Ken DeStefano is an attorney living in New York, who is also a domestic adoptee that was born in the late 1960s. He was raised in a caring and loving home. As an adoptee, he has had a largely happy life, but always wondered about the unknown. That curiosity led to a search for his own birth mother and a reunification with her. His debut novel, I Will See You Again...Hearts Will Sing , tells the story of two people whose past, present, and future lives are inexplicably linked. In 2024, DeStefano ...
Jul 23, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 30
Welcome Liz DeBetta to the podcast! Dr. Liz DeBetta, creator of Migrating Toward Wholeness© is an adoptee and independent scholar-artist-activist committed to changing systems and helping people navigate trauma through creative processes. She believes that stories are powerful change agents and when we write them and share them we connect and heal. Liz is a proud member of Actor's Equity, SAG-AFTRA, Affiliate Faculty at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender, and part of the Diversity Sc...
Jul 16, 2024•53 min•Season 3Ep. 29
Rebecca Berg, MS, RDN (she/her/hers) is a Los Angeles-based Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and adoptee who specializes in eating disorders, mental health, and body image! She is passionate about helping adoptees learn how to connect to and care for their bodies. Alongside you, she gently explores food and body coping mechanisms with curiosity and compassion to cultivate understanding of how they’ve been protecting you and keeping you safe. Rebecca uses a collaborative, weight-inclusive, traum...
Jul 09, 2024•49 min•Season 3Ep. 28
Jennifer is an adoptee and an Arizona-based Sound Healer originally from Queens, New York, and was born in Croatia. She is now living in reunion with most of her birth family, with the exception of her birthmother that died 3 years ago before they could meet. Jennifer’s background is in social work, and she found sound therapy quite by accident on an emergency trip to the dentist. Her dentist had healed herself from fibromyalgia (using sound and vibration) and inspired Jennifer to delve into sou...
Jul 02, 2024•1 hr 19 min•Season 3Ep. 27
Michelle Madrid is the author of Let Us Be Greater: A Gentle, Guided Path to Healing for Adoptees and host of the Electricity of You Podcast. She is an international adoptee, former foster child in the UK, and an adoptee empowerment life coach who has been recognized as an Angels in Adoption® Honoree by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (CCAI) and inducted into the New Mexico Women’s Hall of Fame for her work in adoption. She lives in Los Angeles and you can visit her online at h...
Jun 25, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Season 3Ep. 26
Jetona Smith Milby is a Kentucky Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has been practicing for 16 years. Going by the moniker of “Jet” or “The Traveling Therapist”, she enjoys *surprise surprise* traveling, animals, nature, dancing, reading, music, and astrology. Professionally, Jet works with individuals, couples, groups, and families- providing a variety of services ranging from therapy, life coaching, consulting, retreats, speaking, intuitive readings, and more—although clients likely en...
Jun 18, 2024•54 min•Season 3Ep. 25
Anita is an adoptive parent and is a passionate advocate for redefining parenthood, self-care, and mental health. As the owner of Udomom, she dedicates herself to supporting families during their journey to and through parenthood. Anita cultivates conversations around topics often silenced. Her mantra, 'I am human,' reflects her belief in embracing imperfection and self-compassion. Follow her journey as she travels the world, gathering communities, uplifting experiences and demolishing shame. An...
Jun 11, 2024•48 min•Season 3Ep. 24
This story may not be for everyone! Russell Girten is an adoptee whose birth certificate was issued 9 days after he was born. He first was told that he was adopted at age 23, and when he began to tell his family and friends he was adopted, the common response was “I’m so glad they finally told him!” Russell didn’t have a strong desire to meet his biological family, but when he was 56, a close match on 23andMe led him to them and unlocked the story of his biological roots. It helped him reframe h...
Jun 04, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 23
Welcome to the podcast! Meet Danielle Bruesch. Danielle was born July of 1968 in Reno, NV. She was in foster care for 4 months before being placed with her adoptive parents in Las Vegas NV. She grew up knowing she was adopted and was told she was chosen and special. At age 25, she accidentally found some identifying information in some medical records regarding her biological mother, and the search was on with lots of twists and turns along the way. Danielle currently lives in central NV, is 55 ...
May 28, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Season 3Ep. 22
Due to the enduring emotional fallout that can be part of adoption, I highly support the gentle healing of Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery® (SMGI). For more information on this groundbreaking and highly successful method, go to https://www.SomaticHealingJourneys.com MY GUEST: Angie Grandt is an adoptive mom and mindset coach who is passionate about helping parents gain strategies to stop reacting to their child's behaviors and start responding with compassion and she knows personally how...
