Testimonials
The following are testimonials from clients, including some from adoption trauma workshops.
“The shift in everyone and the depths we went to will stay with me forever. It totally reinforced my worldview of our interconnection and brought it to life.
I felt safe and heard and supported every step of the way.
Daniel talks in a profound and deeply moving way about his own journey and is very easy to talk to. He held the group so well that although there was a lot of emotion at times, no one was overwhelmed.”
“I came away from the workshop with a significantly higher level of self-awareness.
What Daniel offers in this workshop is safety, acceptance and love. He is an inspiration who has walked the path himself”.
“I never knew I could feel this level of connection, listening to each other’s stories we began to see that we shared very familiar territory, we had all faced similar challenges. We could offer each other true understanding, compassion, and connection in a safe environment.
I had never considered that my adoption could have caused trauma, after all, I had loving parents and a stable environment. I would not allow myself to consider the fact that the adoption itself may have affected the way I view the world and those people who live in it.
Daniel’s facilitation helped to bring out some core feelings that I held, which surprised me, that came bubbling to the surface. I could see how I had put up barriers and kept feeling buried deep down.
I was given permission to accept all parts of myself, seeing where the trauma began, having to potential to heal it and feel the emotions I had had all my life made it powerful.
For once I felt understood. I was no longer alone in the world. I wish every person who has faced challenges in relation to their adoption would get a chance to take part in one of these workshops. It will be one of the greatest gifts to give yourself. I have realized why some self-destructive patterns have emerged and the layers that I created to survive. I have more empathy for myself and I’m willing to go down deep and heal. I was blown away.
“I experienced connections to emotions I wasn’t even aware of and I know this is because I felt completely at ease and safe with Daniel and the other group members. It’s time to put myself 1st now”.
“I recently attended a 2 day workshop that Daniel hosted for people that are adopted. Imagine, a room with people who know exactly how you feel, without having to put words to the feelings and emotions, because the other adoptees know them intimately. I have never sat in a room only with other adoptees, I think the same was true for us all, and being able to do so was wonderful and empowering.
It was a weekend of joyous discovery, tears, open hearts, healing, sharing, trauma being realised and released, all in a very safe and sacred container. Daniel’s own adoption story, training, expertise and passion, make him an extraordinarily gifted facilitator, confident and able. I felt honoured, validated, heard, seen, felt, understood and safe. I was able to dive deep into my subconscious memories to experience profound healing.
Through the family constellations work, I was able to not only see my own constellation in progress, but to play that part for the others. It’s quite incredible to see the family dynamics playing out and once these patterns can be seen, we can undo them and experience freedom.
I have suffered all my life (49 years) as a result of my adoption. But now, thanks to Daniel’s workshop, I can say it brought me to a place where I was finally able to heal the story once and for all and come into a place of peace. Yes, I’ve healed my adoption story and I am at peace. For the first time in my life. It’s absolutely incredible because I didn’t ever feel I could find peace with this.
I would recommend Daniel’s work to anyone who needs to heal their adoption story. In a heartbeat”.
“I was standing in the room at Daniel’s workshop. I had asked to work with him directly. We spent some time speaking with each other as he sensitively asked me about my circumstances, family history, how I was feeling about my life, and my ‘longing’. I felt deeply supported, not just by Daniel but also by the other workshop attendees, sitting in a circle, an intimate group with who I had shared this journey over the two days. Daniel had asked me to choose someone to represent my mother, and this woman was now standing opposite me. I had no memory of my own mother, having been taken from her and adopted very early on in my life. I had tried so many times to reunite with her over the years, but it had never worked out, making me feel even more abandoned and hopeless. As I stood there, feeling scared but also somehow very safe, this woman looked towards me. With Daniel’s facilitation, my ‘mother’ and I started to connect in a way that I didn’t believe was possible. Somehow Daniel helped me to see and be seen. For the first time in my life, I started to feel my mother’s eyes gazing at me. I tentatively moved very slowly towards my ‘mother’, and I began to feel emotions that I didn’t realise that I was able to feel. Feelings that I had longed for all my life. I found myself saying ‘mum’. The other woman was no longer representing my mother – it was as if she had actually become my own mother. All the anger I had felt over the years dissolved. All the grief and loss that I had carried my entire life somehow turned into love and connection. All my shame of not feeling good enough, not worthy of my mother, or even to be alive just ended. Finally I was able to feel love for my mother. She moved towards me and I just dropped into her arms and cried. I felt safe. I was held. For the first time ever I belonged. Everything has been different ever since. I feel held and supported. I can feel my mother’s love and I can feel my love for her. I am alive and I am here. I have no idea where I am going from here, but I do know that this is what it is to be alive”.
“Imagine being in a room filled with folk who share your identical core wound. You discover that they “get it.” They understand you in a way that only another person who experienced what you experienced can.
Perhaps you were raped, or shamed, controlled, or neglected. Perhaps you were beaten, or unseen, or repeatedly made to feel you were unworthy, or molested, or had alcoholic parents, or something else.
And this whole room, had this thing. This Core Moment or Series of Moments that changed your life. That turned you into a Survivor or a Victim. That shattered some piece of trust in yourself, love, life or this world.
Something inside you relaxes or breathes in a new way. Some part of you discovers that you can love yourself in a new way. Or that you can forgive this life a little bit more for being so imperfect.
You feel more raw. More open. More present. More revealed than you have ever felt. More seen. More met. It feels great. It feels overwhelming. It feels both safe and unsafe. Awful and Awe filled.
You go through slowing down to be, just be. Perhaps for the first time.
You engage in exercises to meet your heart, your life, your family, your inner child. Other people in the workshop stand in to represent parts of you. You discover yourself in the process.
In my case, I was adopted. My biological mother walked away when I was 3 days old. I wouldn’t be adopted for 2 months. For a baby that is forever.
Reports from that time say I was always hungry. As I tune in to that baby she was terrified, Annihilated, panicked, bereft, grieving. She was without words. She cried and wailed. She wanted to be held and loved. She wanted safety and belonging.
During the Adoption Workshop Weekend, I was able to let down my guards and masks. I was able to have someone represent my baby self, and love her. And Feel what it is like to love me. That part of me. That wailing. Needy. Tender. Gorgeous. Panicked. Part of me.
I am still processing this shift that happened 3 days ago. This new wiring within. This ability to know that I am loveable by me down to my Core Wound.