It’s been a long eight months navigating my heart healing journey. I have just undergone a heart procedure and thankfully have a wonderful prognosis. The healing odyssey continues one step at a time. There will be months ahead of restrengthening. We are thrilled to share a few of our archived episodes from the beginning of our podcasting journey in addition to some new guests with remarkable stories to share. From all of us at PBTR, thank you. This week we would like to feature my biological Aun...
Nov 08, 2022•30 min
Kelly Grace Hickey met Laura Leslie-Olmsted in November 2018 when they were paired together as search angels for a support group. They instantly bonded and together with their team found over 100 biological mothers and fathers for clients between November 2018 and June 2019. They formed a Non Profit DNAngels dedicated to finding biological parents at no cost for their clients. DNAngels has turned their own NPE and Adoption Stories into helping others who find themselves wondering where they come...
Jun 30, 2022•43 min
Nancy Verrier has a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology. Her thesis was on the subject of adoption which resulted in the publishing of her first book THE PRIMAL WOUND: Legacy of the Adopted Child has become a classic in adoption literature. Nancy’s second book COMING HOME TO SELF is focused on healing and increasing awareness about beginning of life trauma and how it affects our relationships with self and others. As a mother to both a biological and adopted child Nancy has devoted her life t...
Jun 30, 2022•32 min
Hello Everyone, It has been awhile since we have released a solo sode. I have chosen to title this episode “Heart of the Matter” because after all our hearts matter. As an adopted person, I have struggled with self care, self awareness and worthiness. In this episode, we share our vision for Pulled By The Root as well as a struggle of the heart I am dealing with. Pulled By The Root is deeply grateful to all of you for listening, sharing and supporting the effort to heal in community. We will be ...
Jun 13, 2022•5 min
Michael was adopted in 1961 in Illinois. He grew up with two younger sisters, one adopted and one biological. They moved to Southern California when he was five years old. Michael has been married for 36 years and has three wonderful children and one granddaughter. He worked in the television industry for many years and moved his family to Atlanta to work on the Olympics and never left. Around 22 years ago he started running, then biking and was always a swimmer. One thing led to another and he ...
Jun 03, 2022•50 min
Corissa Saint Laurent is a holistic brand advisor and international speaker inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs, leaders, and creatives to light up their lives so they can light up the world. She has over 20 years of entrepreneurial and corporate business experience in marketing, branding, business development combined with professional training in mind/body/energy work. Her business life has always been a deep reflection of her personal goals and interests, and she is forever learning, growi...
May 26, 2022•1 hr 5 min
Ryan Anderson was transracially adopted from Morocco to Scotland but didn’t find out until I was 18. Then he decided to keep this secret until this year (13 years later) now feeling brave to tell his story to friends and for everyone to see online. Ryan had been around alcohol & drugs while traveling the world for the last 10 years trying to escape his problems but is now opening up to face them to raise mental health awareness. Ryan has been working away on himself for the past 18 months de...
May 19, 2022•41 min
Mike Trupiano is a dry comedic Midwestern American performer in Berlin with a bass voice. His specialties are deadpan, physical comedy, improvisation. He excels at playing arrogant, incompetent authority figures. Mike does English language dubbing and record documentary narration as well as audio books in his home studio. He also teaches storytelling and standup comedy, both in groups and one on one. Mike is also an adopted person who shared his story telling talent in this episode. His lived ex...
May 11, 2022•33 min
This week we are joined by Sandra Moon, a Maltese adopted person from regional NSW in Australia. She is a journalist and writer currently working on her memoir regarding her experiences of adoption and reunion with universal themes of the innate desire for familial connection and belonging. Sandra was in a children’s home and therefore classified as a Forgotten Australian, she is also the child of a Forgotten Australian who was in foster care placements and children's homes. Sandra is a mother a...
May 05, 2022•33 min
Rosanne is a first mom from Saint Louis Missouri. She joins us from her beautiful 10 acre farm to have a heart felt conversation about relinquishing her daughter. She is passionate about good physical, mental and spiritual health. Rosanne has written a book called Puzzle Pieces of My Heart-our stories of adoption. The book is a collection of stories told by those touched by adoption. Her book addresses the myriad of emotions from shame, grief, relief and gratitude. Rosanne believes that by shari...
