Full Directory
All Resources
84 resources in all categories
Mane Discovery
Founded by an adoptee, Mane Discovery offers somatic Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) coaching and support for adoptees and others navigating identity, trauma, and healing. Working alongside horses as partners in the therapeutic process, this approach helps clients access body-based wisdom, regulate the nervous system, and reconnect with their authentic self in ways that traditional talk therapy alone cannot reach.
C.A.S.E. National Directory
The Center for Adoption Support and Education maintains a national directory of mental health professionals with formal training in adoption competency. Searchable by state and specialty.
Adoptee Therapist Directory
Created by Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker of Beyond Words Psychological Services. Lists licensed U.S. mental health professionals who identify as adoptees and specialize in working with adoptees and adoptive families.
Dr. Chaitra Wirta-Leiker
Licensed psychologist, international/transracial adoptee of color, and adoptive parent. Specializes in adoption, trauma, and racial identity work through Beyond Words Psychological Services in Denver, CO.
Jeanette Yoffe, M.F.T.
An adoptee and licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in foster care and adoption trauma. Offers therapy, training, and resources including somatic experiencing and EMDR approaches.
Encompass Adoptees
Provides therapy, support groups, and education specifically for individuals with adoptive, foster, or kinship care experiences. Adoptee-informed and adoptee-led.
The Adoptee Collective
Trauma-informed and adoptee-centered therapeutic care and support resources for adoptees, created by an adoptee family therapist in training.
NUMARU Adoptee Wellbeing
Founded by Sun Mee, a Korean-German adoptee and certified somatic coach. Offers a creative, mind-body pathway to healing adoptee wounds through community and emotional support programs for transracial adoptees.
Dr. Liz DeBetta — Migrating Toward Wholeness
Award-winning writer, educator, and adoptee offering trauma-informed expressive-somatic narrative coaching and healing retreats. Creator of the 'Un-M-Othered' adoptee healing retreat.
Adoptee-Focused Therapy (Diego Vitelli)
An adoptee-focused, attachment, trauma, and couples therapist in Washington State using an integrative approach for adoptees navigating identity, loss, and relationship patterns.
Adoptees Connect
An adoptee-centric organization providing peer-led support groups for adult adoptees across the U.S. and beyond. Groups meet in person and online, offering a safe space for adoptees to share and heal together.
Adoptees On Community
A supportive community connected to the Adoptees On podcast, filled with resilient and passionate adult adoptees discovering the impact of adoption and supporting one another through the journey.
The Adoptee Space
An adoptee support community providing resources, events, and mental health support for the adoptee journey. Offers essential resources and fosters a strong adoptee support network.
Adoptee Healing Collective
A community of adoptee advocates, educators, and healers working to empower adoptees across all walks of life. Active on social media and through group programming.
Rewriting Adoption
A community built by adoptees for adoptees to support adoptee voices and stories, and collectively rewrite the adoption narrative. Offers educational content, community support, and advocacy.
IAMAdoptee
Created by adoptees for adoptees, IAMAdoptee curates a roadmap of mental health and wellness resources specifically for intercountry adopted persons navigating identity and healing.
Dear Adoption
A platform exclusively for those most affected by adoption: adoptees. Provides a space for adopted people to write anonymously, share their stories, and find community and validation.
Adoptee Wellness Collective
A community of mental health and wellness professionals with lived experience as adoptees, offering peer support and professional resources.
Adoptee Hub
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to connecting, collaborating, and preserving adoption legacies through community, culture, and post-adoption services. Founded by Korean adoptee Ami Nafzger.
National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP)
Unifies the adoption community and elevates diverse voices by promoting dialogue, understanding, and healing through education, awareness, and connection.
The Primal Wound
By Nancy Newton Verrier. A foundational text exploring the trauma of separation from the birth mother and its lifelong impact on adoptees. Widely considered essential reading for understanding adoptee experience.
Journey of the Adopted Self
By Betty Jean Lifton (adult adoptee). Explores the inner world of the adopted person and the quest for identity and wholeness. A seminal work in adoptee literature.
