Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, as they welcome this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Dr. Joyce Maguire Pavao. A warm, delightful guest with great insight into adoption from her own personal experience as well as many years of professional practice. Dr. Pavao shares with her hosts her personal story, one that pushed her forward into advocacy for ethical adoption practices and better training for professionals to become adoption competent.

From Dr. Pavao's website: "Dr. Maguire Pavao began her adoption journey 78 years ago when she was born and placed for adoption. Growing up in the secretive atmosphere of the 1940s and 50s, she developed a relentless curiosity about her origins, which later inspired her to pursue legal avenues to uncover her birth records—an unusual success story for the era.

Transitioning from a potential medical career, Dr. Maguire Pavao chose to specialize in psychology at Harvard, focusing on adoption and foster care. She pioneered clinics that dealt exclusively with adoption-related issues, advocating for ethical practices and training professionals to be adoption-competent. Her clinics were unique for not being affiliated with adoption agencies, avoiding potential conflicts of interest.

She has also been an influential advocate for changing adoption laws, particularly concerning access to original birth certificates. Her efforts contributed to policy changes that aim to improve the transparency and ethical handling of adoption processes."

*Learn more about Dr. Maguire Pavao: https://www.pavaoconsulting.com/about

*Listen to her podcast: https://familytwistpodcast.com/joyce-maguire-pavao/

*Learn more about your hosts at www.giftfamilyservices.com

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for another poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adopted person and author, Jean Kelly Widner. Jean shares her own personal story with your hosts as a well loved, mostly happy adoptee growing up in the small town of Yakima, Washington. "They did everything right and imagine ... and it was the 70s I'm talking about!" Jean says enthusiastically. Yet she realized at some point that indeed, she had a deep and enduring trauma having experienced the loss of her first mother at birth. There was no getting around the fact that while she had wonderful, loving, and supportive adoptive parents for which she was grateful, adoption's pall of grief hovered over her. It is true, she posits, adoptees can have a "good adoption" and still suffer emotional pain that is part and parcel of any adoption. Jean has found healing and purpose, in writing and talking about the adoption experience of herself and others.

Learn more about Jean and her work here: https://adoptionparadox.com/about-h/about-jean-kelly-widner/

From Jean's website: Jean Kelly Widner is the author of The Adoption Paradox: Putting Adoption into Perspective, a Powerful Exploration of the Complex Realities of Adoption. Born in 1965 and adopted from birth in Washington State, Jean lives the paradox she writes about, experiencing both love and loss, belonging and separation. In her book, she shares stories from all sides of the adoption triad: adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive families, alongside insights from mental health experts.

Jean brings clarity and compassion to a subject often wrapped in silence and misconception. With a background as a marketing consultant and joint venture affiliate marketing expert, she and her husband have built and sold two successful e-commerce companies. She also owns a local news and storytelling blog in Boulder City, Nevada, where her love of writing continues to grow.

Jean lives in Southern Nevada with her husband and two dogs, and often escapes the desert heat in their camper van, where they work remotely and explore new places. Through her writing, she invites readers to see adoption not as a simple narrative of rescue or loss-but as a layered, human experience that deserves honesty, empathy, and ethical reflection.

Jean Kelly Widner can be reached at PO Box 61072, Boulder City, Nevada, 89006; On facebook at facebook@AdoptionParadox; and at medium.com/@jean_36017

Reach your hosts and adoption coaches at Growing Intentional Families Together

Join co-hosts, adoption coaches, and triad members Kim Noeth, Sally Ankerfelt and Sharon Butler Obazee, for a poignant and informative discussion with this month's special guest, adoptee and developmental psychologist, Sharon McNamara. Sharon shares her own personal story as well as her work with members of the adoption constellation. Adopted people and adoptive parents need to understand that the separation of an infant from their first caregiver is a traumatic event and has life-long effects on the adopted person. Adoption may very well be the factor in an adoptee's emotional response to a given situation. And for adoptive parents, it is most important to develop a practice of "unconditional positive regard" as your adoptee works through trauma, grief, loss, rejection, identity, etc.

Sharon's approach to children and families is to help the child and family understand that most children have some version of relational trauma as a result of being adopted. By accepting this as a starting place, the adoptive parents can understand better how an adopted or foster child may have different reactions to so-called "normal" parenting practices. She also tries to help families understand the big picture regarding how information is always useful in helping adoptees and foster children make sense of their situation.

Sharon Stein McNamara, Ed. D., L.P. has been been practicing as a psychologist since 1991 when she graduated from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and did her internship in cognitive behavioral psychology at McLean Hospital, affiliated with the Harvard Medical School. In addition to this, she is was adopted as an infant and have been studying the effects of adoption on families for over 20 years.

Learn more about Sharon McNamara and her work here: www.sharonsteinmcnamara.com

Learn more about the adoption coaches at Growing Intentional Fmailies Together: giftfamilyservices.com