Season 6: Understanding Birth Families and Identity

This episode is part of our Season 6 series, Helping Your Child Understand Their Journey, focusing on practical conversations about adoption, identity and belonging.

Join host Eddie Elliott as he speaks with Skye Curtis-Guilhen, a dual-heritage adopter to two children and project lead at Yorkshire Adoption Agency, where she focuses on community engagement and supporting adopters from global majority backgrounds. Skye also delivers training, including life story work, and works as a social researcher and inclusive practice consultant specialising in equity-based trauma-informed practice.

Eddie and Skye explore how birth families sit within a child’s sense of self, whether there is contact or not. They discuss how children’s questions can shift over time, what to say when curiosity grows, and how to respond when information is limited or difficult to explain. Skye shares ways parents can support children through loyalty conflicts, grief or confusion, and how to acknowledge heritage and history through meaningful conversations.

They also talk about managing your own emotions so you can stay open when these discussions arise.

This episode offers practical guidance for parents who want to support their child’s questions about where they come from while strengthening belonging at home.

Contact We Are Family & the Adoption Shared Team:
Tweet us @WAFadoption #AdoptionShared
Tweet Eddie @Eddielliott
Email us hello@wearefamilyadoption.org.uk

Join us www.wearefamilyadoption.org.uk

We prioritise the privacy of guests and their children. All identifying information has been changed or removed. We provide guidance to all guests about how and whether details of their adoption journey and their children’s stories are shared.