Although Dr. Severson is worldly and highly sophisticated  in his thinking and writing, he remains deeply aware of his roots and  loyalties . . . Dr. Severson’s writing reflects the many facets which  make up his unique persona. Poetic, spiritual, empathetic, are terms  that describe him and his work.-  Annette Baran, author, The Adoption Triangle   

About Adoption: Philosophy and Experience

This lovely book is a unique combination of psychology, poetry, scholarship, and the personal experiences of an adoption therapist working with all sides of the adoption triad--adoptees, birthparents, and adoptive parents. This is the first book to take the psychology of the soul, as taught by James Hillman and popularized by Thomas Moore, into the realm of adoption. Dr. Severson writes with beauty, grace, and surprising wit, from a wide background of classical, contemporary, romantic, and Celtic literature and myth, song and story, as well as the usual psychological sources. He exposes the intellectual barrenness of a purely sociological approach to adoption and adoption counseling, and favors instead seeing and healing the whole person wounded by the adoption system, body and soul. This series of essays details how that healing may begin, and what impedes it under the current sealed record system. I am a birthmother, and found Dr. Severson's views on birthmother grief to be accurate and compassionate, and his observations on the adoption reform movement, with which I have been involved for years, to be astute and true. His use of language is fluid, expert, and poetic in the best sense--like the natural poetry of the Celtic Bards with which he is well acquainted. His advice is down-to earth and useful, as well as profound. I would recommend this book to all interested in or involved in adoption and adoption reform, and especially to adoption professionals, as a standard of excellence to which they might aspire. Mary Anne Cohen, poet, editor, activist

If you talk to anyone who knows Randy, you will surely hear comments on his gift for words . . . . It is in his role as prophet that I most value Dr. Severson. Unhappy with half-hearted service to children, impatient with the oppression of the disadvantaged whatever form it takes, Randy has been one of the nation’s strongest and most consistent voices for decency and high standards in the practice of adoption. James L. Gritter, author, The Spirit of Open Adoption