Apr 27, 2022•35 min
In this episode I am joined by my co-author Alysa Zalma M.D.(Psychiatrist) as well as Dr. Abbie Goldberg. Abbie E. Goldberg is a Professor in the Department of Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she also currently serves as the Director of Women’s & Gender Studies, and is the current holder of the Jan and Larry Landry Endowed Chair (2020-2023). She graduated summa cum laude from Wesleyan University with a BA in psychology, and received an MA in psychology and a...
Apr 21, 2022•51 min
When asked to write a few sentences as an introduction, Elle thought of the Jane Austen quote from a letter written to her sister, "Which of my important nothings shall I tell you first?" Elle is an inveterate scribbler of words, painter & sketcher of pictures, insatiable reader of books, ponderer of ideas, lover of music & movement, delighted observer and photographer of the world around her, and the bearer of a bit of dark humour. She has a bachelor's degree in Biblical Studies. She's ...
Apr 15, 2022•57 min
Mary Roberds is an adopted person who found her biological mother and sister at the age of 19. At 48 years old she is still looking for her biological father. Mary shares her story with such vivid detail, emphasizing that babies/children know more than we give them credit for. Mary remembers the rain on the car window the day she saw her mother for the last time. She is passionate about helping other adopted people step into their truth. Mary feels strongly that one person should not be able to ...
Apr 07, 2022•29 min
About the Author Emma Stevens is a U.S. domestic adoptee from birth and has survived layers of trauma that have put her on multiple journeys. She developed the inner strength and courage to surmount the many struggles she faced. Her traumas were born from being an adoptee who struggled with being forced to wear an impossible mask of playing the part of the "good” adopted child. Because being relinquished and adopted has colored her life, it's Emma's desire to be part of the movement that is dedi...
Apr 01, 2022•44 min
Peter J. Boni credits his disruptive childhood, a state college education from UMass@Amherst, decorated on-the-ground service as a US Army Special Operations Team Leader in Vietnam (coined his “Rice Paddy MBA”), love of his family and friendship circle, plus luck-of-the-draw DNA with making him the person he has become today—an author, advocate, and fun-loving grandfather living on Cape Cod, Massachusetts. During his accomplished business career (high-tech CEO, venture capitalist, board chairman...
Mar 24, 2022•29 min
Lissa Warren has worked at several Boston publishing houses including David R. Godine, Houghton Mifflin, and Perseus Publishing. She most recently served as Vice President, Senior Director of Publicity and Acquiring Editor at Da Capo Press, an imprint of the Hachette Book Group. In January of 2019 she established Lissa Warren PR, which focuses on publicity for authors and books. The author of The Savvy Author's Guide to Book Publicity (Carroll & Graf, 2004), she has spoken about publishing f...
Mar 24, 2022•38 min
Amy Hansen is a domestic adopted person born in 1969, she was placed for adoption at birth. Amy has been married to a wonderfully supportive husband for 30 years, they have three amazing children and a golden retriever. She has been reunion for almost four years and recently came out of the fog. Amy wants to share her story to spread the message of adoption trauma and offer support to all parties touched by adoption. In this episode, Amy shares the angst of coming to terms with adoption loss. Sh...
Mar 17, 2022•37 min
Chris Duffy-Wentzel is an adopted person, personal life coach, author of Finding The Missing Peace and speaker living in the Sedona area. Chris is a Results Coach certified through the Neuroleadership Institute and accredited by the International Coaching Federation. Her private practice focuses on wellness and helping individuals manage careers, relationships and life transitions. In this episode, we discuss our experiences with cancer and how important awareness is. We explore how adoption mig...
Mar 11, 2022•50 min
Jacquelin Taybron in her words is an unapologetic International Adoptee, a cool ex-wife and a highly successful co-parent and grandparent. She was born in Landstuhl, Germany in February of 1964, and is the youngest of four daughters. Jacquelin was content until she had a family of her own and realized she needed the whole truth. In this episode, Jacquelin shares her lived experience with all of it’s twists and turns. Click here to send us a text. Also, our book “Pulled By The Root” is available ...
Mar 11, 2022•59 min
Paige Strickland is an Ohio born Baby Scoop Era Adopted person. She has been in reunion with her biological mothers side for 33 years and 20 years on her fathers side. Paige is married with two daughters, two grandkids. She is also a licensed teacher and the author of two memoir books: AKIN TO THE TRUTH and AFTER THE TRUTH. In this episode Paige discusses reunion and how adoption is the gift that just keeps on giving, confirming that adoption is a life long experience. Click here to send us a te...
