Dr. Liz DeBetta is an adopted person and the author of Migrating Toward Wholeness: Adult Adoptees and Writing to Heal. Dr. DeBetta also is performer of the award-winning solo show
Un-M-Othered: A Story of Adoption & Patriarchy. She is an interdisciplinary scholar-artist-activist who is committed to changing systems and helping people navigate trauma through creative processes. She also offers trauma-informed coaching for adoptees (adults & teens), adoptive families, and women using the methodology developed from her 2021 pilot of Migrating Toward Wholeness© with the Rudd Adoption Research Program at UMass-Amherst. Being able to question, reject, and rewrite the dominant narratives that make adoptees the object rather than the subject of their stories is essential to finding healing and wholeness. Using Howard Bath’s 3-pillars of Trauma-informed Care (2008) and the 7-step trauma-healing framework embedded in the Migrating Toward Wholeness© method of expressive writing to heal, attendees will learn how the process of re-narrativizing for adoptees can be used to find clarity, understand the effects of trauma, and promote personal growth, to help to shift internal narratives and create healthy dialogue among families. She is a proud member of Actor's Equity Association, SAG-AFTRA, Affiliate Faculty at the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and part of the Diversity Scholars Network at the National Center for Institutional Diversity at the University of Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies (Humanities & Culture) with certificates in Women's & Gender Studies and Creative Writing.