Adoption Network Cleveland invites adoptees to join coaches Whitney Dawn Pyles and JJ Rett for a three-day workshop on Embodying Grief.

Grief, one of the seven core issues of adoption, can take many shapes and show up in varied ways. This workshop honors the power of joy and levity when brought into healing spaces with reverence and intention.

This will be a virtual workshop on Zoom, with 9 total workshop hours:
Friday, October 2, 6:00-8:30 pm ET
Saturday, October 3, 9:00-1:00 pm ET
Sunday, October 4, 10:00 am - 12:30 pm ET

Adoptees will explore creative ways of working through adoption-related grief grounded in body-based, trauma-informed healing practices. Whitney and JJ intend for participants to leave Embodying Grief with a deeper understanding of how this emotion lives in the body and with a set of practices to continue using on their own. Participants will also gain access to a supportive space they can return to for monthly drop-ins with JJ, Whitney, and the same participants from their workshop series.

Cost: $250 per person
Space is limited to 12 participants per 9 hour workshop
Adult adoptees only

About Our Coaches

JJ Rett
JJ received her coaching certification in 2024 from the New York City-based organization, Upbuild. She discovered the effectiveness and magic of coaching through a workshop in 2023 and knew intuitively that coaching was the modality she would use to serve others, especially those connected to adoption. Coaching can be a wonderful tool to use for goal-setting or acquiring new ways of approaching obstacles, and it can also help us discover who we are without being restricted by the limiting beliefs of who we think we should be.

She deeply values Authenticity, Connection, Truth, Belonging, and JOY. She will create a safe space for each client to explore their habits, understand their identity, and become aware of their own unique power. Her practice is deeply rooted in compassion for all and the belief that each client is capable of achieving what they dare to envision for themselves.

JJ has been a member of Adoption Network Cleveland since 2015 when we ROARed! She is a late discovery adoptee, born and raised in Dayton, Ohio, and gives credit for much of her healing journey to Betsie Norris and the incredible staff at ANC. From the opening of Ohio’s closed records, then working with an ANC-recommended, adoption-informed therapist, to attending ANC support groups and writing articles that began as therapeutic journaling, ANC has been with JJ every step of the way. She has been in reunion with both sides of her biological family since 2015 and 2016. Now that she is a Certified Coach, she is filled with gratitude to share her passion with other members of the adoption constellation as they navigate their own journeys forward. In 2023, JJ, her husband, and their three children returned to her hometown of Dayton, OH be closer to both her adoptive and biological families.

Whitney Dawn Pyles
Whitney Dawn Pyles is a Certified Somatic Coach and accredited Life Coach (ICF-ACC) who specializes in Body-Oriented Coaching — a gentle, evidence-informed approach that integrates mind-body awareness and nervous system support into the coaching process. Her work supports clients in cultivating the calm, clarity, and courage to come home to themselves, creating space to imagine new possibilities and welcome more joy and aliveness into their lives and work.

What first drew Whitney to life coaching in 2021, and what deeply resonated with her as an adoptee, is a core belief shared across both coaching and humanistic psychology: that all people are creative, resourceful, and whole and that, when met with compassion, curiosity, and presence, we naturally move toward growth and healing. This belief remains central to Whitney’s work and the space she holds. Through this lens, coaching is not about fixing what is “wrong,” but about uncovering what is already wise, whole, and wanting to emerge.

Whitney brings nearly a decade of experience in coaching, teaching, facilitation, and creative leadership. In 2022 she graduated from The Somatic School, where she now serves as a facilitator and podcast host supporting the next generation of Body-Oriented Coaches. She is also the founder of Whitney Dawn Movement & Coaching and creator of UNSTUCK: a somatic practice series for building momentum.

She is honored to partner with Adoption Network Cleveland in offering coaching that supports self-compassion, authentic expression, and a deeper sense of belonging for anyone seeking greater alignment in life.