In this episode of Mind Your Own Karma , I sit down with Dr. Maria Cronyn , a naturopathic doctor and adoptee, to explore the emotional-physical connection in healing. With over 25 years of experience, Maria shares how suppressed emotions can manifest as chronic illness-and why healing the body requires healing the whole person. We talk about everything from hormone health and trauma to naturopathic treatments and the importance of addressing identity, grief, and early life imprints. Whether you...
Jul 08, 2025•56 min•Season 4Ep. 7
In this episode of Mind Your Own Karma , I sit down with author and professor Joan K. Peters , whose memoir Untangling dives deep into the layered, complex process of healing through psychoanalysis. Joan opens up about her own long-term journey in therapy, the power of dreamwork, and thesubconscious patterns that keep so many of us stuck. We talk about what it really means to “untangle” the inner knots around love, money, and self-worth, and why healing often looks nothing like we expect. Joan’s...
Jun 24, 2025•49 min•Season 4Ep. 6
In this episode of Mind Your Own Karma , we dive deep into the transformative power of the brain and how it can heal after trauma. Join us as we talk to Sydney Curtin , author, serial entrepreneur, and advocate for the unheard, about how trauma impacts the brain-and more importantly, how we can begin to retrain our minds for healing and growth. Sydney shares her personal journey and insight into why healing isn’t about erasing the past, but about reclaiming your voice, your power, and your purpo...
Jun 10, 2025•51 min•Season 4Ep. 5
In today’s episode, we’re exploring what it really means to come home to yourself using Human Design. I'm joined by Meghan Lambert, a Human Design and Gene Keys guide who helps people stop living life on autopilot and start showing up as their real, unapologetic selves. We dive deep into how Human Design can support healing from trauma, how shadow work and deconditioning help you reclaim your truth, and why you are never broken —you’re simply remembering who you were always meant to be. Whether ...
May 27, 2025•59 min•Season 4Ep. 4
In today’s episode of Mind Your Own Karma - Beyond TheBandage, we’re joined by Kellan Bacon, a transmasculine, transracial adoptee and holistic practitioner. Kellan shares their powerful journey of navigating life as a queer, trans person and how their experiences shaped their healing work. Through their practice, Kai Ming Holistics, Kellan uses compassionate,trauma-informed, and body-centered approaches to help individuals—especially queer and adopted folks—heal and reclaim their authentic selv...
May 13, 2025•50 min•Season 4Ep. 3
In this powerful episode of Mind Your Own Karma, I welcome back returning guest and fellow adoptee Jean Widner, who is here to launch her groundbreaking new book: The Adoption Paradox. If you're an adoptee, part of the adoption triad, a therapist, or simply someone who wants to better understand the complex realities of adoption—this is a must-listen conversation. Jean’s book is already being called the most important educational book about adoption since The Primal Wound, and it’s easy to see w...
Apr 29, 2025•1 hr•Season 4Ep. 2
Mind Your Own Karma is your space for soulful healing and transformation. What started as a journey of self-discovery and adoption awareness has now evolved into something deeper: a podcast for anyone ready to explore out-of-the-box healing modalities, reconnect with their body and spirit, and rewrite their story. Join host Melissa Brunetti each week for honest conversations with radical healers, powerful tools for self-awareness, and reminders that no matter what you’ve been through… You are on...
Apr 24, 2025•2 min
SEASON 4 of Mind Your Own Karma is highlighting the effects of trauma and stress on the body, and talking about all the ways it can be unraveled. Healing is possible, and I believe that among all this juicy information I have for you this season, you'll find the right healing combination for you. Neuroplastic Symptoms: How Hidden Trauma Can Cause Chronic Pain and Medically Unexplained Symptoms with Dr. David Clarke Have you ever experienced chronic pain, fatigue, or other mysterious symptoms—onl...
Apr 15, 2025•57 min•Season 4Ep. 1
At the end of my interviews, I ask my guest a particular question. "What would you like struggling adoptees to know?" This year I included the whole triad or constellation so there are more variations on the question, but all the answers are valuable, and I hope every one of my listners finds just the right message here within. Thank you so much for sticking with my podcast for three whole years. I am already making plans for Season 4! You are so appreciated! #adopt #adoption #adoptee #adopteevo...
Dec 24, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 52
We are nearing the end of 2024! With the coming of the new year, it's routine to think about changes we could make to start fresh from the jump. Today let's chat about what some small changes (and a mind-blowing concept) can do towards bringing the changes we all want to see in our lives. More healing, more peace, self-love, and feeling like we finally found HOME. I also update you on last week's personal conundrum... and I know you'll want to hear about it. Connect With Melissa: -Email Melissa ...