Coming Home to Self
By Nancy Newton Verrier. The companion to The Primal Wound, this book guides adoptees through the healing process and toward reclaiming their authentic selves.
Adoption Healing: A Path to Recovery
By Joe Soll, LCSW (adult adoptee). A comprehensive and positive approach to helping adoptees heal lifelong wounds, written from the perspective of an adoptee therapist.
The Body Keeps the Score
By Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. A landmark book on how trauma reshapes the body and brain. Essential reading for adoptees understanding their own trauma responses and somatic experiences.
What Happened to You?
By Bruce Perry, M.D., Ph.D. & Oprah Winfrey. Conversations on trauma, resilience, and healing that reframe the question from 'What's wrong with you?' to 'What happened to you?' — deeply relevant for adoptees.
Ambiguous Loss
By Pauline Boss. Explores grief and loss that lacks clear resolution — a concept deeply resonant for adoptees experiencing loss of birth family, culture, and identity without clear closure.
The Adoptee Survival Guide
Edited by Lynn Grubb. A collection of wisdom and tools from adoptees themselves, offering practical guidance for navigating the adoptee experience.
You Should Be Grateful
By Angela Tucker (adult adoptee). Stories of race, identity, and transracial adoption that challenge the 'grateful adoptee' narrative and center the adoptee's own truth.
Black Anthology: Black Adoptees Claim Their Space
Edited by Susan Harris O'Connor, Diane Rene Christian, and Mei-Mei Akwai Elderman Ph.D. A powerful anthology centering the voices and experiences of Black adoptees.
My Grandmother's Hands
By Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, SEP. Explores racialized trauma and the pathway to mending hearts and bodies through somatic practices — essential for transracial adoptees.
Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home
By Toko-pa Turner. A profound exploration of belonging, exile, and the longing to find one's true home — themes that resonate deeply with the adoptee experience.
What White Parents Should Know About Transracial Adoption
By Melissa Guida-Richards (adult adoptee). An adoptee's perspective on history, nuance, and practice in transracial adoption — essential for transracial adoptees understanding their own experience.
You Don't Look Adopted
By Anne Heffron (adult adoptee). A raw, honest memoir about the adoptee experience, identity, and the power of writing as healing.
The Perpetual Child: Dismantling the Stereotype
Edited by Diane Rene Christian and Amanda H.L. Transue-Woolston. Challenges the infantilization of adoptees and centers adult adoptee voices and experiences.
Adoptees On
Hosted by Haley Radke. A gathering of adopted people sharing intimately personal stories about the impact of adoption. Features a 'Healing Series' with adoptee therapists and a supportive community.
Who Am I Really?
Hosted by Damon L. Davis (adoptee). Features adoptees sharing their stories of adoption, search, and reunion with biological family members. Over 250 episodes of raw, honest conversation.
Adoptees in Arms
Hosted by Iris Peterson Bryant (adult adoptee). Focuses on helping adult adoptees find purpose on the other side of pain, featuring honest storytelling and spiritually uplifting interviews.
Voice of Adoptees
A podcast that empowers adopted people across the globe to connect and share their stories, amplifying the adoptee voice on a global platform.
The Adoptee Diaries
A safe space for adoptees navigating the complex emotions of identity, trauma, and healing. Personal reflections and conversations on truth, trust, and transparency.
Search Angels
A nonprofit organization providing free assistance to adoptees searching for their biological families using genetic genealogy and traditional search methods. Volunteer-run and adoptee-centered.
GEDmatch
A free DNA site built for genetic genealogy research. Allows adoptees to upload DNA data from 23andMe, AncestryDNA, or other testing companies to find matches across platforms.
DNA Detectives
A large, active Facebook community focused on using genetic genealogy to help adoptees and others with unknown parentage find their biological families. Expert volunteers assist with complex cases.
Watershed DNA
Offers support, guidance, resources, and personalized genetic counseling for those with unexpected DNA discoveries. Specializes in helping adoptees, NPEs (not parent expected), and donor-conceived people.
