OUR PROJECTS
Come Find Joy Through Movement
On Wednesdays at 7 p.m. and Sundays at 8:30 a.m., join Brighid for Nia classes at the Oak Park Park District's Ridgeland Commons.
Nia is a soulful movement practice that blends the dance, martial and healing arts to cultivate a sense of balance, vitality, and connection to oneself, others, and the world around us. Yes, it is a workout for the body but it is so much more. You'll leave feeling energized, aligned, and more in tune with yourself. Classes have basic choreography done to world music and all bodies are welcome!
Brighid also teaches Qoya Inspired Movement! Much less about choreography and more about attuning to your body as a guide.
Upcoming Qoya classes: June 30 at ALTAR in Chicago. Click below to register.
https://www.altarcommunity.com/event-details/qoya-chicago-2025-06-21
Adoption Uncovered
Our Mission
Founded by Licensed Social Worker and Adoptive mom, Brighid O’Shaughnessy, Adoption Uncovered's mission is to challenge adoption mythology, offer solidarity and support, and expand public understanding about the real, complex experiences of adoptive families, adoptees, and birth families.
How do we do this?
We live this mission through documentary theater, storytelling, dialogue, and educational opportunities designed to lift the veil on adoption, better prepare prospective parents, and increase compassionate, competent, and comprehensive care for all members of the adoption constellation.
Documentary Theater
I am a 25 year veteran of doing documentary theater around issues of mental health. I ran a nonprofit for many years that I founded, and what we did, and what I’m doing now through Adoption Uncovered, is:
We gather real people's stories through story collections. These are the stories of adoptive parents and siblings, adoptees and birth families. They are not interviews but opportunities for those impacted by adoption to sit down and speak their truth without the other person trying to diagnose, fix or change the situation. We listen deeply and we audio record those sessions with the person’s permission.
Then we transcribe exactly what the person said. So all the ums, all the ers, all the trying to find their words.
And then those transcripts, which can be anywhere from 10 to 40 pages, get shaped down into a monologue that we then give to a professional actor to perform for you.
We use actors for a variety of reasons:
We want to protect confidentiality and anonymity. These are very sensitive stories, and we want to protect not only the teller, but the children and their families. This allows us to do that.
This way we are not asking the individual teller to repeat, in some cases, their trauma over and over again. For some, doing that is quite healing, but for others, it just keeps bringing up old wounds over and over again, which doesn't actually forward the healing process. Our goal is to forward the healing process not exacerbate harm.
3. This allows the teller to have somebody else hold their experience, to witness it, to affirm it and validate it. Our actors become a mirror for the real person so that they can see themselves with a little bit of distance, with hopefully some objectivity and empathy, so they can realize, wow, this is what my experience has been, this is what I have walked through and maybe by having somebody else say the words back, I can see myself in a new way.
These true stories performed by high quality, professional actors are available to come to schools, conferences, professional development opportunities, adoption agencies, clinical settings, graduate programs, therapeutic day schools, and more to increase awareness and stimulate better services for all members of the adoption constellation.
We recently performed at the Building Resilient Communities for Children Conference held by Internationally known non-profit the Attachment Trauma Network, Alongside Bruce Perry as the Keynote.
We are performing at the On Your Feet Foundation Fundraiser, August 8, 2025 - Live in Evanston, Illinois; On Your Feet Foundation is a non-profit that works to support birth families as well as highlight the voices of adoptees.
Reach out to brighid@returntotheroots.org to discuss bringing us out to you either virtually or in person.
In addition to the theatre project, Brighid has signed a contract with Lived Places Publishing for these stories to also live as a book which will feature documentary style stories from adoptive moms, resources, and reflection questions and will be placed in University libraries around the globe. The goal is to build adoption competent care among professionals ranging from social workers and educators to disability advocates, medical professionals, law enforcement, hospital staff, and prospective adoptive families.
Brighid also collaborates with other organizations to better prepare caregivers, social workers, educators, and more about the impacts of trauma and FASD. Check out the FREE 2 day workshop being held on October 16 and 17 @ Erikson Institute on FASD led by national leader, Families Rising. https://wearefamiliesrising.org/event/fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorders-the-time-is-now/
Some of Brighid's Favorite Past Projects
Flames, Flaws and Freedom
A sold-out storytelling evening + photography exhibit dedicated to exploring women's health, with a portion of the proceeds going to Harvest 107.
Watch Brighid discuss the inspiration for the show:
Erasing the Distance's Production of Will You Stand Up?
Will You Stand Up? is one of the most beloved and impactful productions from Erasing the Distance, directed and produced by Brighid O'Shaughnessy. Erasing the Distance is a Chicago-based theater company that changes the narrative and challenges the stigma surrounding mental health.
Listen to Meg Ritter's coverage of Erasing the Distance for The Chicago Community Trust:
Using Visual Arts + Career Exploration to Promote Student Voice
A creative partnership between Kellman Elementary Students, Career Professionals + Internationally Known Artist Rhonda Gray