Episode 379 - The Adoptee's Journey with Cameron Lee Small

The Nothing Is Wasted Podcast

Davey Blackburn and Aubrey Sampson

Religion & Spirituality:christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.9 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 28 May 2025

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How can we help a child who may not have the words to express their own grief? How can communities be support systems to those who have adopted?Cameron Lee Small's story began with loss. At the age of three years old, he was adopted from his birth country of South Korea and placed in a home thousands of miles away in America. As he grew up and began to understand the complexity of emotions that can arise as an adoptee, he realized the need for support and care for others who shared his journey. Through his practice as counselor and his interactions with other adoptees and their families, Cameron has seen the impact loss and trauma can play in the lives of those who have walked this path. And because of his own personal experience, he has been able to help adoptees and their families navigate a way forward towards healing. In his book, **The Adoptee’s Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowerment**, Cameron shares glimpses of his story and search for his birth mother as well as practical ways adoptees can regain their sense of agency and identity in the complexities of their story. In this insightful conversation, Davey talks with Cameron about the kinds of questions that can come in an adoptee, how parents and caregivers can help children regulate who have experienced trauma, and why it is so important for churches to be adoption informed so that they can best serve families who adopt. If you are an adoptee or an adoptive parent or you know someone who is, this episode will help you understand the nuances of the emotional experience many adoptees feel and how you can love and serve those who have welcomed children into their home through adoption. Website: therapyredeemed.wordpress.com Instagram: instagram.com/therapyredeemed Book: The Adoptee’s Journey: From Loss and Trauma to Healing and Empowermenthttps://amzn.to/4kay5tK Additional Adoption Resources:Cam's Minneapolis TEDx Talk: tedxminneapolis.com Virtual TEEN ADOPTEE Support Groups: https://mailchi.mp/25796625a7ab/virtual-group-for-teen-adoptees Adoptive Parenting Consultation Group [3-Month Coaching with Cameron]: https://community-adoption-support.mailchimpsites.com/ 10 Facts about Adoptees: https://therapyredeemed.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/10-facts-about-adoptees.pdf

Transcript

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0:00.0	Well, hello, welcome to the Nothing Is Wasted podcast. My name is Davey. I'm one of your hosts. And I'm so grateful that you are joining with us today for this episode. It is a wonderful conversation with Cameron Lee Small. And I'll tell you this. This is this one is personally interesting to me. This
0:24.5	conversation was Cameron Lee Small was born in Korea. And then he was relinquished into foster
0:31.9	care at age three, obviously South Korea. And then adopted in 1984 to a family in the United States.
0:37.9	And now he has a private practice called Therapy Redeemed, which specializes in the mental health needs of adoptees and their families, no matter where they're at on their adoption journey.
0:47.9	And so the reason this is this particular conversation was so intriguing to me, first of all all was because my mother-in-law,
0:55.6	Christy's mom, was adopted out of an orphanage from Seoul, South Korea when she was 10 years old.
1:02.6	And so that's just part of like part of our own family's journey and our own family of origin.
1:07.3	And, and, and then I've also had a lot of conversations recently with
1:11.4	with adoption parents adoption families and just kind of talking about their
1:16.3	surprise about the trauma that they were going to be experiencing like you
1:20.5	know it's one thing to understand this but I just said like that sounded so
1:25.6	informal but you know what this This is the nothing is wasted podcast
1:28.9	that we are just, this is raw and real. You know, it's one thing to understand things theoretically.
1:36.4	And I think most adoption families would say that the system tries to prepare you for the kind of
1:43.2	trauma these kids have experienced, and there's
1:45.4	a varying degree of that, and how it's going to manifest or present itself in your day-to-day
1:50.2	life. But most adoption families also say that they could never have been prepared for it.
1:57.6	That, you know, it's one thing to learn it in theory. It's another thing to actually live it out every single day in practice.
2:02.4	That's why I love what Cameron Lee Small is doing because he's helping families as they're
2:08.1	navigating this journey, helping them to have an understanding, be more informed about what this
2:13.5	looks like for an adoptee, whether it's domestic, whether it's international, no matter what
2:17.4	it is.
	...

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