Founded in 2023, Courageous Journeys was established by Jane Sliwka (BPsych, MScWk) who seeks to bring together her lived experience as a person who was separated from her biological family and adopted at 10 weeks of age, with her study in Psychology & Social Work as well as her professional experience supporting those affected by adoption. Jane’s areas of speciality include supporting those impacted by adoption, donor conception and surrogacy, NPE (not parent expected), DNA surprises, grief, loss, family estrangement and other family relationship concerns. Available services include counselling, other social work services, group work, training and education, consultancy and project work. Jane enjoys exploring creative ways of supporting and raising awareness of the issues that face these communities.
As a part of her Psychology degree, Jane conducted original research on how an adopted person’s attachment style and sense of self-worth is impacted by the adoption experience. Following 5 years working as a generalist counsellor, Jane has spent the last decade working for two government funded adoption support organisations in Queensland, both as a practitioner and as a team leader. Whilst working on these professional accomplishments, Jane reunited with her biological family and has been working on these relationships over the past 18 years.
Jane has provided training to other professionals and delivered lectures to Social Work students to build an understanding of the impacts of adoption and the support needs of this community. Further, Jane has engaged in project work, such as developing resources, newsletters and co-produced and hosted an adoption podcast from 2020-2021.
Jane is also a strong advocate for those with experiences relating to adoption, donor conception and surrogacy, having made submissions to legislation reviews and enquiries over many years.