Deirdre Nicole Hegarty : An adoption story

Topics covered : Mother and Baby home, adoption, grief, faith, taboo, shedding shame, transgenerational trauma, therapy, holotropic breathwork, motherhood, inner child healing, compassion.

In the final episode of this season, I speak to psychotherapist Deirdre Nicole Hegarty, who shares her adoption story with us.

Deirdre lives in Donegal with her husband Noel and their baby boy, Conall.

She was adopted at three months old from a mother and baby home, into a loving family where her adoption was always known and spoken about openly.

But as she grew older, and especially when she began searching for her birth parents, her story became more complex.

What she discovered challenged her sense of identity in a profound way. Her birth parents were first cousins...something that carried deep layers of secrecy and shame.

In this conversation, Deirdre speaks with great honesty about reconnecting with her birth parents, the emotional impact of those connections, and the confusion and trauma that unfolded.

She also shares the work that has helped her make sense of her experience, particularly inner child healing, and how she’s come to understand the impact of transgenerational trauma, and the importance of breaking patterns and releasing shame.

This is a deeply personal conversation, and I’m really grateful to her for sharing it so openly.

To connect with Deirdre :

Email: slanudeirdrehegarty@gmail.com

Instagram: @slanu_deirdrehegarty

* This is the final episode of this season, but I’ll be back with a new batch of conversations on the 8th of May.

In the meantime, you can dive into the archive and listen to over 200 episodes anytime and thanks so much for listening to Ready to be Real.

Tá mé fíor-bhuíoch!

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