Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to adult adoptee Julie McGue, she was adopted in the US with her twin sister and grew up in the 60s knowing she was adopted. Julie shares her story of fighting to get access to her birth records and the names of her biological parents and the support th…

Hello and welcome to Episode 185 of the Adoption and Fostering Podcast. In this episode we interview transnational/transracial Adoptee and Sexologist Anna Linde. Anna's research, website and social media can be found below Free Discovery call and my ”workbase” at Healing Exchange LLC: https://www.healingxchg.com/booking-calendar/discovery-meeting-w…

Hello and welcome to this episode of the Better Me Better Us Podcast with Vicki and Hayley. As it’s National Stress Awareness Month we thought we’d talk about expectations both of ourselves and others and how it contributes to our stress levels. We would love to hear your experiences and open up the conversation. Connect with us - Instagram- BMBUlt…

Hello and welcome to Conversations from the the A&F Network. In this episode I speak adult adoptee Courtney-Grace. She shares her experience of adoption and is frank in relation to the challenges she faced growing up and re entering the care system as a teenager. Courtney-Grace is honest and frank about the impact of her experiences and the challen…

In this episode we speak to Jenny Ginger in relation to her Phd looking at the issue of adopting when you've already got a biological child. It's a fascinating subject and we drew on Jenny's research and knowledge as well as a raft of interesting comments and questions that came from listeners though our FB page. You can read them here. We mentione…

In this webcast we discuss the latest updates in the world of fostering and chat about FosterWiki’s latest independent survey. We cover a lot of ground and reference comments from our FB page here. Please follow and like to recieve notifications and info about what we're discussing and upcoming episodes. You can participate here in the FosterWiki s…

This episode is an interview that Al did with Adopt 4 Life's Kathryn Connor and Murray Coulter looking at the support service that they provide for fathers experiencing challenging and violent and aggressive behaviour. You can check out their website here. As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspe…

Hello and welcome to this special edition of the A&F Podcast. In this episode we’re sharing a keynote speech that I gave to the CoramBAAF post adoption support conference to mark the release of the their best practice guide by Caroline Thomas and John Simmonds. I tried to ground the talk in the lived experience of families but there was certainly m…

Hello and welcome to episode 183 of the Adoption and Fostering Podcast. We had a plan but got slightly sidetracked by the good news of FASD Ireland's funding success. That led us down a rabbit hole in terms of how do we affect change, what are the levers we need to pull and what are the challenges. We unpick that then Al has some feedback from Cora…

Episode 10 – Embracing mistakes for growth In this months podcast we talk about mistakes- What was our experience of mistakes growing up and how they were responded to? Does this impact how we respond now? Do you create safe spaces and relationships for conversations to happen? We would love to hear your experiences and open up the conversation. Co…

Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to foster carers Halima and Adam. They have chosen to be carers while raising a young family and describe their positive experiences as well as some of the challenges that they face as carers. It’s a thoughtful conversation and demonstrates how effectiv…

Hello and welcome to the 182nd episode of the A&F podcast. In this episode we chat to Phil Watson, amongst many other things, he works as a recruiter for Liverpool fostering as well as being a foster carer and adoptive parent. This is a somewhat chaotic but cracking chat with Phil sharing some of his personal experience as well as speaking to the c…

Hello and welcome to the A&F podcast. In this episode we unpick a few questions in relation to post adoption contact as well as think about how much scaffolding is too much and downsizing when your children get to 18. Here's a link for next Intro to NVR that we're holding on the 13th & 20th May. As it's online it's open to any persons from anywhere…

Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to Susan Vickers, she shares her story of growing up as a transracial adoptee in the 70s and 80s. Susan experienced ongoing racism and a challenging relationship with her adoptive parents. She then went on to reconnect with her biological parents with c…

Hello to Better Me Better you Ep9 - As Children’s Mental Health Week falls within February, we thought we would discuss this year’s theme which is “My Voice Matters”. What do we already do to ensure we listen to the voice of the child and what could we do better? Connect with us - Instagram- BMBUltd Facebook – Better Me Better Us Twitter – BMBUltd …

Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to adult adoptee Stephen Rowley, he was adopted in the 1940s in the US and he shares some of his journey to rediscovering his birth family. Stephen in a Psychotherapist and he unpicked aspects of his internal journey and considers some philosophical que…

Hello and welcome to this Wednesday Webcast from the A&F network. We chat to Researcher Matt Clark about his research into adoptive dads, we unpick why he's doing the research and some of the specific challenges that dads face and are perhaps hidden in the support world. You can read more about the research here or get in touch with Matt As always …

Hello and welcome to the Adoption and Fostering podcasting, this week we explore Therapeutic Parenting and Good Enough Parenting. Terms that we often throw around and presume that we understand but we ask what it actually is, is there a definition and are we all on the same page. We draw on the feedback we had from the excellent comments on our FB …

Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to Irina, she is a foster carer and an adoptive parent and lives in Australia. Irina shares her experience of becoming a foster carer then moving to Singapore where she also fostered then adopted her daughter with her husband. They now live back in Aust…

It's that time of the year and as per our new tradition we've invited our spouses on to dish the dirt, catch up and reflect on the latest comings and goings in our journey. We cover all kinds of stuff, children growing up, boundaries, new ways of being and moving house. As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship f…

Hello and welcome to this edition of conversations from the A&F network. In this episode I speak to Caroline and adult adoptee and adoptive parent. She shares her experience of entering a children’s home as a four year old with her siblings. Caroline articulates the complexity of her experience and her as a child growing up adopted away from her si…

In this months episode Vicki and Haley firstly Wish You All A Happy New Year!! After which we consider the pressure people often put on themselves at this time of year with new starts, resolutions, giving up things which is great but what do people also want to keep, build on and strengthen. Under this we consider modelling habits and changes to th…

Hello and happy new year! We thought it would be good to catch up after a busy few months and the usual Christmas shenanigans. We reflect on Christmas challenges, experiences of loss for children and then range onto politics, cruises, and more. As always if you’ve experience of adoption, fostering or special guardianship from any perspective person…

We re release the most downloaded episode of 2023. Many thanks for all the listens. One of our contributors at the annual Adoption & Fostering Podcast Conference was Angela Frazer-Wicks, birth parent and chair of trustees at the Family Rights Group as well as a key note speaker and campaigner. She shares her experience of maintaining links with her…

We're re releasing the most listened to podcasts of the year. In second place we have adoption social worker, Nick Burke In this episode we're really happy to speak to Nick Burke a post adoption social worker. Nick speaks from a personal perspective across a range of issues that impact on adoption and social workers and it's fantastic to get a real…