Dec 17, 2024•20 min•Season 3Ep. 51
In this episode, I share a personal situation between myself and my birth mother. I don't have all the answers, and I ask you, my listeners, what do you think? Have you ever experienced this, or have you noticed your trauma has caused you to misunderstand others' intentions? Let me know! If you are interested in finding out more about a light hypnotic therapy that can allow release of buried traumas, I want you to know about something called Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery," or SMGI. It's helped ...
Dec 10, 2024•21 min•Season 3Ep. 50
Building on last week's episode about feeling stuck, this week I've put together some resources for how to make those changes that keep you feeling stuck, and take control of your life from an empowered space. Below is a link that will take you to a resource, a growing database as a service to the entire adoption community. In the chart below you will find all types of practitioners – coaches, psychotherapists, hypnotherapists, art therapists, and much more. https://unravelingadoption.com/healin...
Dec 03, 2024•10 min•Season 3Ep. 49
Adoptees can have a hard time breaking away from fear to embrace the life they really want. In this episode of Mind Your Own Karma: The Adoption Chronicles , Melissa Brunetti dives into the often-overwhelming feeling of being stuck that many adoptees experience. Fear, shaped by rejection, loss, and uncertainty, can hold adoptees back from embracing the lives they truly desire. Melissa shares how to reframe fear, turn it into a source of strength, and take courageous steps toward living a life of...
Nov 26, 2024•13 min•Season 3Ep. 48
Welcome back to the show, Karma Crew! I’m excited to reintroduce Julie Brumley, an inspiring adoptee and somatic practitioner who is dedicated to helping fellow adoptees heal and find their identity. Last week she shared her personal adoption journey, giving us a glimpse into how those experiences shaped her and influenced her work. Today, we’ll dive deeper into her healing journey and explore how somatic therapy has been a game changer for both her and her clients. Get ready to gain insights in...
Nov 19, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 47
After her own birth mother tried to abort her twice, Julie Brumley found herself frozen in an unconscious trauma response for decades until she found the power of somatic trauma healing. Julie is an adoptee and trauma-informed coach who has been coaching men and women for more than 15 years to overcome addictive behaviors and heal the primal trauma of abandonment. She is also the CEO of Coming Home to Self, a company dedicated to helping adoptees heal. Julie now uses somatics, nervous system reg...
Nov 12, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 46
Adoptees, don't bypass this episode because of a guest foster parent and hopful adopive parent. I think you'll be surprised by a lot that she has to say. Cristal Baez is a dedicated foster mother whose journey into the world of fostering was driven by a profound desire to adopt and create a loving, healing home for children. She is still in the process of adopting and found the journey complex as she navigates not only the foster system, but her foster children’s needs and struggles as well. Cri...
Nov 05, 2024•56 min•Season 3Ep. 45
Kevin Berthia is an adoptee, suicide survivor, advocate, and speaker. Kevin pours his heart into sharing his powerful story of growing up in silence, always feeling the need to hide the unbearable pain he was in. Through high school and into his early twenties, Kevin was known as the life of the party… until his very public suicide attempt at the Golden Gate Bridge changed everything. Since 2013, Kevin has captivated his audiences with his candidness about how he was able to overcome his pain an...
Oct 29, 2024•47 min•Season 3Ep. 44
Lorah Gerald is a Baby Scoop Era, same-race domestic, pre-Roe adoptee. She posts as The Adopted Chameleon on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter. She is a certified Trauma Informed Kundalini yoga instructor and Reiki Master. Along with her work as a yoga instructor, she is an adoptee advocate. She leads the Adoptee Connect Tulsa group, started the adoptee private group The Adopted Chameleons, where she leads an art therapy group and body doubling group monthly, and works on the steering and...
Oct 22, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 43
In 1963, Shawn was placed for adoption because his white mother's family didn't want a biracial grandson. As an infant, he passed for white, so he was adopted by a racist, rural Indiana family who didn't realize that he was Black. Ashamed of his ethnicity, his mom concocted lies to hide his race from everyone, including Shawn. This lack of racial identity caused depressing confusion and conflict with his education, relationships, and career, but his mom insisted that he was not to search for his...
Oct 15, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 42
Shelly is a private domestic adoptee, born 2 years post Baby Scoop Era in North Carolina. She was raised a minister's daughter, along with her younger sister that her adoptive parents conceived. She was forced to become a birthmother at 17. She has 5 children, and her oldest daughter is adopted due to illegal rehomings. Trying to find answers for herself and her adoptive daughter....the journey began. Shelly fought the system to find out her identity, place of birth, and date of birth. She lost ...
