A comprehensive list of adoptee resources.

These are the organizations I trust, work with, and recommend. Each one offers real support, community, and education for adoptees, birth/first parents, and adoptive families. Dates below reflect the most recent announcements. Always confirm on the organization’s site before you register.

Adoption Knowledge Affiliates (AKA)

• Support groups: Peer support groups and quarterly large group meetings for every part of the constellation. See Programs & Services and the Quarterly Large Group Meetings page. Check the site calendar for current dates.
• Conference: Annual virtual conference each November, with CEUs for therapists and social workers. The 2025 conference ran November 7–8. Watch the conference tab for 2026 dates.

National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP)

• Support groups and programming: Free monthly virtual groups, including NAAP Happy Hour (third Fridays, hosted by yours truly), First Families: Birthparents Journeying Together with Amy Seek, and discussion groups led by experts like Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao. All events post on the NAAP Eventbrite page.
• Conference: NAAP hosts an annual conference and co-hosts the Untangling Our Roots Summit (below).

Saving Our Sisters (SOS)

• Support: Direct help for mothers in crisis, including local mentors, resource navigation, and honest education about adoption separation. Mothers can start with the Mother’s Intake form.
• Get involved: SOS is all volunteer. They welcome donors and “Sisters on the Ground” in every state. See the contact page.

Untangling Our Roots Summit

• Conference: The 2026 Summit was held March 19–22 at the Wyndham Atlanta Buckhead Hotel & Conference Center. Next is planned for Seattle in 2028. Watch untanglingourroots.org for the next summit announcement.

Concerned United Birthparents (CUB)

• Support groups: Monthly Zoom peer support for birth/first parents (third Saturdays), a monthly Constellation Group open to birth families, adoptees, spouses, and siblings (second Saturdays), a monthly writing group (third Sundays), and in-person groups around the country. Full details on the How We Help page.
• Retreat: The annual CUB Retreat is a two-day fall gathering, usually in October. This year it will occur in Seattle, WA. Registration is open.

Support Texas Adoptee Rights (STAR)

• Get involved: Follow current legislation, contact your legislators, and join Texas Adoptee Rights Day at the Capitol during legislative sessions. Start with STAR’s Crash Course. STAR works alongside the Texas Adoptee Rights Coalition (TXARC).

Domestic Adoption Camp (DAC)

• Camp dates: DAC 2026 was held July 16–19 at the YMCA of the Rockies Estes Park Center. Registration for each summer opens in mid-January at heritagecamps.org.

• Take The ACE Quiz — And Learn What It Does And Doesn’t Mean: An ACE score is a tally of different types of abuse, neglect, and other hallmarks of a rough childhood. According to the Adverse Childhood Experiences study, the rougher your childhood, the higher your score is likely to be and the higher your risk for later health problems.

• EMDR Institute, Inc.: The EMDR Institute™, founded by Dr Francine Shapiro in 1990, offers quality trainings in the EMDR™ therapy methodology, a treatment approach which has been empirically validated in over 30 randomized studies of trauma victims. An additional 25 studies have demonstrated positive effects for the eye movement component used in EMDR therapy.

• Adoptee-Therapist Directory: This directory includes licensed U.S. mental health professionals who identify as adoptees and work with adoptees / adoptive families in a variety of public and private settings. Only providers who have voluntarily submitted their information have been listed.

• MPE Counseling Collective: This is a site that serves as a directory and educational resource for those who are seeking an NPE, Adoption, Assisted Reproduction, or an MPE (misattributed parentage experience) competent therapist, coach, mentor, or genetic counselor. 

• Havening Techniques: This website introduces you to an extraordinary application of recently acquired knowledge in the field of neuroscience. The techniques described herein are based in evolutionary biology and offer you the opportunity to live a healthier, hopefully happier and more productive life. 

Books and Links on Writing Memoir

• Vanderbilt How to Write a Memoir Class, Carole Webb Moore-Slater

• TSven Birkert’s The Art of Time in Memoir: Then, Again 

• Sue William Silverman’s Fearless Confessions

• Vivian Gornick’s The Situation and the Story: The Art of the Personal Narrative

• Gregory Berns, The Self Delusion: The New Neuroscience of How We Invent and Reinvent Our Identities

• Brenda Miller, Tell It Slant 

• Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir

Books on Writing to Heal Trauma

• The Story You Need to Tell: Writing to Heal from Trauma, Illness, or Loss, by Sandra Marinella (Author), Cristina Baldwin (Foreword)

• Braving the Fire: A Guide to Writing About Grief and Loss, by Jessica Handler

• Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness, by Liz DebBetta

Interviews on Writing to Heal Trauma

• Interview on Once Upon a Time in Adoptee Land with Liz DeBetta

• NAAP Happy Hour 9.22.23 with Liz DeBetta, Ph.D.

Podcasts/Video on Memoir Writing

• Write-minded: Weekly Inspiration for Writers with Brooke Warner

• Let’s Talk Memoir Podcast with Ronit Plank

• The Creative Non-Fiction Podcast

• NAAP Happy Hour 4.21.23 Hole in My Heart – Lorraine Dusky

Adoptee & Memoir Focused Writing Groups

• Vocce: First/Birthparents Writing Group

• Rachel Herron – Workshops/Groups/Masterclasses

• Writers Helping Writers

• Togetherness Heals ~Adoptees, DPCs and NPEs Write

• Memoir Writing Group

• National Association of Memoir Writers

Classes, Coaches & Editors

• Sara Easterly and Adoption Voices

• Anne Heffron – Offers a Year Long Writing Class for Adoptees

• Jeannine Ouellette

• Megan Galbraith

• Eve Sturgis Writing Workshops & Hiraeth Hope & Healing 

• Writing Personhood for Adoptees

• Ulven Coaching – Novel Wrting for Adoptees

• Centauri Arts Writing Retreats and Writing Classes  

“Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.”

-Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland