Highlights From Our Guests in 2024

The Empowered Adoptee Podcast

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In this final podcast episode of this Season 1, Laurie and Claire reflect and highlight some of our guests over the year. Join us while we share some of the messages, lessons, and special moments from our beloved guests that we have treasured and taken to heart.
Freeing Your Voice: A Journey with Phoenix Song, Trans Korean Adoptee and Sound Healer (Episode 32)

Phoenix Song is a queer, nonbinary, trans Korean adoptee singer, musician, performer, sound healer, writer, facilitator, dharma teacher, and bad-ass human being who has been helping people free their voices, rhythms, body stories, and lives since 2006.

Phoenix specializes in helping people sing, sound and speak their truths.

Mental Health Awareness: Lauren Schlesinger’s Journey From Depression to Freedom (Episode 14)

Lauren Schlesinger, an empowered KAD, shares her inspirational mental health journey and the impact that adoption trauma had on her life. She also shares tools and healing modalities that helped her transform her mental health and become free from depression and suicidal ideation.

Jenna Lee Kim: Connector, Ally, and Advocate For Adoptees On A Journey to Finding Their Truth (Episode 40)

Jenna is an American, transracial Korean adoptee currently residing on Jeju-Do, South Korea. Jenna’s life journey reflects a deep commitment to exploring the complexities of identity, belonging, and self-discovery through meaningful connection and storytelling.

Jenna advocates for all who seek their origin story, empowering adoptees on the journey to finding their truths. By inquiring about others' stories, her goal is to discover more about her own.

Dr. Hollee McGinnis: Reclaiming Korean Culture Through food (Episode 16)

Dr. Hollee A, McGinnis, MSW, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Social Work and has nearly 30 years of community organizing, practice, policy, and research experience on adoption, child welfare, and alternative care. Her research broadly examines the social and cultural determinants of mental health and well-being, including the effects of early childhood adversity, attachment trauma, cultural loss, and racial and ethnic identity, that centers the lived experiences of individuals with histories of child welfare with a focus on racially minoritized individuals of Asian descent. Prior to her doctorate at Washington University in St. Louis, Dr. McGinnis was the Policy Director at the Donaldson Adoption Institute in New York City. She received her Master of Science from Columbia University School of Social Work, and a post-Master’s Clinical Fellowship at the Yale Child Study Center. In 1996 she founded Also-Known-As, Inc., a non-profit adult intercountry adoptee organization in New York City.

Dr. Hollee McGinnis shared her journey of reclamation of her culture and all that she lost that day she was adopted - including her language, her food, and her people.

Kirsten’s Birth Mother Search and Reunion Story (Episode 15)

Kirsten is a KAD from PA who has been in reunion with her birth mother for over 10 years. Earlier this year, she traveled to Seoul, Korea to meet her birth mother for the first time since she was adopted.

Kirsten Mathis shared her journey visiting her homeland of Korea where she met her birth mother for the first time. She shared her heartfelt and courageous stories of how she has navigated being a KAD, a mom, a daughter, and as someone with "a gentle curiosity" about her identity which led to seeking answers inside KAD spaces and by traveling to Korea.
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