Healing Adoption Trauma

17/11/2025

✨ Healing the Hidden Wounds of Adoption ✨

Two days in the studio this weekend… and something sacred happened.

This weekend, a courageous circle of adoptees and first parents came together to speak the unspeakable, feel what had long been held in the body, and gently rearrange old wounds so that love could finally move where it had been haulted.

What unfolded was profound.

Tears. Truth. Trembling. Moments of recognition that landed in the bones. And those quiet, unmistakable shifts when the nervous system feels something reorganise toward wholeness.

To witness the love expressed, even in the cracks, even in the pain, is something I will carry for a long time.

There is a power in healing collectively that cannot be replicated alone.

When we sit in a field of shared story, shared grief and shared resilience, something larger than any one of us begins to work through the room.

It moves us. It restores us. It reminds us we were never meant to hold these experiences in isolation.

My heart is full with love and compassion for every adoptee and every first parent who walked into this room and said yes to this work.

You are courageous. You are tender. You are medicine for each other, and for the world.

Deep gratitude to Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Queensland for funding this program and supporting this essential healing for our community.

May the ripples continue outward. May love keep flowing. May we keep finding our way back to ourselves, and each other.

05/11/2025

05/11/2025

Our next Adoptee Support Group in New Farm is on this Saturday from 1.30pm-3.30pm at 505 Bowen Terrace New Farm.

Be sure to arrive well before 1.30pm because we lock the doors once everyone's settled, to ensure the safety and privacy of participants. It's important for each of us to check in together at the start and see how everyone's travelling so we can support each other as needed on that day. 💜

Information and support changes everything! 😍

31/10/2025

31/10/2025

31/10/2025

A high-profile media organisation is doing extensive research for a potential program about changes in access to information for people impacted by adoption in Queensland, and the national response to forced adoption more broadly. 👏

To get it over the line, they need a human story. 🫶

We haven't had any success with our previous post on 15 October so now we're looking for someone who has had a recent reunion with a parent which was made possible after searches of records held by the Queensland Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages.

If you can assist, please email us at support@jigsawqld.org.au and provide your contact phone number so a member of our team can talk it through with you. ☎️

We will support you through the process so we can make this happen because raising awareness about 1) our rights to information about our identity, and 2) our need to reunite with family will benefit every person in Australia who is impacted by adoption. 😍

02/10/2025

Check out our upcoming workshop, "Healing the Hidden Wounds of Adoption", which is being funded by Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Queensland

14/08/2025

So many adoptees grow up hearing, “You were chosen. You were lucky.”

But few are ever asked, “What did you lose?”

In this raw and unflinching interview, therapist Paul Sunderland speaks to the truth so many of us know in our bones — that the wound of separation can echo through our lives, sometimes showing up in addiction, depression or relationships.

If you’ve lived it, loved someone through it or want to understand it… please listen.

What parts of this conversation resonate with you most?

🎧 Listen below

Thank you to Jigsaw Post-Adoption Centre Queensland for your ongoing support to those impacted by Forced Adoption policies and practices 🙏🏼

🎧 New Episode Out Now!

Today on Jigsaw Queensland's Adopt Perspective Podcast, we’re thrilled to be joined by the brilliant Paul Sunderland—a leading addiction specialist and psychotherapist whose work has deeply resonated with the adoption community around the world.

With over 35 years of experience, Paul brings powerful insight into the lifelong effects of adoption, including how early separation from our mothers can shape identity, mental health, and increase vulnerability to addiction. His viral talks on YouTube for Life Works and the Adult Adoptee Movement have become essential viewing for many navigating adoption-related trauma and complex PTSD.

In this episode, we explore these issues in depth—and offer hope, clarity, and validation for adopted people and information for parents of loss, adoptive parents, and professionals working in this space.

👉 Listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Deezer, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, Overcast and here:
https://www.jigsawqueensland.com/podcast

YouTube (video available): https://www.youtube.com/

14/08/2025

New Adopt Perspective podcast episode out now!

At Jigsaw Queensland, we’re proud to be offering another exciting project made possible through our Forced Adoption Support Service Small Grant Funding.

We’ve partnered with Axis Clinic to offer a powerful new 10-week online group therapy program designed specifically for adopted people impacted by Australia’s forced adoption era. It’s called 'How Attachment Styles Affect Adopted People', and it offers a safe, trauma-informed space to explore the lasting impacts of adoption on identity, relationships, and how we connect with others. To tell us all about it and how you can get involved, we're joined by two wonderful guests: Helen Angela Taylor, CEO of Jigsaw Queensland, and Anna Lanyon, a Mental Health Social Worker from Axis Clinic.

🎧 Listen now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Deezer, Castbox, Pocket Casts, Amazon Music, Overcast and here:
https://www.jigsawqueensland.com/podcast
YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/

The program will run online every Thursday evening from 6:30 to 8:30pm, starting August 21st. To register or find out more, email admin@axisclinic.com.au.

14/08/2025

What is a truncated attachment cry?

14/08/2025

I asked the Academy what also happens when infant eyes meet absence, as it did for many of us relinquished/taken at birth.

This was their response…

“That’s such an important point, Monique — thank you for bringing it in.

As Janina Fisher often teaches, when there is an absence of consistent, loving gaze in those first weeks or months, the nervous system learns early on that eye contact is not a place of safety or comfort. For many, especially those separated from their mothers at birth, this lack of attunement can make it deeply uncomfortable — even decades later — to meet the eyes of someone who cares.

In her work, Janina talks about honoring this protective adaptation and beginning very slowly — sometimes with moments of connection that don’t require direct gaze — until the body can start to trust that some kinds of looking are safe. It’s a gentle, gradual process, and the courage it takes is immense.

We so appreciate the work you’re doing with adoptees navigating these tender, early attachment wounds.”