Hi! I’m Kristal
In this episode, Kristal sits down with Dr. Liz DeBetta and Julie Brumley to explore adoptee healing, somatic practices and how storytelling and community can help us reconnect with ourselves.
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“The body becomes the language.” – Dr. Liz DeBetta
In this episode of Because She’s Adopted, Kristal Parke sits down with Dr. Liz DeBetta and Julie Brumley to explore a different approach to adoptee healing, one that brings together storytelling, somatic practices and community. Together they discuss their upcoming Un-M-Othered: A Revolution in Adoptee Healing retreat, why traditional talk therapy doesn’t always meet the needs of adoptees and how reconnecting with the body can help people move from survival toward wholeness.
Rather than focusing solely on what happened to us, this conversation explores how healing becomes possible when we reconnect with our stories, our bodies and each other.
Why Adoptee Healing Requires More Than Talk Therapy
Dr. Liz and Julie explain why many adoptees leave traditional therapy feeling misunderstood. They discuss how preverbal trauma often lives in the body and why healing requires more than simply talking about difficult experiences.
The Body Remembers
One of the central themes of the conversation is that adoption trauma is often experienced before language develops. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with me?” they encourage adoptees to become curious about what their bodies have been trying to communicate all along.
Storytelling as a Path to Healing
Drawing from her work in Migrating Toward Wholeness, Dr. Liz explains how writing can help adoptees reclaim their voices, process difficult emotions and transform silence into understanding. The goal isn’t to become a writer−it’s to discover language for experiences that once felt impossible to describe.
Healing in Community
Julie shares how somatic practices help people reconnect with their nervous systems while Dr. Liz describes the importance of creating safe spaces where adoptees can share their stories without judgment. Together they explain why healing doesn’t have to happen alone.
Un-M-Othered: A Revolution in Adoptee Healing
The episode also introduces Un-M-Othered: A Revolution in Adoptee Healing, a two-day retreat combining film, somatic practices, reflective writing and community to help adoptees reconnect with themselves in compassionate, trauma-informed ways.
Listen to this episode on the
Because She Was Adopted Podcast
Healing isn’t about becoming someone new.
As Dr. Liz and Julie remind us, it’s about reconnecting with the parts of ourselves that have always been there, our bodies, our stories and our voices. When we find safe spaces to explore those experiences with curiosity and compassion, healing becomes less about fixing ourselves and more about coming home to who we’ve always been.
If this conversation resonates with you, we’d love to hear your story. By sharing our experiences, we help create a community where others feel seen, understood and supported on their own healing journeys.
Thank you for being here.
With gratitude,
Kristal