May 21, 2024•36 min•Season 3Ep. 21
Due to the LONG-LASTING EMOTIONAL FALLOUT that can be part of adoption, I highly support the GENTLE HEALING SUPPORT of SMGI: Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery. For more information on this groundbreaking and highly successful method, go to https://www.somatichealingjourneys.com Dr. Or entered the world of energy medicine at 18 as she was searching for ways to release her excessive fears & phobias. After studying and fine-tuning her skills & at the same time becoming ...
May 14, 2024•58 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Due to the LONG-LASTING EMOTIONAL FALLOUT that can be part of adoption, I highly support the GENTLE HEALING SUPPORT of SMGI: Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery. For more information on this groundbreaking and highly successful method, go to https://www.somatichealingjourneys.com Dr. Or entered the world of energy medicine at 18 as she was searching for ways to release her excessive fears & phobias. After studying and fine-tuning her skills & at the same time becoming a...
May 14, 2024•57 min•Season 3Ep. 20
Due to the enduring EMOTIONAL FALLOUT that can be part of adoption, I highly support the GENTLE HEALING experience of SMGI: Somatic Mindful Guided Imagery. For more information on this groundbreaking and highly successful method, go to https://www.somatichealingjourneys.com Donna is a transracial adoptee, born in the UK and raised there by a white family with lots of fostered children. While she was the only black child, all the children were from different backgrounds a...
May 07, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 19
Check out this interview! She ticks all the boxes! Visit mindyourownkarma.com/podcast to listen to all the episodes. Miranda Barker, MSW LICSW, is an adoptive parent, an adoptive sibling, and a therapist. She has experienced working as an expectant parent counselor, child protection investigator and now as a therapist specializing in seeing clients that are part of the adoption constellation. She is a soon-to-be graduate of the PACC fellowship (Permanency and Adoption Competency Certificate) and...
Apr 30, 2024•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 18
Monique Pangari was born in Australia in 1972 at the height of the ‘Forced Adoption Era.’ Relinquished at birth and adopted at 6 weeks of age, she grew up in a family with two older adopted siblings. As a result of this complex experience, along with the rollercoaster of FOUR ‘search and reunion’ journeys, early pregnancy and parenting, and now estrangement from multiple family members, she has now ‘come out of the closet’ (again) to talk about the detrimental impacts of relinquishment. Monique ...
Apr 23, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 17
Monique Pangari was born in Australia in 1972 at the height of the ‘Forced Adoption Era.’ Relinquished at birth and adopted at 6 weeks of age, she grew up in a family with two older adopted siblings. As a result of this complex experience, along with the rollercoaster of FOUR ‘search and reunion’ journeys, early pregnancy and parenting, and now estrangement from multiple family members, she has now ‘come out of the closet’ (again) to talk about the detrimental impacts of relinquishment. Monique ...
Apr 16, 2024•48 min•Season 3Ep. 16
Jennifer Dyan Ghoston is a same-race domestic adoptee in reunion with both sides of her biological family. After a 27-year career in law enforcement with the Chicago Police Department, she retired in 2014 as a police detective. In 2015, she self-published her memoir, "The Truth So Far...A Detective's Journey to Reunite With Her Birth Family." She credits her spiritual journey that started over forty years ago for allowing her path to unfold in unexpected and meaningful ways. In 2021, Jennifer's ...
Apr 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min•Season 3Ep. 15
I hope you'll join me for this conversation with Veronique. It's not often that I do interviews with adoptive parents, and maybe it's been my assumption that I know their stories already. Do you have assumptions about their stories, too? Veronique is an adoptive mother of a baby girl through an open adoption in 2021. She is originally from the French Caribbean but was born and grew up in France. She is married and is a mother of 2 lovely girls. She moved to the United States in 2003 and has been...
Apr 02, 2024•1 hr 12 min•Season 3Ep. 14
Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. In her books, essays, and blogs, she explores the topics of finding out who you are, where you belong, and making sense of it. Her award-winning memoir, Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging, was released in May of 2021. Her work has appeared in multiple journals, anthologies, and online sites, such as the Story Circle Network Journal, Brevity Nonfiction Blog, and Severance Magazine. Her l...
Mar 26, 2024•45 min•Season 3Ep. 13
Jessica Pearson was born in Billings MT in 1981. Her bio mother was a teenager who found herself pregnant, and with a family that wasn't interested in raising a baby and decided adoption was the best option for them. Jessica was the first private adoption in the state of Montana. She was raised by a medical doctor and stay-at-home mom, and it all seemed perfectly "normal" and good to her — until she faced the circumstances of reunion and becoming a mother herself. From there, she set out on a de...