Adoptee Rights Coalition
Works to restore the right of all adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates and other vital records. Provides state-by-state guides to records access.
Adoptees United
A U.S.-based nonprofit led by adoptees working to protect the rights of all adopted people, focusing on identity, citizenship, original birth certificates, and equality under the law.
Adoptee Rights Law Center
Provides legal representation and advocacy for adult adopted people on issues of identity rights, birth records, and U.S. citizenship. Founded by adoptee attorney Greg Luce.
Adoptees for Justice
An intercountry adoptee-led organization whose mission is to educate, empower, and organize transracial and transnational adoptee communities around justice and systemic change.
Adoptee Voices Rising
An adoptee-led, social justice group that advocates for the adoptee community through political engagement, grassroots organizing, and legislation.
InterCountry Adoptee Voices (ICAV)
Provides a platform for intercountry adoptees worldwide to connect, share, educate, and advocate about political, social, and emotional issues. Maintains extensive resource lists and adoptee-led groups.
Also-Known-As (AKA)
A New York-based national nonprofit that empowers the voices of adult international adoptees, providing resources, mentorship, scholarships, and space to explore identity and cultural bridges.
KAAN (Korean American Adoptee Adoptive Family Network)
Enriches the lives of Korean-born adoptees and transracial adoptees by connecting the community through dialogue, education, and support. Hosts annual conferences.
IKAA (International Korean Adoptee Associations)
Connects, supports, and advocates for the global Korean adoptee community, hosting international gatherings and providing resources for Korean adoptees worldwide.
Mane Discovery
Founded by an adoptee, Mane Discovery offers somatic Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) coaching and support for adoptees navigating identity, trauma, and healing. Horses serve as co-facilitators, helping clients access body-based wisdom, regulate the nervous system, and reconnect with their authentic self — reaching preverbal and pre-language experiences that traditional talk therapy often cannot touch.
Horse Therapy Finder
A dedicated online directory for finding horse therapy and equine-assisted psychotherapy providers across the United States. Searchable by location, making it easy for adoptees to find a certified equine-assisted mental health professional or EFL practitioner near them.
EAGALA (Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association)
The global standard-setting body for Equine Assisted Psychotherapy (EAP) and Equine Assisted Learning (EAL). EAGALA’s website includes a provider directory to help adoptees and others find certified equine-assisted mental health professionals in their area.
PATH Intl. — Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship
PATH International promotes safety and optimal outcomes in equine-assisted services. Their center locator helps individuals find accredited therapeutic horsemanship and equine-assisted psychotherapy programs, including those serving trauma survivors and individuals with complex histories.
OK Corral Series (Greg Kersten)
A structured equine-assisted psychotherapy framework developed by Greg Kersten. The OK Corral Series is used by therapists worldwide to guide clients — including adoptees — through experiential, horse-based activities that mirror and illuminate relational and attachment patterns.
Adult Adoptees Advocating for Change
One of the largest and most active Facebook communities for adult adoptees. A space for adoptees to share experiences, advocate for change, and support one another through the complexities of adoption, identity, and healing.
Adoptee Voices
A supportive Facebook community dedicated to amplifying adoptee voices and fostering honest conversation about the adoptee experience, including identity, loss, reunion, and healing.
Korean Adoptees Worldwide
A global community for Korean adoptees to connect, share stories, and support one another across borders. Covers identity, culture, search and reunion, and the unique experience of being Korean-born and raised abroad.
Adoptee Rights & Records Access
A Facebook group focused on adoptee rights, original birth certificate access, and legislative advocacy. Members share state-by-state updates, legal resources, and strategies for accessing sealed records.
Transracial Adoptee Network
A community space for transracial adoptees to connect, share resources, and discuss the intersection of race, identity, and adoption. Focuses on the unique challenges faced by adoptees raised in families of a different racial background.
