Articles & Factsheets
Past adoption practices and their impacts are not commonly known or understood. Our articles, factsheets, and resources aim to increase awareness among the greater community and remind those affected that they are not alone.
Understanding the impact of dominant adoption narratives
Dominant adoption narratives often erase loss, leaving adoptees feeling misunderstood, alone, and ungrateful. Reclaiming the right to tell one’s own story is essential for healing.
Alternative options for accessing funded counselling
In addition to the VANISH Counselling Brokerage Program, here’s a list of other schemes you may be eligible for to access fully funded or subsidised counselling.
Understanding adoption’s lifelong impact—and what helps: An interview with Dr Jenny Conrick
Clinician and academic Dr Jenny Conrick reflects on what she’s learned about the lifelong impacts of adoption, what practitioners need to know, and where hope and healing can be found.
Holding space for different speeds and needs in family contact and reunion
Family reunion can trigger vastly different reactions—from urgency to a freeze response and everything in between. Understanding that there’s no “right” pace can help you navigate reunion with greater self-compassion and more realistic expectations.
Navigating searching for birth family and relationship with adoptive family
It’s natural and normal to want to know about your birth family (family of origin). However, adoptees often worry about how connecting with birth family could affect their relationships with their adoptive family.
Are you searching for a lost family member?
Across Australia, many people are searching for a lost family member. Sometimes the cause of the separation is adoption, but this is not always the case. In case you are *not* eligible for assistance from VANISH, here is some advice from our team that might be helpful.
Understanding adoption through an attachment lens: Common impacts and experiences
Adoption can impact early attachment experiences which can shape our relationships throughout life. Psychologist and adoptee Cheyne Bull explores this impact and how we might move towards more secure attachment.
Disenfranchised grief, ambiguous loss and adoption
Loss in adoption can be complicated because it represents an ambiguous loss – the loss of people, and much more, that still exist but are physically or emotionally inaccessible to us.
For friends, partners, loved ones: Understanding the experience of being adopted
This article for friends, partners and loved ones of adoptees helps you understand why adoption isn’t just an interesting backstory—it’s a lifelong journey involving trauma, identity, and complex grief.
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