Mar 19, 2024•50 min•Season 3Ep. 11
TRIGGER WARNING! TALK OF SUICIDE. Kevin Berthia is a 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...
Mar 12, 2024•46 min•Season 3Ep. 10
TRIGGER WARNING : Themes of a traumatized adoptee infant discussed. Listen to what happened when I reposted a video I saw on TikTok showing a traumatized infant being handed over to it's new adoptive mother. If you or someone you know would like to tell their adoption story on the podcast (anyone in the adoptee constellation), please send an email to mindyourownkarma@gmail.com, and your story will be considered for the podcast. _________ Due to the LONG-LASTING EMOTIONAL FALLOUT that can be part...
Mar 05, 2024•29 min•Season 3Ep. 10
TRIGGER WARNING: THEMES OF SUICIDE. Laura was a teenage girl in the '60s when she found out she was pregnant. With no support from the father of the child and feeling the shame of her circumstances from her parents, Laura found herself in a home for unwed mothers, feeling forced to give her baby up for adoption. Laura wrote a book about her experience called You’ll Forget This Ever Happened, and according to Laura, one of the most rewarding things about writing her book has been readers reaching...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Season 3Ep. 9
TRIGGER WARNING: THEMES OF SUICIDE. Laura was a teenage girl in the '60s when she found out she was pregnant. With no support from the father of the child and feeling the shame of her circumstances from her parents, Laura found herself in a home for unwed mothers, feeling forced to give her baby up for adoption. Laura wrote a book about her experience called You’ll Forget This Ever Happened, and according to Laura, one of the most rewarding things about writing her book has been readers reaching...
Feb 27, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Season 3Ep. 9
Anna Maria DiDio, MSW is an adoptive mother and children’s author whose adoption-themed books encourage open and honest conversation between parents and children. Anna Maria’s L.I.F.E.* Adventures children’s book series feature stories about adoption from the point of view of the child. It all started with her memoir, Love at the Border. Anna Maria holds a BA in Psychology from Villanova University and an MSW in Family Specialization from the University of Pennsylvania. She is the mother of two ...
Feb 20, 2024•41 min•Season 3Ep. 8
Jenny is a wife of 28-1/2 years, a mother of 6 and a grandmother of 5. She is a birth mother and adoptive parent. Last year she and her husband adopted a boy who is 17, and her oldest is her 31-year-old ONLY daughter, who she had an open adoption with. Jenny says the open adoption with her daughter included face-to-face visits, and that she was included and welcomed by the adoptive family for the first 18 years of her daughter's life. Because of her experience as a birth mother, she feels it is ...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr•Season 3Ep. 7
Paul Allen Fiscus III, a devoted father, brings a unique perspective to the discussion on adoption, parental rights, and judicial corruption—being the first parent in Kansas history to contest a private adoption to this extent. His unwavering determination and in-depth understanding of the legal intricacies surrounding adoption highlight the hurdles that natural fathers encounter when their infant child is placed for adoption without their knowledge. His insights and commitment to creating chang...
Feb 06, 2024•35 min•Season 3Ep. 6
David is a 62-year-old retired Teamster that has been married for 37 years. He has three children and one grandson. David was a baby scoop era adoptee, born in 1961 and placed with his adopted parents when he was one month old. Talking about his adoption was totally off limits, and this created a lot of confusion about his roots. He began searching when he was 34 years old. It turned out his biological parents did get married and were still together. They seemed less than thrilled that David con...
Jan 30, 2024•40 min•Season 3Ep. 5
Adopted at birth, Edward Di Gangi was born and raised in New York City. Although he knew for most of his life that he was adopted, it wasn’t until he approached his 69th birthday that he began to search for the identity of his birth mother. His journey and the many surprising discoveries he made as he searched are recounted in his memoir, The Gift Best Given. Edward and his wife now live in Hillsborough, North Carolina. He is a popular book club presenter and podcast guest. The Gift Best Given i...
Jan 24, 2024•58 min•Season 3Ep. 4
Adoptee Lisa Ann is the engaging host of Wandering Tree Podcast connecting with her guests on thought-provoking discussions focused on the adoption journey; and spoken with each person’s unique perspectives. Guests show their resilience, personal growth, and the power of positivity. Known for her empathetic interview style, insightful questions, and the ability to authentically connect with her guests, Lisa Ann creates a welcoming space for constructive discussions on the lived experiences of ad...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 9 min•Season 3Ep. 3
