I am an adoptee and sibling of an adopted child. After years of searching, I have found and reunited with biological family. In my life, I have walked the same path as my clients, experiencing their journey firsthand.

I never thought being adopted had much of an impact on my life. I had a good life and nothing to complain about. Everything seemed to have turned out well. I had no desire to pursue more information about my adoption, nor find family. Sure I had a few questions, but they were more curiosity than what I thought of as searching.

Everything was good, until it wasn’t. While pursuing my first masters degree at age 37, I found myself having to write a short paper on adoption. It was then I realized the lifetime of feeling not good enough, unlovable, insecure; years of broken relationships, broken hearts (both theirs and mine), and relationship struggles were all born out of being given up for adoption.

It was then that my life made a left turn. I redirected my education to pursue an individualized master’s degree in Adoption Studies. After over a decade as an Adoption Specialist, helping individuals and families navigate all that adoption impacts, speaking, educating on adoption, serving as the director of a foster and adoption agency and working with the committee to pass 2015 Montana House Bill 357 which gave Montana adoptees access to their original birth records.  Through this work I recognized the need and opportunity to help healing in a deeper way. With that I obtained my master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.