We live in a world where conversations about trauma are becoming commonplace and adopted people are using their voices to educate the general public about the effects of maternal separation and genealogical bewilderment. But for many adult adoptees the act of speaking truth to power is still fraught. Personal writing can unlock long held silences and help adult adoptees feel empowered to rewrite their narratives.
The need to deconstruct dominant narratives about adoption and its inherent loss and trauma is necessary if we are to reform an institution that has damaged many generations of mothers and children. Because many adoptees do not have access to adoption and trauma competent therapists, writing is an accessible therapeutic modality that can be used to reframe narratives that position adoptees as the object rather than the subject.
Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal shares the framework and method of using writing as a practice for adult adoptees, therapists, teachers, and researchers interested in learning how to migrate and heal embodied trauma. It analyzes lived experience and the authors own writing to develop a methodology for moving toward wholeness by writing and speaking the truth of internal adoptee experiences.
Introduction: Making Space to Heal
1 Rewriting the Truth: Making Room for Adoptee Narratives
1 Pre-Writing Questions
2 Self-Reflection Questions
3 Writing Exploration Two of Me
2 Expressing the Primal Wound: Navigating Fear, Grief, and Ambiguous Loss
1 Writing Exploration Expressing the Primal WoundCore Language Clues
3 Becoming the Subject: Authoring Ourselves and Our Lives
1 Writing Exploration Finding Freedom and Autonomy: Self-Regulating through
Writing
4 Breaking Silences: Fostering Empathy through Subversive Storytelling
1 Writing Exploration Subversive Storytelling for Empathy and Integration
5 Migrating toward Wholeness: Writing, Speaking, and Releasing Embodied
Trauma
1 Writing Exploration: Migrating toward Wholeness (Week 1)
2 Writing Exploration: Migrating toward Wholeness (Week 2)
3 Migrating toward Wholeness (Week 3)
4 Migrating Toward Wholeness (Week 4)
5 Migrating toward Wholeness (Week 5)
6 A Final Note Dear Reader
References
Index
Liz DeBetta, Ph.D. (2020), Union Institute & University, is an independent scholar-artist-activist committed to changing systems and helping people navigate trauma through creative processes. She has published articles on adoptee narratives and has an award winning one woman show called Un-M-Othered (www.LizDeBetta.com).
