Migrating Toward Wholeness: A Trauma-Informed Framework for Healing & Connection

A story-centered approach to reclaiming voice, presence, and wholeness.

Migrating Toward Wholeness is a trauma-informed, story-centered process that integrates cognitive, emotional, embodied, and relational healing. Developed from my 2021 pilot program with the Rudd Adoption Research Program at UMass-Amherst and expanded upon in my book Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal, this methodology centers narrative reclamation and the power of presence to support deep transformation.

The MTW method includes five Foundational Practices that align with the seven Parts of trauma healing

This is not a one-size-fits-all approach. The process is emergent — responsive to each person’s story, needs, and readiness.

Every healing journey looks different, because every story is different.

Whether I’m working with adoptees and storytellers in one-on-one coaching, facilitating small group workshops, collaborating with organizations to co-create healing-centered, adoption-competent, trauma-informed environments, offering CE-eligible trainings for mental health professionals and educators, or sharing my work through keynotes and performance, each engagement is a co-creative journey toward voice, integration, and wholeness.

Wholeness isn’t a final destination. It’s a practice of presence, reclamation, and radical self-belonging.

What Participants Are Saying

“These weeks spent with Dr. Liz and other adoptees have been life-affirming and life-giving. This is an invaluable tool and a beautiful connection.”

— S. Phillips, Adoptee & Small Group Participant

“Dr. Liz created a space that was powerful, cathartic, and creatively inspiring. I left with tools to reflect, to write, and to reconnect to my voice — both personally and professionally.”

— CE Training Participant

Migrating Toward Wholeness isn’t just a personal practice — it’s a lens through which we can rebuild our relationships, our systems, and even our economies.

Current Offerings

  • 3-Month Migrating Toward Wholeness© Individualized Coaching Program

    A 3-month journey with Dr. Liz that can be done one on one or with families to more deeply engage with the Migrating Toward Wholeness process and integrate your individual goals over an extended period.

    Full Details
    A collage featuring various torn images and texts, including phrases like 'Talk About,' 'ongoing exploration,' and 'relationship between.' The collage includes illustrations of lips, butterflies, flowers, and landscapes. The background features green, orange, and floral patterns.

  • 3-Day Migrating Toward Wholeness© Mini-retreat

    Join me for a restorative online experience designed specifically for adoptees. This 3-day mini-retreat is your chance to explore the healing power of expressive writing using my unique Migrating Toward Wholeness© process in a supportive community of fellow adoptees.

    Register Now
    Collage art featuring a purple flower, butterfly patterns, and phrases like "Rethinking," "Cultivating Change," "Motion," and "Home." Background has textured, colorful paint.

  • 6-Week Migrating Toward Wholeness©

    This 6-week small group session is your chance to explore the healing power of writing in a sustained and supportive community of fellow adoptees. This interactive process is modeled after the Migrating Toward Wholeness© experience I piloted with the Rudd Adoption Research Program .

    Join Us
    A collage featuring green and black butterflies, flowers, puzzle pieces, and text elements like "Speak Up," "Destination Unknown," and "Trust." The background includes architectural motifs and various patterns.

  • -Expressing the Primal Wound: Poetry as Healing

    -Expressing the Primal Wound: Navigating Fear, Grief, and Ambiguous Loss

    -Migrating Toward Wholeness: Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal

    -Rewriting the Truth: Making Room for Adoptee Narratives

    -Coming Out of the Fog and Grieving the Ghosts: A Workshop on Writing to Heal

  • -Power, Privilege and Oppression: Using Reflective Writing as Tool for
    Learning/Unlearning

    -Bridging Differences: Storytelling for Empathy and Social Justice

    -Untellable Stories: Stories as Activism

    -Women, Connectedness, and Self Care

    -Social Injustice and Poetic Possibility: The Power of Spoken Word

    -Stories of Silence, Stories of Strength: A Workshop on Reclamation of Self as An Act of Resistance

  • -Subversive Stories: Writing the Self

    -Refusing Silence: Words as Witness

    -Finding Voice by Storying the Self: An introspective, reflective writing journey for creative artists and curious souls

    -Poetry and Performance: Healing through Self-expression


    Women’s Narratives: Intentional Writing Circles (series of 3):

    -Storying the Self: Creative Writing Workshop

    -Invoking Ancestors: Situating the Self

    -Subversive Selves: Bearing Witness