Lori Holden

Lori Holden aims to transform adoption through openness, which she defines as dealing with What Is. Lori begins with the premise that adoption creates a split in a person between their biology (nature) and their biography (nurture). Through her writing, workshops, webinars and podcast, Lori takes people from an Either/Or mindset – prevalent in the closed adoption period – to the more connected and integrated BothAnd heartset.

Lori’s book The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption: Helping Your Child Grow Up Whole is on required reading lists at adoption agencies around the country, offering guidance on how parents can help their children heal the split between their biology and their biography. Her teachings help adoptive families of all types (foster, international, domestic) grasp the benefits of openness, regardless of contact with a child’s birth parents. Lori helps adoption professionals and adoptive parents shift from an Either/Or paradigm that “splits the baby,” to a BothAnd paradigm that comes from better understanding adoptee experiences. Lori encourages us to parent with openness and intention.

Lori lives near Denver, CO. She and her husband are parents-by-adoption to two teenagers. She has been listening to adoption perspectives during her 13 years of writing at the award-winning site, LavenderLuz.com. She has written for publications like Adoptive Families magazine, Embryo Adoption Awareness Center, and Adoption Today magazine. She has presented for audiences as diverse as the Bethany Christian Services, the National Council For Adoption, the University of Denver, Chinese Heritage Camps, the American Adoption Congress, Adoption Knowledge Associates, and Snowflake Embryo Adoption. Lori served a term on the board for Family to Family Support Network and volunteers for Heritage Camps for Adoptive Families and Colorado Coalition for Adoptive Families.

In 2018 Lori was named an Angel in Adoption by Senator Michael Bennet and honored by the Congressional Coalition for Adoption Institute.

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