{"id":211,"date":"2026-02-24T23:17:06","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T23:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=211"},"modified":"2026-03-14T23:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T23:19:15","slug":"emma-stevens","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=211","title":{"rendered":"Emma Stevens"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Choosing to Breathe<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if living a life true to yourself meant unraveling everything you were taught to believe? In this powerful continuation of her story, Emma Stevens returns to The Gathering Place and shares the hard-earned wisdom that comes from confronting loss, identity, and truth. As an adult adoptee raised to feel grateful rather than grieve, Emma was shaped by silence, expectation, and trauma. But deep within, resilient parts of her fought to be heard. Through raw and reflective storytelling, she explores what it takes to stop merely surviving and start living intentionally. Her journey is a call to anyone who\u2019s ever felt like they were performing a version of themselves for others. Honest, insightful, and deeply human\u2014this memoir is an invitation to breathe, to question, and to reclaim the life that is truly yours.
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The Gathering Place: An Adoptee’s Story<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The true story of when Emma learns her birth mother wrote and signed a letter about her to the adoption agency, she knew she had to have that letter if she were to ever discover her birth mother\u2019s true identity. Her birth mother had used a fictitious name at the maternity home and used an assumed name on Emma\u2019s original birth certificate. Emma takes bold measures to get ahold of that letter and start solving the puzzle that is her life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma was adopted into a family that expected her to conform to their expectations of who she should be \u2014 but she did not arrive as a blank slate. Unable to see that her relinquishment and adoption were not her fault, her soul split into pieces. In order to put the pieces back together, Emma embarks on multiple journeys and adventures towards both solving the mystery of who she is, and healing from the pain of separation from her origins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emma powerfully describes a childhood and life profoundly affected by not knowing her true self. Has she ever known her true self?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a story of inner strength and perseverance where Emma welcomes all her parts of self to feel valued and seen. She fights to reunite her fractured soul through love and acceptance of herself, and of others. In a meditative and surreal state, under and around a big old oak tree with a simple wood-seated and rope swing attached, she accepts the invitation of integrating herself. And this reunion all takes place at The Gathering Place.
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A Fire Is Coming<\/em><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The true story of when Emma Stevens learned her new next-door neighbor was a psychologist, she innocently asked about how to find a therapist for her own issues. Dr. Carol Brenner decided to accept her as a patient. Against a backdrop of the Laguna Beach Fire, the insidious drama unfolds as Emma finds herself enmeshed in an unhealthy dependency on her therapist, who not only fostered this dependence but also used it to dominate and control her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How could this happen? Emma explores how having been relinquished at birth, put up for adoption, and raised by parents who did not treat her well, may have created the fertile ground for an experienced predator-super-therapist to exploit and indoctrinate her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Fire is Coming<\/em> is a page-turning psychological nightmare, as Emma tries to escape the predators and narcissists in her life\u2014who have their own egoic plan. Not only does Emma escape, she takes a hard look back at how and why it happened. Emma\u2019s unflinching narrative serves as a cautionary tale to anyone who might find themselves a potential victim of an exploitative therapist or vindication for anyone who has had an adverse experience with an unethical professional.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Emma Stevens <\/strong>isn\u2019t just an author; she\u2019s a survivor, a fighter, and a person who is dedicated to a more reflective, non-dualistic way of thinking and being. As a U.S. domestic adoptee from birth, Emma\u2019s journey has been one of overcoming layers of trauma from the pain of relinquishment to the struggle of navigating identity in a world that often fails to understand.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-211","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nEmma Stevens - Adoptee Authors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=211\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Emma Stevens - Adoptee Authors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/?page_id=211\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Adoptee Authors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-03-14T23:19:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/adopteeauthors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/CoverSm-679x1024-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"679\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adopteeauthors.com\\\/?page_id=211\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/adopteeauthors.com\\\/?page_id=211\",\"name\":\"Emma Stevens - 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