Podcast
Thriving Adoptees - Let's Thrive
Hosted by Simon Benn · EN
Let's thrive.
Thriving Adoptees helps adoptees thrive.
What does thriving mean to you?
Healing? Post Traumatic Growth? Evolving?
Listen in as we explore what's helped adoptees do all that...
Email me at simon@thrivingadoptees.com if you'd like to have a chat about being a guest on the show.
There have been 93,000 downloads of the show since launch in April 2021.
38episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Love & Fear With Kaici Frieze
3d ago00:49:41Tap to summarizeAre we coming from love or fear? Perhaps one of the most profound things we can notice in any moment. Or in any relationship. Loving on our child's birth parents leads to better outcomes for all. Listen in as adoptee and adoption professional Kaici shares how she's empowering adoptive parents with her own learnings growing up. Find out more about Kaici here: https://www.facebook.com/kaici.frieze/ https://hopeadoptionagency.org/ https://www.facebook.com/hopeadoptionagency https://www.instagram.com/hopecenteradoptions https://www.linkedin.com/company/hope-center-adoptions/ Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Lightening The Load With Joanne Alper
3d ago00:53:02Tap to summarizeHow would a lighter load help you? Your kids? Listen in as adoption professional Joanne talks self care, helping kids carry less baggage and much more... Here's a bit about Joanne from her organisation's website "I have over 30 years' social work experience in both local authority and the independent sector, covering child protection, children's care and Adoption and Fostering. I have worked as team manager, service manager and service director and was instrumental in establishing Adoptionplus in 2002 first as an Adoption Support Agency and then in 2006 as a Voluntary Adoption Agency. I am a qualified social worker and play therapist and have had 9 books published, including the Billy Says series of 6 books; All About Mummies and Daddies; Assessing Adoptive and Foster Parents: Improving Analysis and Understanding of Parenting Capacity; and Supporting Birth Parents of Children who have been Adopted. I have sat as a Trustee on the CVAA Board, a special adviser on the NICE committee for Quality Standards in Attachment and been invited to give evidence at a number of All Party Parliamentary Committees. Over the years it has been incredibly rewarding to play a leading role in developing Adoptionplus and to work with our talented team dedicated to improving the quality of life for so many children and families." Find out more at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-alper-13267a42/ https://www.adoptionplus.co.uk/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/adoptionplus https://www.facebook.com/Adoptionplus Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Endurance With Amie Cooper
4d ago00:45:54Tap to summarizeAre you going through tough stuff? In need of a break? Inspiration? Listen in adoptive mom, executive director and counsellor Amie shares insights on endurance, flourishing and more... Amie Cooper is the Founder and Executive Director of Flourishing Families of South Carolina, a nonprofit organization dedicated to offering hope, healing, and holistic support to families impacted by childhood trauma. With both personal and professional experience in foster care, adoption, and kinship caregiving, Amie leads with profound empathy, authenticity, and insight as she walks alongside caregivers raising children from hard places. Her passion for this work was born from her own family’s journey and a deeply personal understanding of how trauma, isolation, and unmet needs can affect both children and caregivers. In response to the overwhelming lack of support for families navigating these challenges, Amie founded Flourishing Families to be a source of education, encouragement, and enduring connection. Under her leadership, the organization provides trauma-informed resources, caregiver coaching, support groups, and strategic community partnerships designed to equip, connect, and sustain families through every season. At the heart of her vision is the belief that no caregiver should walk this road alone—and that healing and wholeness are possible when families are surrounded by the right tools and relationships. Amie is a TBRI® (Trust-Based Relational Intervention®) Practitioner, trained through the Karyn Purvis Institute of Child Development, and integrates these principles across all programming to promote safety, attachment, and regulation for children and caregivers alike. She is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, expanding her capacity to bring both relational and clinical support to the families she serves. A gifted speaker, trainer, and advocate, Amie is passionate about building trauma-responsive communities and creating spaces where caregivers feel seen, supported, and empowered. Through her leadership, Flourishing Families is not only helping families survive hard seasons—but thrive, heal, and truly flourish. https://www.flourishingfamiliessc.org/ https://www.instagram.com/flourishingfamiliessc/ https://www.instagram.com/flourishingfamiliessc/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/cooperamie/ Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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What's Our Focus? With Ruby Douglas
