I need your help - what would you like counsellors, therapists and helping professionals to know?
The shortest day has been and gone and spring is on it’s way. I love this season with it’s longer daylight, new growth and fresh possibilities. A fresh opportunity has arisen for our community to contribute to a growth in knowledge and understanding about the impact of closed stranger adoption with those in the counselling, therapeutic and helping fields.
Currently I am working in partnership with the NZ Association of Counsellors on creating adoption education and training. This will be offered to counsellors, therapists, and potentially other helping professionals in the form of two webinars available early 2024. I have collated some ideas shared below, that come from my experience personally as a client, as a counsellor/coach and from conversations with adopted people.
Speaking up and reaching out for support is new for many of us. The majority of counsellors and therapists in Aotearoa, NZ have not had professional development or training in adoption and as such are likely to be unaware of our challenges, our own and their bias.
This is an opportunity to express our needs, so that those that want to can become adoption informed. We can assist them to work with our community with a greater ability to understand, acknowledge and validate our experience.
What would you like professionals to know about your needs when working with them. What would make you feel confident in selecting one and what qualities would engender sufficient trust for you to do your healing work?
The first part of the training will focus on helping professionals to understand the impact and lived experience and history of closed stranger adoption. The second part is what to add to their kete/tool kit when working with us. Ps, it is in draft form and needs a final edit!
If you would like to contribute your thoughts or experiences to add to their knowledge base and read what I have covered to date click here and use the password: adopted
Events
It is fantastic that there continues to be events, support, education and conversations about adoption in Aotearoa, NZ. These contribute to a growing awareness, understanding and impact of our life experience.
Auckland Adoption Support Group - It is so good to hear of more adoption support groups popping up around the country – Wellington, Christchurch and now the Auckland region. Thank-you Susan McDermott and PJ Gill for leading this opportunity. Click here for meeting details…
On this link you will find information about adoption and surrogacy written by Dr Anne Else, an update on where the Ministry of Justice is up to with it’s package of policy proposals, along with links to other adoption news. https://www.newsroom.co.nz/protect-fertility-and-it-wont-need-fixing
Submissions - It is heartening at this time to read of further submissions being made. The latest one was made by The Western Australian support group Jigsaw, to the Western Australia inquiry into forced adoption. Included in their submission to the parliamentary inquiry, is the need for a redress scheme that sees affected mothers, fathers and adopted people compensated. To date, Victoria has been the only state in Australia to promise redress to those who suffered under forced adoption. May these submissions add further support to our own here in Aotearoa NZ. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-08-12/charity-demands-adoption-redress-scheme/102719036
Public History Talk - Dr Anne Else, Dr Maria Haenga- Collins, Brigitta Baker and myself, have been invited to be on a panel at a Public History Talk on the 28 August 6pm - 7.30pm at the National Library in Wellington. The conversation will be about Adoption: From severance and secrecy to connection and openness.
It will be led by Bill Atkin, recently retired from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington Law School. For those living outside of the Wellington Region who are keen to listen this event, it will be accessible on zoom when you register on the link on this flyer.
Adoption: From severance and secrecy to connection and openness
Closed stranger adoption under the 1955 Adoption Act, still in force today, has deeply affected thousands of New Zealanders. Drawing on their recent work covering personal experiences and historical analyses, four panellists - Jo Wills, Brigitta Baker, Anne Else and Maria Haenga-Collins - will talk about the profound impact of the severance and secrecy involved, why this began to shift, and how the law may change.
The four panellists are the authors of two recently published books which discuss the profound impact of closed stranger adoption and the drive for change in New Zealand.
The conversation will be led by Bill Atkin, recently retired from Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington Law School.
About the speakers
In their recent book Adopted: Loss, love, family and reunion (Massey University Press, 2022), Jo Wills and Brigs (Brigitta) Baker share the complexity of their reunion journeys, the emotional challenges they faced, and the ongoing impacts of their adoptions, with candour and courage. The stories of their birthparents, partners and children and the physical and emotional toll of adoption on them are also heard.
Anne Else and Maria Haenga-Collins’s comprehensive new e-book is A Question of Adoption: Closed Stranger Adoption in New Zealand 1944–1974 and Adoption, State Care, Donor Conception and Surrogacy 1975–2022 (Bridget Williams Books, 2023). It combines Anne’s original 1991 post-war adoption history with seven new chapters giving up-to-date accounts of state care, donor conception and surrogacy, alongside the ongoing story of adoption.
This talk is also available on Zoom To attend the Zoom live-stream, register here.
The Alexander Turnbull Library will send registered participants a link to access the talk.These free Public History Talks are a collaboration between the National Library of New Zealand and Manatū Taonga/Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
Stay warm and well everyone through what is left of the winter. I look forward to hearing from those of you who would like to add your voices to the education and training preparation.
Warmest regards Ngā mihi
Jo