Mar 10, 2022•43 min
Matt Otto is an adopted person based in New York City. He is a sound designer who received his MFA degree from the Yale School of Drama along with his BFA from Boston University. Matt shares the heart wrenching discovery that he was conceived as the result of a sexual assault. This difficult truth was not revealed to him even after he was in reunion with his first mom. The twists and turns of Matt’s story are captivating, inspiring and redemptive. Matt has taken his enormous talent and built a s...
Mar 04, 2022•39 min
Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao is the founder and CEO of the Center For Family Connections Inc. est. 1995-2012, The Adoption Resource Center est. 1979 and PACT (Pre/Post Adoption Consulting and Training), est. 1982. Dr. Pavao has built comprehensive post adoption services and has done training both nationally and internationally. She is a Lecturer in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and has written the book THE FAMILY OF ADOPTION. Her areas of specialty include complex blended families by adoption,...
Feb 25, 2022•40 min
Leslie Pate Mackinnon is a therapist who specialized in issues that impact families conceived thought adoption and third party reproduction. For three decades she’s been sharing her expertise on these topics at conferences and events across the country and around the world. Her lived experience is that of a first mother who relinquished two sons for adoption the mid 1960’s and a quarter of a century later, gave birth and raised IVF twins. Her experiences in both, and her extensive academic train...
Feb 18, 2022•57 min
Jean Provance is an energy packed force of nature! She is a domestic same race adoptee who compeleted her search and reunion in 2004 after discovering letters from her biological mother with the name of the case worker. She went on to reclaim her original name in 2010. Jean holds a Bachelors Degree in visual arts and psychology from Ramapo College and a Masters Degree in social work from New York University. She works as an intensive in community therapist with children, teens and families. Jean...
Feb 11, 2022•58 min
Darryl Nelson is an adoptee person who wrote the book A TIME LINE OF THE INJUSTICE OF ADOPTION LAW. Darryl was born in 1964 in Queensland, Australia. His birth certificate was altered by the Government to make it “as if” he was born to adoptive parents. When he was 14 years old he discovered he was adopted. It was not until he was 30 years old that laws changed in Australia and he was allowed to apply for information about his biological mother, who he discovered had tragically passed away when ...
Feb 04, 2022•54 min
Darryl Nelson is an adopted person who wrote the book A TIME LINE OF THE INJUSTICE OF ADOPTION LAW. Darryl was born in 1964 in Queensland, Australia. His birth certificate was altered by the Government to make it “as if” he was born to his adoptive parents. When he was 14 years old he discovered that he was adopted. It was not until he was 30 years old that laws changed in Australia and he was allowed to apply for information about his biological mother, who he discovered had tragically passed a...
Feb 04, 2022•59 min
Molly Washington is a split feather/ lost bird (Native American adopted person/ foster child) She is also an attorney who serves as the Chief Operating Officer for the Oregon Chapter of National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC-OR is a non-profit organization that supports and advocates for the inclusion of BIPOC contractors on construction projects, with the goal of achieving economic justice. Molly was formerly a construction and transactions attorney who previously served as in house...
Jan 28, 2022•51 min
Dirk is a transracial adopted person who was adopted by white parents in 1960 during the Baby Scoop Era. He was raised is a small town in Central Illinois where he was the only person of color. Dirk has an older adopted brother and two sisters who were naturally born by his parents. His racial identity was a question mark for the first 50 years of his life. Dirk thought he was one race until it was confirmed that he was another. He came out of the fog about a year and a half ago, he is married w...
Jan 21, 2022•39 min
Megan is a writer and a visual artist. She runs The Dollhouse. She is also an adopted person. Her debut hybrid memoir-in-essays, The Guild of the Infant Saviour: An Adopted Child’s Memory Book, was published in May 2021. She was born in a charity hospital in Hell's Kitchen four years before Governor Rockefeller legalized abortion in New York. Her natural mother was sent away to The Guild of the Infant Saviour- a Catholic home for unwed mothers in Manhattan to give birth to her in secret. On the ...
Jan 21, 2022•51 min
Joe Soll is the author of “Adoption Healing…a path to recovery”, co-author of “Evil Exchange” and “Fatal Flight”. He is a Psychotherapist and lecturer recognized internationally as an expert in adoption related issues. He is the director and co-founder of Adoption Crossroads, an international, non-profit organization consisting of over 470 adoption agencies, mental health institutions and adoption search and support groups in 8 countries, representing over 500,000 individuals whose lives have be...
Jan 14, 2022•38 min