6d ago00:53:41Tap to summarizeAre we focusing on ourselves, others, our kids? Our dreams or theirs? Our expectations or how they are doing? Listen in as single adoptive mom of 3 and adoption professionals shares a lifetime's wisdom... https://www.homeswithhope.org/ https://www.facebook.com/HomeswithHope Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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We Are Whole With Garret Kramer
1w ago01:02:31Tap to summarize"You are whole. We are whole. Nothing can change what is true." Provocative? Perhaps. Challenging? Definitely. True? That's for you to decide. Listen in as coach and son of an adoptee Garret dives deep into a profound exploration of wholeness. Garret Kramer is the founder of Inner Sports, a visionary who for nearly three decades, has been providing transformative consulting services to athletes, coaches, actors, doctors, and business leaders. His extensive career also includes conducting workshops, daylong symposiums, and retreats for teams, organizations, universities, and schools. Having introduced the "Direct Path of Self-Exploration" to the high-performance community, Garret has played a pivotal role in redefining the way we approach excellence, passion, and maximizing potential. He also now shares with global audiences his unique perspective on the Consciousness-only model and its profound implications for creating a more harmonious world. Garret resides in New Jersey, USA, with his family. His insights have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and Forbes, and he has appeared on major media platforms, including ESPN, FOX, NPR, WFAN, NBC, and The Golf Channel. Garret is the author of three transformative books, True Self: Notes on the Essence of Being, Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life, and The Path of No Resistance: Why Overcoming is Simpler than You Think. https://www.garretkramer.com/ https://www.facebook.com/garret.kramer.1 Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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A Golden Ticket With Gareth James
1w ago00:55:09Tap to summarizeTransracial adoptee Gareth James feels like he got a golden ticket in life. Despite the racism he encountered. Life is contrast. Listen in as Gareth shares his insights on insights, thriving despite trauma and more... https://www.linkedin.com/in/gareth-james-aa8448353/ https://www.amazon.com/Love-Happiness-G-I-James-ebook/dp/B0FRSVFDPT Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Fundamental Wholeness With Danielle Gaudette
1w ago00:39:59Tap to summarizeWhat would feeling fundamentally whole do for you? Knowing that trauma hadn't damaged the essence of You? That You are intact underneath your trauma, despite your trauma? Listen in as adoptee and Emotional Healing and Integration Guide Danielle asks me some great questions and I do my best to answer them. Here's a bit about Danielle from her website: "I suppose my own healing journey began the moment I was born. Relinquished by my birth mother, I was adopted by two amazing humans. However, heartache set in as I watched the mother who cared for me everyday struggle profoundly with a mental illness brought on by her own childhood trauma. From the age of six years old, I did everything I could to help her, care for her, and make her happy. The pain of watching my mother suffer, as well as a deeper pain I didn’t understand until much later – the pain of my own relinquishment trauma – trained me to be a highly sensitive, empathic little person. I developed a healing heart, full of compassion and love for the suffering of humanity and the earth, yet unable to shine that same light on myself. Instead, I tortured myself with deep insecurities, debilitating anxieties and incessant fears, all in an attempt to grasp for some kind of control in an unsafe world. For more information about my story, please check out my memoir, Healing Tree. I experienced self-love for the first time in my life when I was twenty-two years old. It was in the year 2000 when I met and fell in love with the principles of Brain Education and the ancient Korean mindfulness practices of Body & Brain, discovering the profound power of energy healing. From that moment, I whole-heartedly threw myself into my emotional healing and spiritual growth journey, eventually leading me to share the tools that changed my life with others." Her free 2-part video experience and guided meditation: Healing Your Relationship With Yourself Her website www.daniellegaudette.com YouTube Channel: Healing Tree with Danielle Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Trauma Recycled With Anne Peshka