Adoptee Healing & Support
A warm, peer-support Facebook group for adoptees at any stage of their healing journey. Members share resources, personal reflections, and encouragement in a moderated, adoptee-centered space.
Late Discovery Adoptees
A dedicated community for people who discovered they were adopted later in life. Covers the unique shock, grief, and identity questions that come with late discovery, with peer support from others who understand.
DNA Detectives
A large, active Facebook community using genetic genealogy to help adoptees and others with unknown parentage find biological family. Expert volunteers assist with complex DNA cases using tools like GEDmatch and AncestryDNA.
Search Squad
A Facebook group dedicated to helping adoptees and others search for biological family members using DNA, social media, and traditional search methods. Volunteer searchers assist members with their cases.
Mane Discovery — Equine Facilitated Healing
Created by an adoptee, Mane Discovery uses horses as co-facilitators in a somatic healing journey. Equine Facilitated Learning (EFL) sessions offer a unique, body-centered pathway for adoptees to process preverbal trauma, build nervous system resilience, and experience belonging — often reaching places that words alone cannot. An especially powerful resource for adoptees who feel disconnected from their bodies or stuck in traditional therapy.
Hiraeth Hope & Healing
A 501(c)(3) nonprofit community space offering healing retreats for individuals impacted by family separation, origin loss, and the discovery of hidden truths. 'Hiraeth' is a Welsh word for a deep longing for home.
Anne Heffron — Writing as Healing
Adoptee author and Wayfinder Life Coach offering writing classes and retreats specifically for adoptees. Uses writing as a tool for self-discovery, healing, and reclaiming one's story.
Un-M-Othered Adoptee Healing Retreat
A two-day in-person adoptee healing retreat by Dr. Liz DeBetta offering somatic and narrative practices, film, and community care. Focuses on healing the mother wound.
Adoptee Mentoring Society
Provides virtual 1:1 mentorship for adoptees by trained mentors with lived adoptee experience. Offers a unique peer connection that goes beyond therapy.
Untangling Our Roots Summit
A premier annual conference serving the adoption, assisted reproduction, and NPE communities with expert presenters, workshops, and peer support.
Severance Magazine
A digital magazine and community for adoptees, NPEs, and donor-conceived people. Publishes essays, personal narratives, and articles that center the voices of those affected by family separation.
The Real Adoptea Moxie
A Substack newsletter by Pamela A. Karanova offering raw, unfiltered truth about adoption and the adoptee experience. Includes an 'Ask Me Anything' column for adoptee questions.
The Adopted Life (Angela Tucker)
Written by Angela Tucker, transracial adoptee and author of 'You Should Be Grateful.' Confronts adoption, race, identity, and belonging head-on, centering adoptee perspectives.
My Adopted Life
A comprehensive blog and resource hub offering wellness resources, writing guides, and adoptee-centered content for adult adoptees navigating healing and self-discovery.
Harlow's Monkey
A long-running blog and resource hub focused on transracial and international adoption from an adoptee-critical perspective. Maintains extensive lists of adoptee-centric organizations and films.
ICAV Documentaries & Films List
A curated list of documentaries and films about intercountry and transracial adoptees, organized by country of origin. Maintained by InterCountry Adoptee Voices.
Adoptee Health Network
An online resource focused on providing support and resources to adopted patients with limited family medical history (LFMH). Covers genetic testing, mental health, and healthcare navigation for adoptees.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Call or text 988 to reach trained crisis counselors 24/7. Adoptees are statistically at higher risk for suicidal ideation. Free, confidential, and available in English and Spanish.
NAMI HelpLine
The National Alliance on Mental Illness HelpLine is a free, nationwide peer-support service providing information, resource referrals, and support to people living with a mental health condition.
SAMHSA National Helpline
1-800-662-4357. A free, confidential, 24/7 treatment referral and information service for individuals facing mental health or substance use challenges.
Adoptees Connect Resources
Adoptees Connect maintains a dedicated page of crisis resources specifically compiled for adult adoptees, including the 988 Lifeline and additional mental health supports.