Oct 08, 2024•38 min•Season 3Ep. 41
Shelly is a private domestic adoptee. Born 2 years post Baby Scoop Era in North Carolina. She was raised a minister's daughter, along with her younger sister that her adoptive parents conceived. She was forced to become a birthmother at 17. She has 5 children, and her oldest daughter is adopted due to illegal rehomings. Trying to find answers for herself and her adoptive daughter....the journey began. Shelly fought the system to find out her identity, place of birth, and date of birth. She lost ...
Oct 01, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 40
Lori Evans Ermi (she/her) wears a lot of hats! Lori is an adoptee, adopter, daughter, step-daughter, step-sister, half-sister, step-mother, single mom, entrepreneur, and former corporate executive now Professional Certified Coach and leadership consultant. Professionally, Lori has over 30 years’ experience in corporate leadership and organizational development and she wants to use this experience to positively impact the Adoption Constellation. The creation of her book Adoption Songs allowed her...
Sep 24, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 39
In her highly anticipated debut feature documentary, titled "Because She's Adopted," Kristal Parke delves deep into her own life story while also weaving together the narratives of other adoptees from diverse backgrounds. Adoptee Kristal Parke is a talented Cree filmmaker, producer, podcaster whose personal journey has driven her to explore themes of identity, belonging, and family in her work. Born and raised in the West Coast of Canada, Kristal was adopted into a non-indigenous family as an in...
Sep 17, 2024•53 min•Season 3Ep. 38
Rebecca's career in education started on the ocean, sailing around the world on a traditionally rigged tall ship. Through this two-year global circumnavigation Rebecca trained for a US Coast Guard captain's license and went on to work in non-profit outdoor education, teaching kids to sail on the Charles River in Boston and later on the Puget Sound of Washington State. Rebecca Wellington is an adoptee and author of the book Who Is a Worthy Mother, An Intimate History of Adoption. She was driven t...
Sep 10, 2024•49 min•Season 3Ep. 37
Ashley is an adoptee, birth mother, and an adoptive parent. After going through foster care and being adopted by a Baptist family at the age of 4, she saw a lot of trauma in many forms. She was surrounded by adoptees and always knew adoption was special, so when she found out she was pregnant, she knew that adoption was the only answer. While there was plenty of drama that 9 months, she was able to choose a great family and was comfortable with her decision. She says that most of her memories ha...
Sep 03, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 36
Tim Perdion was born Thomas Griffin Demchak on March 1, 1969. Placed in the care of an adoption agency shortly after birth, he was adopted by his loving parents on April 28, 1969. Despite growing up in a seemingly perfect adoptive family, Tim wrestled with deep-seated feelings of anger, depression, and anxiety—a struggle that persisted into adulthood. The discovery of his biological roots at the age of 46 rocked his world, unveiling the complex dynamics and secrets that had shaped his life. Toda...
Aug 27, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Season 3Ep. 35
Candace Cahill is a first mother, late discovery step-adoptee, and the author of Goodbye Again, a memoir detailing her experience of losing her son twice. Candace is a modern-day Renaissance Woman and works seasonally as an Interpretive Park Ranger in Denali National Park & Preserve. Connect with Candace: Website: https://candacecahill.com/ Book “Goodbye, Again” https://candacecahill.com/book/ Other Published Work by Candace Cahill The Citron Review: WORDGAME: https://citronreview.com/2...
Aug 20, 2024•51 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Stephen was born to a single mother at The Willows Maternity Sanitarium in Kansas City, Missouri in 1949. Kansas City was the hub of adoption in America for over four decades, and some 30,000 babies were born here over those decades. Stephen was later adopted by his parents six months later in Iowa. He always knew of his adoption but at age 13, he told my mother he wanted to know more. She reacted with hostility, and from that moment Stephen vowed he would find his birth mother and the facts of ...
Aug 13, 2024•59 min•Season 3Ep. 33
Brad is a Gen-X adoptee from the baby scoop era who grew up in New Jersey in the '70s and '80s. His adopters were wealthy, and his experience as a young child was great. However, he went on to experience many negative life events as a result of unresolved maternal separation trauma, and it wasn’t until 10 years ago that he connected the dots and started coming out of the fog. He started advocating for adoptee voices on Twitter during the pandemic and switched to TikTok in late 2023, where he edu...
Aug 06, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 32
Elizabeth is both a reunited adoptee and an adoptive mother. Since 2000, Elizabeth Barbour has coached thousands of women to find their way back to solid ground when life gets chaotic and overwhelming. Elizabeth intimately understands the twists and turns of life’s transitions, having weathered the pain of divorce, the deaths of her parents, emotional struggles surrounding adoption, the heartache of miscarriage and fertility issues, complex family relationships, and a near-fatal car accident. El...
Jul 30, 2024•52 min•Season 3Ep. 31