1w ago00:40:50Tap to summarizeWhat if we could recycle our trauma? Make it into something profoundly useful? Something to drive our thriving? Something to fuel our growth? We can! Listen in as adoptee and birth mother Anne inspires us all... Here's a bit about Anne from her website: "I know what it feels like to carry things that should have broken you. Adoption. Abuse. Addiction. Years of making choices that almost erased me completely. I also know what it feels like to get back up. Every single time. I raised my kids as a single mom while working two and three jobs for decades. There was no safety net. No one coming to save me. Just me, deciding over and over again that this was not where my story ended. I have reinvented myself more times than I can count. Not because it was easy or because I had it figured out. Because staying stuck was never an option I was willing to choose. That is what true grit actually looks like. Not one dramatic comeback. Decades of showing up, doing the work, falling down, and getting back up before anyone was watching." https://www.instagram.com/annepeshka/ https://annepeshka.com/ https://www.facebook.com/annepeshkaauthor/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/annepeshka/ Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Super Self Care With Renee Brown
1w ago00:50:48Tap to summarizeAre you hurting right now? Could you use some Super Self Care? Listen in as Renee shares insights aplenty into how we can make life just that little - or a BIG - bit easier. Renee received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin and her master’s degree in Clinical Child Psychology from Virginia Tech. She started her career as a case manager for the intellectual and developmental disabilities population at the local Community Services Board (CSB). While working, she obtained her Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and Certified Substance Abuse Counselor (CSAC) certifications and was promoted to her first supervisory position in 2000. While in this position, Renee discovered her passion for program development and leadership. She continued to work at the CSB managing programs that supported individuals with mental health needs and/or developmental disabilities until she came to DePaul in January of 2017. Renee was already familiar with DePaul’s mission of hope and belonging as she was previously a foster parent for the organization. For almost six years, Renee has been the Vice President of Child and Family Services overseeing the Foster Care, Independent Living, Adoption, and Community-Based programs. During her time at DePaul, her restructuring of the CFS Leadership Team allowed for the expansion of the Independent Living program and the reimagining of pre-service training for prospective foster parents. Renee’s collaborative style was instrumental in increased cross-divisional and cross-program successes. Renee values community partnerships and is a member of the Roanoke City and Roanoke County Community Policy and Management Teams (CPMT). Renee is also on the Family Focused Treatment Association Board, a national organization that provides support to agencies in the child welfare system, as well as the Project Discovery Board, a program that provides support to first generation college-bound students across Virginia. https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-brown-lpc-csac-20b93bba/ https://www.instagram.com/depaulcommunityresources/ https://www.facebook.com/DePaulCommunityResources https://www.depaulcr.org/ Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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Mindset And Trauma - WHAT??? With Jamole Callahan
2w ago00:55:59Tap to summarizeMindset is rarely talked about in adoption and fostering. It's trauma all the way. Why is that? What can we learn from exploring mindset to be better and do better. Listen as the inspirational force of nature that is unofficially adopted Jamole dives deep into normally uncharted waters... Jamole Callahan spent six years in foster care living in nine different homes until he was emancipated at age 18. His road into foster care was paved with being the product of an affair, his father’s subsequent abandonment, then his mother’s drug addiction that left him to care for his baby sister at the age of 11. Although he had doting and attentive grandparents the state of Ohio still decided to put Jamole in foster care, while his sister went to live with her father, and his brother ran away and eventually went in to the prison system. He moved from home to home for six years due to abusive situations or the illness or death of his caretakers. Finally, he reached a home that changed his life and attitude, propelling him into building a success. The influence of his foster father planted the seed of Mr. Motivator by the mantra “Recognize no such word as impossible” (Napoleon Hill). He completed his college education, started a family, and saw the opportunity bring foster youth and others to a mindset of possibility. https://www.jamolecallahan.com/ https://www.instagram.com/jamole_callahan/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamole-callahan-9b31975b/ https://www.facebook.com/jamole.callahan Guests and the host are not (unless mentioned) licensed pscyho-therapists and speak from their own opinion only. Seek qualified advice if you need help.
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