Book a workshop.

*

Book a workshop. *

…watch this space for 2025

 Identity and Race: an exploration of the transracial adoption experience 

The purpose of this workshop is to learn how transracial adoptees (TRAs) feel about transracial adoption. 

* Note that I run two separate workshops for both adoptees and those wishing to learn about transracial adoption. The latter is a mixed group, the former is for adoptees only. 

We will discuss and scrutinise positive aspects most often cited such as:

  • Being a part of two cultures if relevant

  • Developing personal awareness

  • Open-mindedness, and deeper understandings

  • Being unique.

and negative aspects:

  • Isolation from one’s adoptive and birth families and cultures

  • The burden of dealing with others’ assumptions and questions about transracial adoption

  • Identity fragmentation

  • Growing up with Racism and micro- aggressions: challenging stereotypes and assumptions

  • Living in a world of racism and misperceptions

  • The trauma of ‘gratitude’ for being adopted

Identity and Parenthood: transracial adoptees and the experience of a becoming a parent:

Drawing on existential philosophy and recent phenomenological research into motherhood, this workshop will explore the following topics:

  • the existential issues women face to enable mothers to gain a deeper understanding of the multifaceted aspects of their experience.

  • new insights on this important life transition and how it impacts transracial adoptees

  • how we might better give voice to our experience of parenthood in all its nuances

  • what new labels can we harness for ourselves beyond the ‘good’ or ‘bad’ mother or parent/caregiver as transracial adoptees?

Identity and Disenfranchised Grief: a workshop for transracial adoptees

 * Note that I run two separate workshops for both adoptees and those wishing to learn about transracial adoption. The latter is a mixed group, the former is for transracial adoptees only. 

  • The ‘trauma of having to be grateful’

  • Feelings of not fully belonging and how exclusive are these to being adopted?

  • Feelings of betrayal towards the adopted family

  • The creation of false narratives around where we came from

  • Disenfranchised Grief and understanding how this manifests in our lives

Identity and living between Cultures: navigating a multicultural upbringing  

This workshop is not limited to transracial adoptees, but is for people who spent a significant amount of time living ‘overseas’ before the age of 18. Drawing on my own experience and recent research into growing up cross-culturally, this workshop will explore the following topics:

  • The problematics of being asked where you are from and where you belong.

  • Your Relationship with Self

  • Your Relationship with Others

  • Your Relationship with Society, TCK Culture, and Global Awareness

  • Reconceptualising the ‘Adult Third Culture Kid’ experience

 

Identity and living and working between Worlds: A life on the move 

This workshop is run in collaboration with fellow world travellers, expats and explorers. We will investigate the following topics:

  • On living in conflict and post conflict zones

  • Relocation and the pressure it puts on your relationship or marriage / partnership.

  • The Challenges expat parents face

  • Dealing repeatedly with ‘major life transitions’

  • Should I stay or should I go?

  • Confronting violence and poverty amidst privilege.

It is not a matter of turning away from the world. It is a matter of discovering the terms upon which one can engage with it—and discovering that these terms are largely dictated by the world itself.

-James Baldwin