Migrating Toward Wholeness™
A 5-Month Small Group for Adoptees
Six adoptees. Ten sessions. One place to put the story down. One place for the story you haven't told.
Maybe you've told your story before: in a therapist's office, at a kitchen table, or only to yourself at two in the morning. Or maybe you've never said it out loud at all.
What you may not have had is a room of people who already understand the shape and feel of it, who don't need the backstory explained, who don't flinch, who don't ask the questions you've learned to brace for.
This is that room.
Over five months, six adoptees meet every other Wednesday to write, to speak, and to be heard. Not to fix anything, not to stay stuck in a trauma loop—but to migrate, which is what we are always doing, all of us, together and at our own pace.
Who This Is For
This group is for you if:
You are an adult adoptee who senses there is more underneath the story you've been telling
You want to write, but not alone or you’ve tried to write and get stuck
You've done therapy, or haven't, and are looking for something that works differently
You've carried a story you've never said out loud — to anyone — and you're wondering what it would feel like to finally speak it
You are willing to be witnessed
You want to be in the company of people who don't need it explained
This program is not clinical treatment, and it is not a substitute for therapy. It is narrative healing work — arts-based, trauma-informed, and grounded in the belief that the person telling the story is the one who gets to decide what it means. It's also backed by research: studies show that expressive writing, practiced regularly over time, produces measurable benefits for both mental, physical health, and overall wellbeing.
What We Do Together
Each session, we talk, we write. Sometimes from a prompt, sometimes from a poem, sometimes from a single word or part of our conversation that cracks something open. We share what we've written, or we don't. We listen. We respond in ways that make the writer feel more like themself, not less. We practice gentle somatic check-ins that help us stay connected to ourselves and each other. We witness and hold space for what each of us brings into the room.
The work moves through the five core principles of Migrating Toward Wholeness. Not in a straight line because healing just doesn’t work that way.
We circle. We return.
We meet a principle we thought we were finished with and find it waiting, asking for something we maybe didn't have, or were ready for, the first time.
Making Space to Heal:
Before anything else, a room where nothing has to be defended and curiosity leads. Where you are not the difficult one, the ungrateful one, the one who should have let it go by now. Space is not a preliminary step. It is the condition for everything that follows.
Breaking Silences:
The things that were never said; the things you were told not to say, or that no one ever gave you the words for. We say them here, on paper first, if that's easier, and then out loud when you're ready.
Becoming the Subject:
For most of us, the adoption story was written by other people. You were the object of it — the child who was placed, chosen, given, taken. Here you become the subject. The one holding the pen and the power.
Expressing the Primal Wound:
Not analyzing it, not trying to manage it but expressing it—giving it form, image, rhythm, voice. The “wound” doesn't need to be solved. It needs to be spoken by the person who carries it.
Rewriting the Truth:
Not a prettier story, a truer one. The version that accounts for all of it: the loss and the love, the anger and the joy, without asking you to abandon any part of yourself to make it fit.
This is the kind of thing we make together. I wrote this one myself because I'm still doing the work too.
The Details
Format: 10 sessions, 2 hours each, on Zoom
When: Every other Wednesday, 10 a.m. 1 12 p.m. ET
Group size: 6
(If the group fills a second group may be added on a different day/time)
Session dates:
August 26
September 9
September 23
October 7
October 21
November 4
November 18
December 2
December 16
December 30 (TBD as a group based on holiday schedules/timing)
What You'll Carry With You
You won't leave a session empty-handed.
After each time we meet, you'll receive a written companion to the work — not meeting notes, but something to return to. Each one holds a reflection of where we went together, the themes that surfaced, and questions to sit with during the week. It names the writing and creative practices we used — acrostics, letters to the parts of yourself, freewriting, writing from the body — so you can keep going on your own between sessions.
And it includes invitations written for you — prompts that meet what you brought to the room that day, not a generic worksheet handed to everyone. Some sessions come with a practice to keep, too: a grounding tool, an exercise, something to steady you when you need it.
Over five months, these accumulate into something bigger than the sum of them. What begins as a handful of pages becomes a record of your own experience and growth, in your own words — a living document of yourself, yours to keep long after the group ends.
And you're never holding the work alone between sessions. Optional check-in support with me is there in the off weeks, whenever you need it.
Investment
Migrating Toward Wholeness runs on a Wholeness Economy. That means three rates, and you're trusted to choose the one that's true for you. No application, no questions, no explaining.
It works on the honor system (which is really just another way of saying it works on trust).
If you're able to choose a higher rate, you help make this work possible for someone who isn't. And if you need the community rate, it's yours. This is how we take care of each other.
Every rate includes all ten sessions, the written companion after each one, and optional/available between-session support.
Full Rate — $2,200
Mid Rate — $1,700
Community Rate — $1,100
Every rate can be paid in full, or with a deposit today and the balance in installments.
You'll see the exact schedule before you pay anything — nothing is hidden behind the button.
A deposit holds your spot.
Who's Guiding
I'm Liz DeBetta — an adoptee, a writer, award-winning solo performer, and the person who will be in the room with you.
I hold a PhD, I wrote Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal: Migrating Toward Wholeness (Brill, 2023), and I created and perform the solo show Un-M-Othered. But the thing that most shaped how I facilitate is six years of expressive writing and performance work with Act Risk No More, more than two decades of trauma-informed teaching writing and expressive arts, and the years I've spent putting my own story on a stage.
I am not a therapist, and I don't pretend to be one. What I am is someone farther along the journey, guiding others while continuing to migrate toward wholeness myself.
What People Say
"Liz creates a warm, supportive, and trauma-informed space that helps me not only write the stories I wanted to write but also uncover the stories I needed to write. It's rare to find adoptee-centered spaces like this, and her program was essential to my learning how to reclaim my narrative and access my creativity."
— Joanne Bagshaw, PhD, LCPC"The writing workshop was just beautiful. I so admire the grace, compassion and deftness with which you welcomed and guided the group… Wow just wow and a big thank you for welcoming me into that group."
— A.M. Homes, author"This has been the safest place I have experienced to express my thoughts and share my story. This is an invaluable tool. Every adoptee would benefit from this experience."
— S. Philips
Still Here?
If you've read this far and something in you is leaning toward yes but hasn't quite said it out loud, that's worth paying attention to.
You don't have to be certain and you don't have to feel ready. Most people who do this work weren't sure either; they just noticed they didn't want to keep carrying it alone. They knew they no longer wanted to keep feeling stuck and alone.
The group begins August 26, and there are six spots.
If you know you’d like to join, the rates are above — choose the one that's true for you.
If you're not sure, send me a note. Tell me where you are and I'll tell you honestly whether this feels like the right room for you right now — no pitch, no pressure. Sometimes the answer is "not yet," and that's a real answer too. This work is here for you if, and when, you’re ready.
FAQs
Do I need to be a writer?
No. You need to be willing to write. Those are different things, and the second one is the only one that matters here. MTW is not about how you write, it’s about what you write.
1
What if I miss a session?
Life happens. Sessions aren't recorded — what's said in the room stays in the room — but you'll never be behind, because there's nowhere to be behind. You’ll receive summaries and follow-up writing suggestions to keep working with and will have the option to check in with me 1:1 if needed.
2
No. It's narrative healing work. Many participants are also in therapy, and the two support each other well. If you're in active crisis, this isn't the right space for that and I'll tell you so honestly if we talk.
3
Is this therapy?
What if the group fills?
Reach out anyway. I'll let you know about the next cohort.
4
Can I choose the community rate if I'm not sure I qualify?
5
Yes. There's no qualifying. You know your life better than I do. Choose the rate you need to.