption constellation how to anticipate triggering experiences and milestones before they happen, giving them the tools necessary to improve outcomes for everyone in their own adoption triad while centering the needs of adopted people. The act of adoption is trauma, trauma doesn’t just go away on its own, and it cannot be healed by love alone, making it vitally important that everyone in the adoption constellation understand when, how, and why trauma may manifest in both birthparents and adopted people throughout their lives, in order to build a personal toolkit that supports healing.
Our panel of experts are members of the Birthparent Support Alliance: Hope Helder (birthmother and BSA board co-chair), Danielle Kist (adopted person and BSA board member), Katy Finn (adoptive mother and Shared Journeys case manager), and adoption-competent therapist Billy Kaplan, LCSW (BSA board member), who join us to explore one question: If I knew then what I know now, what would I do differently?
